What Jon says was true years ago, but not any more. "Cool white" was often used (and still often is) to refer to the old halophosphate phosphor T12 lamps, which had low CRI (in the 60 range or less). These do yield rather unpleasant light and poor color rendering. "Warm white" also used to refer to modified halophosphate lamps. Often these had even lower CRI than the cool white lamps, in the 40s or 50s. These did an absolutely horrible job on colors. However, modern T8 lamps have a blend of 3 types of rare earth phosphors. This gives a much better light and a wide range of color temperature (CT) and color rendering index (CRI). You can get T8s in 4100K color temperature with high CRI (82 or so). These have a somewhat chilly light but it's much improved over the dreary light from the old T12s. They still feel like living under a perpetually cloudy sky, but at least the color rendering is better. They're incredibly bright, BTW. The 3000K T8 lamps with 82+ CRI produce a very pleasant warm light which blends well with incandescents. The pinkish cast of old warm whites is gone, and color look good and warm under them. They're so far ahead of the old warm white that there's no comparison. When buying T8 lamps, look at the product code on the lamp. It depends on the manufacturer, but most adhere to this convention. You'll usually see something like "F32T8/741" or "F32T8/830." There may be some other letters in there, but what you're concerned with is the last 3 digits (after the slash). The first digit designates the CRI, the last two stand for the color temperature. Thus an 830 lamp is 82CRI, 3000K and a 741 lamp is 74CRI and 4100K. You usually want the first digit to be as high as possible, and the last two are more a matter of taste. I use 830 lamps in living spaces, and 835 or 735 lamps for the cellar and garage. If you're fitting out an artist's studio or a laundry room, you might want 850 or 865 (bluish-tinged daylight). There are also a few very high (90+) CRI lamps available. Osram-Sylvania and/or Philips (sorry, don't recall which) make 930, 950, and 965 types. These are fairly expensive and usually have to be special ordered, but they should produce excellent color rendering. Hope this helps.

For what it is worth, I had the lights installed today. I opted to keep them toward the front raining, since this more or less placed them in the center of the counter. I stepped the lights back a bit from the rails about 1.5 inches so that I would not allow the rails to block some of the forward shining light. Rob

Thanks bignick and davidr for the replies. This is a residential kitchen so the HO lamp is probably too bright. ALKCO does sells the "Little Inch" fixture with standard T5 bulbs. I just saw them listed on Lighting Fixtures and Ceiling Fans website. Will call tomorrow re:availability. Also saw the Juno UFL22 and UFL46 at this website.. http://electricsupplieson-line.stores.yahoo.net/juliuf3421wt1.html It comes with a high-efficiency (HE) lamp. How does that look for my needs? Also, must admit that I have started looking at the Kichler Xenon Series II strips. Things seem to be more straight forward and they are readily available at Bellacor with free shipping included! I know Xenon is cooler than halogen but just how hot are they?

I had T4 micro fluorescents installed last week with the hardwire box with the rocker switch. I've attached a link to some photos. The box is screwed to the bottom of the cabinet at the wall. From eye level you cannot see the box or lights, even though my light rail trim is a very narrow 3/4 inch. However, from a seated position I can see the light brackets and the box, but it doesn't bother me at all. If you do not want to see the box or lights, I think you would need a light rail trim piece below the cabinets of at least 1 1/4 inch. The romex from the wall ended up serving the T4 hardwire box and an outlet box, so you see the larger outlet box for the microwave also under the cabinet in the corner (long story). You might be able to put the hardwire box in a cabinet (if code allows)if you connected to a wall switch for on/off and don't need the rocker switch. To do that you would then need to measure and buy the a flexible connector cord to drop down through the cabinet to the first fixture. All the fixtures connect butt-end to each other and give a very nice line of even light. The lights also come with a plug in cord. If code allows, you might have an outlet in the cab, or on top of the cab and run a flexible cord down through/behind the cabs to the fixtures. For all practical purposes, that outlet box would need to be on a wall switch. It's really hard to photograph these lights in a way that does them justice, but we absolutely love them. Here is a link that might be useful: T4 micro fluorescents undercabinet lights