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Electrical Wiring

Under Cabinet wiring with transformer

15 years ago

If doing Led or Xenon lighting, how exactly is the wiring done. Is a switch wired to an outlet which the transformer is plugged into? If so, where is the transformer typically placed? Then the lights are strung from the transformer I assume? What if I have a kitchen with cabinets on 2 walls but the walls are far apart and serperated by a hallway, how can I get lights from transformer under both sets of cabs? thanks

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Comments (3)

dim4fun
15 years ago
You need the specs on each fixture to be able to wire for it.

Xenon can be hockey puck style, in strips with remote transformers or in fixtures with self contained electronic transformers.

LED's need drivers and the driver may be remote or built into the fixtures. There are short distance limits between driver and LED with some brands.
carguy60
15 years ago
Crab

Review the loads of each light (or group of lights) you want to power, for the total load of the string.
The transformers need sufficient capacity to run the lights, but not too much. Run the transformers at 70-80%
capacity. Switch the circuit before you go into transformers.
I did the same thing you are talking about and used two transformers, powered through the same switch.
It is easy to string 110 volt wire, but when you go from transformers to 12 volt fistures, the wire size requirements go up.
The small transformers are relatively cheap. I believe that I used a 140 watt transformer and a 60 watt one.
They work great for above-the-cabinet, and in-the-cabinet lights.

Good luck.
John
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sniffdog
15 years ago
On my kitchen cabinets, i had the electricians run LV cables from a central point to each segment of cabinets to be lighted. I had a switched outlet put under the main sink cabinet - and that is where the transformer is plugged in. All the of LV cables (4 segments) run to this same location. The transformer is mounted as high up as I could get it in the back of the cabinet to keep it out of the way.

The one mistake my electricians made was they did not leave enough slack at the wall penetrations so that the LV wires could to make it around the entire underside of each segment of cabinets - so I had to splice extra wire on. Not a terrible pain but something easily avoidable.

The other little issue was that the wires used for LV lighting is a thick guage - probable a 10 or 8. Twisting all of those plus the transformer power wires and getting a wire nut on is not easy. My electrician recommended that I first solder the ends of the leads to get good current flow evenly across all wires and that would have made it even harder to twist all together. Instead, I purchased a small quick disconnect junction box a Lowe's - removed the quick disconnect plug and some other inerds and just made use of the bus bars inside the box to make my LV connections between the transformer and the LV cables. I had to purchase a second bus bar (they sell these seperately) which snapped right into the box so that I had a + and - side. Made the connexctions very easy. Then hung that box as high as I could get in in the back of the sink cabinet.

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