I have Xenon on dimmers in cabs and under cabs. I gotta say I have never used them except one time to see if they worked. I use the undercab lights for tasks and want the brightest setting. The in cab lights are only when we have a party and the brightest setting is OK since it is 10 1/2 ft up there in the top of the glass fronted cabs. So if they are that expensive for you ( I don't know how much fluorescent is) then I don't think I would do it. Of course that is my opinion and you will likely get a lot of others. Good luck . c

My undercabinet lights are fluorescents. No need for dimmers. Kitchen isn't done, but here's a shot I just took (8pm) with only the undercabinet lights on.

"My undercabinet lights are fluorescents. No need for dimmers. "

If you always want the light on full blast maybe.
If you want to be able to provide less than full task illumination while still using the undercabs dimmers work very well.

I have T5 undercabinets, non dimmable. I don't really see a need for dimming them. They are not super bright to begin with. Right now they are the only lights on in the kitchen and its just enough light.

Brick, it's actually a very pleasant mood light with no other lights on. I think the fact that they're under the cabinets has a lot to do with it. The lights I find most offensive and needing dimmers are incandescents. Same shot with the incandescent cans.

I also have a Title 24 compliant kitchen (reluctantly so). We put in non-dimmable fluorescent undercabinet lighting. When all of the other lights are off, even with the UC lights on full blast, you still get the "mood lit" effect in your kitchen overall. And they're great for task lighting.

Skip the dimmers under the cabinet, you won't miss them.

I have xenon under cabinet lights on a dimmer and I've never used the dimmer in the four years I've had the lights. When I have those lights on and I'm working at the counter, I want full light. I haven't used the dimmers on any of the lights in the kitchen - they were a waste of money.

I have Kichler undercabinet lights with dimmers and I love being able to dim them when I would like to set a mood. I am glad I have this feature and would do it again.

I have the undercabiners lights with dimmers and use them all the time.Even when we're not in the kitchen i dim them on the lowest and leave them on.

I have over cabinet fluorescent - no dimmers. For a while I kind of wished I could dim them - because they're too bright for "ambiance" type lighting. However I've gotten over that since I have other lighting for ambiance. I have xenon UCL and it's not on a dimmer switch but can be switched from high to low. I very rarely switch it to low. I've had fluorescent UCL in the past and I often felt like that light was too glaringly bright - though I tried different types of bulbs to try to tone it down.

I think it's really a matter of personal opinion. If you're the kind of person who likes to be in a room with full lighting then you probably won't miss a dimmer that much. If you're like me - I can't stand overhead lights - I like more of the warm, cozy feeling of table lamps and undercabinet lighting - then maybe you would miss being able to dim these lights.

I think a lot of people would find undercabs that are not bright enough to require dimming to not provide enough task illumination.
Every client I have wants a LOT of light from the undercabs when working, but has wanted the ability to tone it down when cooking is over.

I think can lights in kitchens take a lot of watts to produce decent light levels at the counter.
I have a house right now with ~750 watts of cans (6 in the cooking area, 4 over the table) that is still dim and needs twice as many undercabs as it already has (9 x 20 watts) to be really usable.
A decorative 4 tube T-8 fixture would light the kitchen end, and an actual hanging fixture over the table would cover that end.

I might even get a metal T-8 and make a wood enclosure for it that matches the cabinets.

Thanks very much everyone ! seems like people are fairly evenly split between the "have dimmers and use them"/"have dimmers and don't use them"/"don't have dimmers" camps.

I wonder if the type of undercabinet light fixture makes dimmers more or less useful ? For example, I wonder if folks with brighter xenons or halogens are happier with dimmers, whereas folks with less bright T5 flourescents don't feel the need for them ? Just typing out loud here ...

At the moment I feel like I am leaning towards not dimming. I checked out the Pegasus T5s, and the documentation says that even if you wire the whole cabinet run as one unit, you can use the individual rocker switches to turn some off if need be. For some strange reason that makes me feel as if I have a little more control over "mood" type lighting.

This lighting stuff is HARD ! and Title 24 makes it even harder.

I am planning on the xenon with dimmers for both under counter and above the cabinets. Of course most all of my lighting throughout the house is or will be on dimmers.

Title 24 does create some restrictions for new construction. I do know however that many people ignore it if their house was built prior to it's enactment. They just put in what they want.

If you are stuck in the middle... maybe do like mine :) The main switch itself is not dimmable. There are a total of 4 "banks" of undercab lights. Each bank of lights came with its own switch on it and it has only 3 settings off-high-low. Low is great for mood lighting and general lighting but if you really need to see some detailed work on the counter for cooking you just reach up and flip that light by your work to high.

I think its the best of both worlds. If I had to leave what I was working on to walk over to the main switch and move the slider I probably never would.

I use the low setting + pendants over island as the main lights when not cooking as it uses a lot less power than firing up all those cans! (also it highlights my beautiful granite and backsplash that way)

I'm curious about the dimmable fluorescent cans you mentioned. Which ones did you use? Those haven't been so easy to find...

Hi jon,

I found 5" dimmable Title24 compliant fluorescent cans at a local lighting store. They are Juno brand, I've attached the link to the product page on the Juno website.

They were about double the price of a regular can, and I beleive that the dimmer switch will also be more expensive than a regular switch. Makes me thankful (for once) that my kitchen is small and I only have 4 cans !

Hope that helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Juno dimmable fluorescent cans

mysterymachine, that's a great solution !

Do most fluorescent UC lights have multi-position rocker switches ? What brand are yours ?

I definitely wanted some dimmable lights in my kitchen but decided to go with dimmable fluorescents in the cans and regular fluorescents for UCL. I like having some dimmable lighting for ambiance, but I think the dimmable cans are nice, also, and didn't think it was necessary to have two sources of lighting for ambiance. Had I not cared about what type of lighting I used, or the cost, it would have been fun to have both, just not necessary for me.

Sue

I agree with lsandler. Kichler is worth considering. They are dimmable, but the usual dimming switch does not work well. You need to buy one that matches that technology, and it's about $100, which is a lot for a dimmer.

BTW, what's title 24, I live in north carolina.

flatcoat, Sorry, I wish I could tell you but I looked everywhere on them and couldn't find a name/model. I know most of the other lights in the kitchen were Juno so that would be my first guess, but its just a guess.

I am not even 100% what type of light they are, based on the fact its a warm light color but they don't get extremely hot I would say Xeon.

Another 1-3 weeks (ran out of prefinished trim and had to order more for the trim around one window) and it should be time for pictures to put up here - I'll try to get at least one showing the undercab lights.

A couple of factors to consider--
>if you aren't doing many upper cabs, or >if you have a lot of bright overheads and the undercabs are mostly about chasing the shadows away, probably not worth it-- regular lighting will do.

But--
>if you need them for both task and mood lighting and >if you have a ton of upper cabs, probably a good investment.

Scary how expensive dimmable florescent is right now, but on the upside, most of those tubes/bulbs have very long rated lives.

I have undercounter halogens. They are not dimmable. But I have rope lighting on top of the cabinets. I have 9' ceilings and 42" cabinets and there's a space between the cabinets and the ceiling. I had the electrician wire some outlets at the top of the wall. I got rope lighting from Lowe's. I had the outlets on top of the wall connected to a switch in the backsplash. When I want that nice dim light, or when I come down for a snack in the middle of the night and my eyes haven't adjusted, I use the rope lights. It is very dramatic and pretty too. Plus, the rope lights last a very long time and won't burn out as quickly as the more expensive halogens. I don't think I would like dimmable undercounter lights as for me, the undercounter lights are really task lighting so I can see what I'm doing when I'm cooking.

In making your decision, you probably want to consider what other light sources you have in your kitchen. In my 95% finished kitchen, I find I have so many choices I can create any mood I wish: 4 overhead cans (which is half the number the designer originally proposed), a fan over the island (no a/c!) with an upward and a downward light, 2 pendant lights over the sink, and the OTR advantium has a light with night light option. Only the cans are on a dimmer, and I find that to be all I need - undercabinet lights are yet to be installed, but will not be on a dimmer. To put this in perspective, I should say that previously I had a grand total of 3 overhead lights (all on pull cords - not a switch to be found!), so I feel that I'm in the lap of lighting luxury now, with more light than I kknow what to do with!