Under Cabinet Lighting

Under cabinet lighting enhances the aesthetic appeal of any home, while serving very practical purposes. It is found most commonly as task and accent lighting in the kitchen. It provides quality, directed lighting for preparing food, writing or reading. At night it can serve the purpose of providing gentle light. Other areas where under cabinet lighting can be found include: book cases, wall units, under shelfs, art/sculpture and work places. Work areas benefit from this directed task lighting because the fixtures illuminate the work without shining in someone's eyes and also eliminate shadows.

There are three types of under-cabinet lighting available for residential use in the USA: incandescent, fluorescent, or LED. The type of lamp dictates the lamp’s style and performance, such as amount of lighting it emits, the light’s color, the life of the lamp, and energy use.

Incandescent lamps are easily found and are inexpensive to buy and are easy to replace. However, they have the shortest life and use the most energy. Fluorescent lamps have good light color and color rendering. They have high efficacy, long life, and bright, uniform lighting, However, some fluorescent fixture designs are not small or narrow enough to be concealed without modifying cabinet trip molding. LED fixtures can last longer than 10 years, do not typically burn out, and save more money/energy for the consumer.

The two most common styles are puck and linear styles. Puck lights are round or oval and are good for cabinet and display lighting. Puck lights can create scallops, spots, or pools of lighting instead of even illumination across the counter top. Linear lights can come as a light strip or as a linear fixture or light bar. Linear fixtures resemble small puck lights on one mounting strip. Light strips are less than 1 inch wide are quite narrow. They are sold by the foot and can be cut to length during installation.