agevm
I guess I'd like to see under your cabinet to see how the romex connects to the strips. Also, it would be helpful to see how the transformer is set up. Thanks. You've been so much help already.

I will take some pictures for you. One difference with us is we do have a light rail, but that shouldn't make a difference with this product.

Your wiring setup looks similar to ours, but we have 2 separate zones. The 120V lines emanate from 2 wall switches in our kitchen and go to one junction box into our pantry where we have 2 transformers (picture attached). The transformers take the voltage down to 12V & then go two junction boxes in the attic where the under cabinet lighting wires are linked to. We had romex installed originally for 120V under the cabinets but now use it only for the low voltage hookups. Under the cabinets the romex is wire-nutted to the slim wires from the small flexible lighting strip bands (picture attached). We used low profile junction boxes since we also have an electrical outlet. The wires come out of the back of the wall and are not inside the cabinets. You might be able to find a low voltage/lower profile box to join the wires up under the cabinet to clean up the look. You can check with Inspired LED or some other electrical supply place too. I believe Inspired LED also has a special small connector where you can directly link the low voltage romex to the small wire for the LED strips and not have to wire nut inside a box. This might be the way to go in your limited space. Our's work great and were done by a licensed electrician as well.

Hi Valerie, do you happen to know which version of the nec your area is on? 2014 brought about a few changes that I am still getting used to for low voltage. It can get pretty specific for each light. Low voltage is treated a little different than line voltage. I will read this whole thread and see if I can pull up the new codes for you. That looks like 14-2 wire, not 10-2. That can be important for amperage, but you should be fine with LEDs. It sounds at first glance like your electrician has the right idea. The thing is, fixture wiring that comes with the lights, generally is not allowed to go inside or through a wall, thus the 14-2 nmb. It can be hard to hook up some of these new undercabinet lights "to code" AND look good (without the transformers showing under the cabinet). Most of the time, the lighting people (manufacturers and sales people) don't understand the 'delicate balance' between looks and code here. There have been times where I have needed to use simple barrel/butt spices from the fixture wire to the 14-2 and invent a simple plate/strap to cover the joint in a decorative fashion.

YAY, FRED! I was hoping you'd see this and respond!
You are right, Fred, it is 14-2 (Is that the lowest of the three? Then that's it.) I initially tried to post this thread directly to you, as you've been so helpful. You're not in the Hudson Valley area of NY by any chance, are you? :-) I don't know what "nec" is, so I surely can't tell you which version my area is on. (????) The biggest issue (among a few big issues) is that I need to keep things slim as could be- NO light rail, for any reason, will be added to these cabinets. I like what agevm has suggested, but I still don't get how it works and that white box under their cabinet is going to hang below mine, quite a bit.
We have two separate switches, also, in the same switch box. One controls the entire "L" and the other controls a different wall with its own future transformer. And, lastly, I need a light under the widow valance. I have considered a particular product from Seagull (Ambiance) that I really like. If I post into and a pic about it, will you have a look? Many thanks.

You have wiring ready for a "direct wire" system. This means direct wire line voltage. This is not roughed for low voltage. And yes, low voltage needs drivers that are additional boxes that needs to get mounted/hidden somewhere. This driver coverts line voltage to low voltage.

So there is a simple solution for you.
You need to buy direct wire LED under cabinet lighting.
Do an internet search for kichler direct wire under cabinet lighting. These are good quality and come in a variety of colors.
The wires that converge in the closet or whatever that is will be a junction box so that a switch can control them all. I recommend installing a dimmer switch so you can create nice ambient lighting.

I got the email notifications from foyer chandeliers even though the comment was erased :) NEC is national electrical code. No, not around NY. Yes, I will look at it closer, might be late tonight. It sounds like your electrician is going about it in about the best way.... I almost always insist on having one light strip on the job when pre-wiring because there is no standard way these things work. However, what it looks like your electrician is doing is the most standard. Often times, low voltage doesn't need a 'junction box' for splices. The splices are less conspicuous than the transformer which should not be a problem to put in a remote location in most cases. The final look of the kitchen will determine the best way to proceed. If you are putting tile all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets, and don't have glass doors, I often move that 14-2 into the lower back corner of the cabinet, and splice the wires there. My cell signal is intermittent right now, so I will look up the lights you are looking at a little later.

ok, so what are you asking. if you are asking if you should use the retro fit kits in your exsisting cans...YES. your ceilings aren't that tall, and the room is light they will work well for you, get a 2700k. if you are asking about under cabs. YES use LED just make sure it is the same color as the can light.

@ goodhouse, this is a common method of wiring low voltage as well. Not using the 14-2 NMB in the walls and using just the 'fixture wire' that comes with the light would actually be the code violation. This IS the method of remotely locating the driver/ transformer.

maxim lighting, Nora lighting, Nicor, Kichler, all make direct wire 120v LED no driver no worries.........................

Why do people use low voltage, then? Is it because it's so much thinner? I need thin. No light rail.

We are in Scottsdale, AZ, so at the other side of the country. Not sure of codes over there. But ours was inspected and passed. Our white box has our plugs in them and yes, it is much too big for your cabinets. However, as I mentioned, we did see a smaller connector that was small enough for your cabinets and you would not have to use a white box (junction box) that you could buy from Inspired LED. You can get their lighting on Amazon, too, however, we are close to Tempe, AZ and just picked everything up there. Price and quality is always a factor for us and the reviews on Houzz and Amazon convinced us to go with them. We actually just put a 6 inch can with an LED Cree bulb under our valance and it really looks good. Let us know what you end up doing and good luck.

I like your cabinets. The style is a lot like ours, only ours is cherry. They are Medallion Cabinetry, which is also sold by Lowes as Schuler. Very nice!

no they just dont do their research...ive been doing lighting a long time.

People use low voltage because that is the way the manufacturer designed the light in the particular style you like. :) LED are almost always low voltage and DC rather than AC current. The only difference is whether the driver is built into the fixture or remote. The smaller the actual light fixture, the more likely the driver is remote. Also, when the driver goes out on a built-in fixture, and it will, you will be replacing the whole fixture, and not just the driver.

http://www.lumens.com/design-pro-led-direct-wire-undercabinet-task-by-kichler-R233937.html?utm_medium=PLA&utm_source=google&utm_term=&kwid=productads-plaid^65084887911-sku^R233937-adType^PLA-device^c-adid^41047241991

the driver is built into the fixture....so it can accept 120v strait in

http://www.allegrolamps.com/maxim-lighting-countermax-collection-87904-countermax-mxl-led-under-cabinet-light-white-1ktnz61.html?gclid=CL77ytvb7b0CFSho7Aodo2cAtQ

just type in 120v led under cabinet. or go directly to kichler.com and look at there under cabs.

flair lighting- thanks for your help. The fixtures you cite help in one regard (direct wire) but they are too thick for a ¾ in application and that's all I have.

Fred S, Would you look at this from agevm and see if this works for me? Not sure which "white box" they reference as able to fit under my cabinets. ;-/

"We are in Scottsdale, AZ, so at the other side of the country. Not sure of codes over there. But ours was inspected and passed. Our white box has our plugs in them and yes, it is much too big for your cabinets. However, as I mentioned, we did see a smaller connector that was small enough for your cabinets and you would not have to use a white box (junction box) that you could buy from Inspired LED. You can get their lighting on Amazon, too, however, we are close to Tempe, AZ and just picked everything up there. Price and quality is always a factor for us and the reviews on Houzz and Amazon convinced us to go with them. We actually just put a 6 inch can with an LED Cree bulb under our valance and it really looks good. Let us know what you end up doing and good luck."

Valerie, can you post a link to "Seagull Ambiance High Density Modules" and any other lights you are thinking of. I only found one obscure reference to them on my quick search and am not sure I am looking at the right thing.

I called the box under our cabinet "white box," because that is the term you used when talking to Fred. Sorry if I confused you, but you are correct, it is a white box. I think I put junction box in parentheses...anyway, so sorry for the confusion. Not sure if you are using an electrician or not, but we ran everything through our licensed electrician before we purchased the goods. He installed them as well. It was the last thing we needed to do before our final inspection on our large remodel. Looks like Fred has the magic ticket. Very kind of Fred S to weigh in on all this stuff. We are lucky to have the Houzz helpers.

I may need a more specific direction to see the white box for inspired led as well.
Here is a link to some installation instructions.
http://inspiredled.com/blog/what-to-install-retrofitting-your-existing-lights-leds-part-2/

Notice that in this picture there are two types of lights. One has screw terminals for a 14-2 wire that is rated for in-wall use. :)
(no white box) :D

The only difference between the wire they specify and the NMB is that the NMB can also be used for line voltage if that is what you end up with.

Fred S, the white box is just the picture I posted above. I was letting Valerie know we installed our transformers in our pantry (see picture above), as she said she was told by someone she could not do that...and showed her how our LED's connected to the romex. Unlike Valerie, we do have a light rail and all of our outlets and switches are under our cabinet as shown in the picture, and not on the wall, but can't be seen. That is the white box that is being referred to. She needs something low profile and I remembered Inspired LED had a lower profile connector that could possibly work for her. They would be able to confirm that. I do know they were very helpful and our electrician really liked their product and so do we.

If you type in Inspired LED under "Find a Pro" in Houzz, you will find they have a 5 star rating with 82 reviews. There are good reviews on Amazon as well. Hope this helps.

Hi Agevm, I was typing that before I read your last response. I was more wondering if there was a part number for the box and if there are several different models of lights from Inspired. If I found the correct one in my link, they have two different light models. One for a modular plug-in and one with screw terminals for standard wire.

We used the Ultra Bright Warm White Flex Strips and had them pre-cut to the lengths we needed (Item Code UB-3200 C). We used the 40W Dimmable Magnetic Transformer (Item 4789) installed in a pantry and used with a Lutron Diva Magnetic Low Voltage Dimmer Switch (Item 4792). The Light Strips had the small receptacle already soldered on. Since we had an under cab junction box we just connected the low voltage in-wall romex to the low voltage cable in the box and connected it to the light strip. If we didn't have a junction box, we could have used their screw terminal (Item 4781 - picture attached). I believe 14-2 can be used with this terminal. Suggest calling Bryan Rose or other sales engineer at Inspired LED for specific questions on your application. This setup might be used when minimum space is available under cabinets (such as Valerie's installation) or if larger 120V direct connect fixtures are visible. Hope this helps.

http://www.seagulllighting.com/ld1-pg65/.htm

http://www.seagulllighting.com/ld1-pg49/.htm

These are the two from Seagull that I think suits my lighting needs but I don't know how to figure out the transformers, etc.

agevm, thanks again for pitching in. I called Inspired LED yesterday, to run all this by them. They are a M-F company so it has to wait until tomorrow.
Fred, you are my peace of mind.

Happy to see you have options. On to the next challenge...

Thanks, agevm. Still waiting for Fred S to weigh in on my choices from Seagull. Fred S???

The short story is that you will probably need one of these where the 14-2 wire comes out of the wall.

http://www.Ambiance-Lighting.com/1114/Ambiance-Lx-Components-9459-12.html

If you look at a string of Christmas lights, the big bulb type with two wires molded together, you can see how these lights are wired. The wire is a flat 2 wire without the extra ground wire that the wire in the wall has. It is also a stranded wire that makes it easier to push the prongs into it that you can see in the picture below. This type of wire is nicer to look at and smaller than what is in the wall, but is not rated to go in the wall. Therefore you need a junction box (this one is very small) to make the transition. Without actually trying it, I can't say for sure if the wire in the wall will fit directly into the light, but it might. If it was stranded wire instead of solid, I would bet it would work.

The cable will look like (pic1&2) that you will use after the first light or junction box. These lights are meant to be used with more than one on a string just like Christmas lights (pic3). You can space them 1" apart or as far apart as you want. These clips would hold up the wire between the lights.
http://www.Ambiance-Lighting.com/28991/Ambiance-Lx-Components-98647S-12.html
For a more even lighting, I would use the smaller lights maybe every 8"-12".

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=732361073482607 :)

The above really is greek to me so I will just say that my LED pucks installed look awful with the transformers and wires AND NONE DIM that I could find. The old halogen pucks under there had seen better days, were too hot and difficult to change the bulbs but the halogens were beautifully installed. Unfortunately, my former electrician moved further out of town and I can't talk him into coming back!!! Was it something I said??? He was wonderful. Not these last people! Just know that I couldn't find any that would dim. If put on a dimmer reostat, they hum and flicker off then blink then blink then off.....live with them til they bite the dirt, I guess. Hopefully they will have better by then.

Don't know what kind of lights are under my kitchen cabinets. Look similar to the white multi-outlet strips on the outside. Mine create a lot of heat! I had cans and bottles of special carbonated juices on the counter, lights were on, when guests opened the cans they fizzed all over...

I wanted the LED puck lights recessed and I wanted to be able to dim them. Basically, I wanted it all. I had a wall on/off switch for the pucks and I had a bank of cabinets across the room that I wanted all of the lights to turn on with the one switch. My electrician was able to get them all on one switch and the transformer went in the false bottom. The transformer is small enough to mount inside the cabinet if need be. The only thing that remains a bit "homeowner" is the dimmer switch had to be mounted by Velcro to the bottom of the cabinet. You really can't see the dimmers. I have one dimmer for each run of lights.

This is where I found them.

http://www.bulbs.com/espec.aspx?ID=20963

@notme, WOW super nice install very clean looking. That's the way my old halogen looked, professional. These new ones, honestly I get so mad I try not to think about it. But it looks like spaghetti under there plus he drilled up into the cupboard through to the bottom of my coffee cups. I am inept when it comes to, well, here's the job, here's what we had to do bc of such and such and I'm no electrician so what the heck, I accept that's the best they can do which sadly is the best they CAN do. I've bookmarked this for future reference. Fred S. Is a gem to have on your side. Best wishes on all things HOUZZ!

Fred S has been more helpful than any other person that I have met with face to face!

To clarify my experience, each set of puck lights has a dimmer on the transformer but I could not get the lights to dim from a wall switch dimmer.

All transformers are not dimmable. The dimmer on the transformer works a little different than the wall switch dimmer. Matching the wall switch dimmer to the transformer is important and sometimes tricky. The transformers mostly specify which Dimmers to use nowadays, but there can still be problems. Putting a dimmer on a transformer with a dimmer can really mess with the sine wave of the current and cause all kinds of havoc. Putting dimmers on LEDs is a relatively new thing, and the engineers don't even have it figured out all that well. It can make the transformer hum and it will give the lights a strobe effect. Most of the time, it seems that changing to a different or better dimmer will fix it, but I am not sure about the transformer with a dimmer on it already. It probably isn't recommended.

LED's don't really create heat, so the person above that doesn't know what kind you have, must not be LED.
Here is the website where we bought ours, they have some FAQ's and I think in there they mention about dimmers how not all work with dimmers and they suggest to try it first. http://inspiredled.com/faqs

diyher, we used the 40W Dimmable Magnetic Transformer and installed in a pantry and used with a Lutron Diva Magnetic Low Voltage Dimmer Switch (Item 4792) from inspired LED. Works perfectly. Sounds like you are happy with Inspired LED, as well.

thanks for the info :) I'll mention the transformer to my husband. He bought from them on Amazon and he had no idea that earlier that day I had found them on Houzz :))

Link to a .pdf that I found helpful and explanatory.
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/assist/pdf/undercabinet1.pdf