Under cupboard lighting for the kitchen

Joined
28 Oct 2017
Messages
176
Reaction score
0
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all, just after some advice on how to approach this part of a project. I'm planning a G-shape kitchen with wall units on 3 of the 4 walls and would like to install under cupboard lighting.

What recommendations could you give in terms of wiring layout for this?

Many thanks.
 
Sponsored Links
It'll depend partially on the lights you use, but you'd start by running a fused spur off of the ring main, and then taking a 1mm T&E to somewhere under one end of the cabinets. You'd then use a chocbox to connect to the lights. If you're using LEDS, then you want to make sure they've got a seperate driver rather than one built into a plug.

As to moving from one set up cupboards, that'll depend on how you're laying out the wiring, but you could loop from one set up cupboards to the next, or run several wires from the Fused spur to each one in turn.
 
If you are DESIGNING this, then don’t do the FCU thing. It’s a kludge.

You need the lights to be operated from the same point as the rest of the kitchen lights..
Otherwise you’ll always be trailing round the kitchen turning the cupboard lights on and off.
 
On reflection, you make a very good point Taylor. I'm used to installing them as an afterthought.
 
Sponsored Links
On reflection, you make a very good point Taylor. I'm used to installing them as an afterthought.
Even if installing them as an afterthought, it's often/usually not going to be any/much more difficult getting a feed from the lighting circuit than from a sockets circuit.

If you wire the under-cupboard lights so that they come on with the main kitchen lights (so no change to existing switching required), you could also have a secondary switch, near the under-cupboard lights, which turned them off even though the main lights were on. It's pretty unlikely that one would want the under-cupboards lights on when the main lights were off.

Kind Regards, John
 
It's pretty unlikely that one would want the under-cupboards lights on when the main lights were off
Often the only lights I have on in the kitchen tbh. Not when cooking but the other 99% of the time, undercabs are the only lighting source.
 
which turned them off even though the main lights were on

Which is pretty much the same as using a switched FCU.

It's pretty unlikely that one would want the under-cupboards lights on when the main lights were off

And there speaks a man. A woman will often switch the under cupboard lights on in the early evening when the kitchen lights aren't needed yet. Others will leave them on after the lights have been turned off as a feature. But in my experience, they get treated as a novelty, and don't get used much after a couple of months.
 
Either a fused spur by the kitchen units, or a switch by the door, or both, either will do.

It often pays now to run the mains lighting cable to the TOP of the wall cupboard, where a driver can be fitted. The reason being modern under unit lights are LED, and need an unsightly driver. The under unit lights usually have a lead on them. Often this can go vertically in the void at the back of the wall unit.
 
Unless you have a Howdens kitchen and they now put an annoying 60mm ish brace all the way along the back of the units, about 30mm up so it's a pig to drill. The void is clear the rest of the way up
 
Often the only lights I have on in the kitchen tbh. Not when cooking but the other 99% of the time, undercabs are the only lighting source.
Fair enough - habits/practices obviously vary.
Which is pretty much the same as using a switched FCU.
Not really, although it does depend on one's habits/wishes. With a switched FCU, one has to physically turn on the under-cupboard lights ever time one wants them on (as has been said, usually at a different place from the main light switch). If the under-cupboard lights come on automatically with the main lights, then one would only have to touch the 'secondary' switch if one didn't want the under-cupboard lights on - which in my house (**) is seemingly almost never.
And there speaks a man. A woman will often switch the under cupboard lights on in the early evening when the kitchen lights aren't needed yet. Others will leave them on after the lights have been turned off as a feature. But in my experience, they get treated as a novelty, and don't get used much after a couple of months.
Women in my house (**) don't get that option :)

** I have to confess that when I talk of 'in my house', I am referring to a 'secondary' kitchen, usually only used by guests, or at times of parties/Christmas etc. Our main kitchen has no wall cupboards in the usual sense, so no under-cupboard lights!

Kind Regards, John
 
Ok so just gave the wife the choice and she’d like them to be able to be on by themselves like the ‘feature’ mentioned above. It will be LEDs I’m sure. So would I be looking to join this to the existing light circuit with a junction box like a spur and fit a second switch/FCU and the get the cables out to the back of the units?
 
Ok so just gave the wife the choice and she’d like them to be able to be on by themselves like the ‘feature’ mentioned above. It will be LEDs I’m sure. So would I be looking to join this to the existing light circuit with a junction box like a spur and fit a second switch/FCU and the get the cables out to the back of the units?

In that case it is a switch not a FCU.
 
Ok so just gave the wife the choice and she’d like them to be able to be on by themselves like the ‘feature’ mentioned above.
As I implied, the kitchen she virtually always uses has no conventional wall cupboards, so the issue doesn't really arise. If she wants 'feature lighting', she has the option of turning off a third, or two-thirds, of the main lighting - but she rarely does even that.
It will be LEDs I’m sure. So would I be looking to join this to the existing light circuit with a junction box like a spur and fit a second switch/FCU and the get the cables out to the back of the units?
That's essentially what I would do, and there's only one actual difference between how I would probably do it, and what you probably want ... since you want to be able to turn the under-cupboards lights on independently, you would use the 'permanent live' of the lighting circuit, say from a ceiling rose. Since I wouldn't want to have to explicitly turn on the under-cupboard lights every time I wanted them on, I would probably take a 'switched live' feed from a ceiling rose.

If you use a lighting circuit, you don't need an FCU - just a switch is adequate.

Kind Regards, John
 
Thanks for the info, so it seems I’m good to just carry on from the ceiling rose. I’m guessing I could just use a junction box to act as a ceiling rose to split off to the switch and drivers?
 
Thanks for the info, so it seems I’m good to just carry on from the ceiling rose. I’m guessing I could just use a junction box to act as a ceiling rose to split off to the switch and drivers?
You could, but if you have access to a ceiling rose, you could (**) just go from there to switch, and from there to the drivers, without the need for any junction boxes.

** I am assuming that you have the (most common) arrangement with the lighting circuit 'looped' at roses, hence with a permanent live, switched live and neutral available at each rose. If that's not the case (e.g. if the circuit uses 'looping at switches'), things would not be so easy. Do you know which you have?

Kind Regards, John
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top