under cabinet wiring

13 years ago

Please forgive my ignorance... I have zero electrical experience. Am trying to figure out if we can do this ourselves. I have attached a poor attempt at outlining where we currently have under cab lighting (marked in red). They are halogen bars that are each directly wired. We hate that we have to currently turn each on one by one - and they get really hot. So, we're thinking of starting from scratch w/ one of these kits from InspiredLED: http://inspiredled.com/Shop-by-Project/kitchen-lighting

The problem we run into is trying to get lighting to the wall w/ the pantry on it, and ideally I'd like to have lighting under the open shelf on the wall opposite. Would this just be a matter of their 'in wall cables' down to our basement and back up through the walls? The basement below is unfinished and I can see the current romex going up to the kitchen. Should we abandon the romex that is currently there? Again, I just want to hit a switch and have it all turn on. Any info you can provide would be appreciated!

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Comments (9)

Ron Natalie
13 years ago
If you can fish things down to the basement, then you can run new wiring. What are these lights currently connected to? Is there already a light switch somewhere that controls them?
Ron Natalie
13 years ago
If you can fish things down to the basement, then you can run new wiring. What are these lights currently connected to? Is there already a light switch somewhere that controls them?
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btharmy
13 years ago
Unfinished basements are an electricians dream. With all of that access, almost anything is possible.
hil357
Original Author
13 years ago
ronnatalie - currently they are all on one circuit but I believe connected to other things - no wall switch at all (have to be individually turned on!)

Thanks - our handyman will be installing and we purchased a kit w/ in-wall wires so he could run the different cabinet banks through the basement (fingers crossed)
Ron Natalie
13 years ago
Be VERY careful here. The cordage on the downstream side of that transformer does NOT appear to be legal to run within walls.
hil357
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks...not sure what that means exactly but our kit doesn't have a transformer - only the power supply and then the remote kit. Other than that, it's just the interconnect cables for the LEDs.
Ron Natalie
13 years ago
Transformer = Power Supply (two names for the same thing...really the power supply is more than just a transformer but people tend to call them that).

Read the instructions very carefully. As I stated, those interconnecting cords on the light side of the power supply do not look like they are legal to install through house framing. They're designed to be part of the cabinets only.
I'd confirm it by reading the instructions, but the link to the PDF of the installation info on that site appears to be busted.
hil357
Original Author
13 years ago
Oh I see. Will do - thanks
The only cords we intend to run within the walls are a few where we have to conceal because of a break in the cabinet banks...we got 3 of these to achieve that: http://inspiredled.com/Shop-by-Project/kitchen-lighting/in-wall-cable
armada
13 years ago
as long as you have enough of the "in wall" rated cable for going between the break in cabinets, you'll be fine. As ronnatalie said, just make sure the other wire stays in the undercabinet part and not the wall. Did you figure out where you wanted a wall switch to turn these on? That will obviously require some "in wall" rated wire as well.