Most folks mount lights at the front edge of the upper cabinets to shine down and back. It's also less likely to be visible that way.

Mine have the electric under the cabinet and not through the cabinet but I feel like that is more an issue with the order of things (electrical, drywall, cabinets) than what is optimal. I think I would prefer underneath the cabinet to not have to deal with it INSIDE the box and mess up my shelf space. However, the installation and covering of the wires needs to be neat of you mount at the front of the cabinet.

Thank you just_janni! Should he have drilled in the cabinets though? My issue is that he drilled holes into our backsplash. When I googled images, majority of the pictures show that they drilled a hole through the cabinets?

The electrician sets the rough in height of the penetration before cabinets are ever installed. It's traditionally done just below the cabinet height, and that is the area that is usually a grout space for a tiled backsplash. It's all invisible and hidden by a light rail anyway.

@Minardi So there should be a light rail that covers the wiring and hole?

Very sloppy work. I look at your picture and think either the electrician didn't have the brains to think outside of the box or didn't give a rip, maybe both.

With LED strip lighting, the 120v power line and the low voltage transformer can be placed above the upper cabinets and kept hidden. Then small gage wires can be brought down in the gap between cabinets and through a small hole drilled near the front corner of the cabinets to bring the low voltage power under the cabinet and wired to the strip lighting placed along the front under-edge of the cabinet. Totally hidden and clean.

There are light rails and covers for strip lighting, but those are generally only for the strip light itself. (Think of a fluorescent lamp with a cover over it.)

While my undercab lights are not tape dots, you can see the light is installed at the very front of the light rail…and, the wiring enters through the back of the cabinet, not through the backsplash.

Unfortunately your cabinets look to be frameless so you don't have that piece of the back wall of the cabinet to bring the wire through like shown above. Nobody ever wants the wires in the cabinets, but I think it is the better way sometimes.

Maybe they can get you a piece of wire mold to cover the wires, so at least it will look cleaned that what's there now?

The wires go somewhere. Most people don’t like them in the cabinet but might be better here. Or you pay for a skin for the bottom of the cabinets to hide the wires. In my kitchen I ran the wires behind the filler strips in the space between the side of the cabinet and the wall. What you have is an inelegant but serviceable install by someone who cares about function not how it looks. Is it visible without craning your neck to look for it?

Ours is not wired through the cabinet and I wouldn’t want it that way. Do you know how often I see that wire? Never. I do not even see the undercabinet fixuture unless I make a concerted effort to look.

My under cabinet LED strip lights were placed right in front of my cabinet molding. The few wite connections are not visible, unless you put your head under the cabinets.

It is one thing to have old technology because you remodeled your house 10 or 20 years ago and that is what was "new" at that time. My pet peeve is contractors/subs who don't give homeowners the option of choosing between cheaper older technology or newer (and maybe) more expensive technology. Many electricians just install builder grade stuff that they can get for cheap at their electrical supplier, the same stuff they have been installing for 10 or 20 years! The newer electrical under cab lights are more compact, put out more Lumens and give you choices of Kelvins (color of light).

IMO if this is the work the electrician thinks is good I would be worried about any work they did anywhere else ,what a mess