My estimate was for hardwiring, and came in at $400 for the labor and $120 for the lights themselves. Not sure what kind of lights as it was an early esitmate. This is for 4 runs total. Two runs are longer at about 5 ft each and 2 runs at 2.5 ft each.
I wouldn't want anything that I had to plug in. We didn't use them when we had one run set up like that. I just want something that will give a warmer light, but not be excessively hot.
HTH

I have hard-wired puck lights. The wiring goes into the cabinets & into the wall. Sorry, I don't know the cost of labor since all the electrical labor for my kitchen, DR, & PR was rolled into one price.

I also have them in my "glass doored" cabinets.

I bought fluorescent low profile fixtures that plug into each other and then into an outlet behind the fridge so you can't see any wires. It was the cheapest solution I can find with the least heat output, which was very important in my small galley kitchen.

We ran new wiring to hardwire 5 xenon undercabinet lights - they are the strip kind. It was $250 for the electrician and about $200 for the lights. I think that xenon lights come in puck-style that you can hardwire.

Once you start looking at hard wired, you will find that there is low voltage, which has transformers that have to be stashed somewhere - they are blocky things - or there are line voltage, which do not need transformers. We got line voltage - I thought it was easier to deal with because we wouldnt' have to find a spot for the transformers, which get hot, from what I understand. On the negative for the line voltage is that they cost more to run.

Our lights were Pegasus. They have a lot of different styles of undercab, including xenon, halogen and micro-florescent (which I really wanted, but they didn't come in short enough lengths for one of our cabinets). I'll include the website below

Here is a link that might be useful: Pegasus lighting (click on undercab on left hand side)

In our last house we had IKEA lights (link below). They are not normally hardwired, but they do daisy-chain into each other so you just need one outlet. We had our electrician install an outlet in the microwave cabinet just above one of the lights; then we simply drilled a hole in the bottom back of the cab and ran the cord up to the outlet. You could not see it. basically the same idea as sophie_blue plugging into behind the fridge.

In this house we are retrofitting the same type of IKEA lights to be hardwired. The cord comes out of the wall just below the upper cabinet. Actually, I think it would be cheaper for the electrician to do the outlet... that way he just installs the outlet and leaves, and you install the lights and plug them in. If you do hardwired, he has to install the lights and everything.

If you decide to do this, and want to cut the smallest hole possible in your cabinet bottom, just cut off the plug that comes on the lights, drill a very small hole just big enough for the cord, thread it through, and use a "replacement plug" from the hardware store on the end. Or, make the hole big enough for the light-end receptacle to fit through (which is about 1/3 the size of a plug).

We chose IKEA lights for the new kitchen because we were so pleased with them in the last house, and when compared the other brands we looked at in lighting stores, the quality-to-cost ratio was favorable. Plus they come in a stainless finish or white and I liked the stainless...

Grudtal light: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10119334

Thanks to all of you for all the helpful info! Now I know there are alot of options out there.

Buehl, that is exactly what I would like to have done. I like the puck lights and would like them hard-wired. Or I could have the outlet inside the cabinets, which would work too.

Just one other question, how do you turn them on? I assume a switch on the wall must be tied into these somehow?

I forgot to add - the xenon lights that i got came with a switch with 2 light levels - hi/lo - and then off. For most of our lights, we had these run to a switch on the wall. We didn't have to - we could have just gone and switched them all off and on with the switches on the lights. That was and additional $60 for the electrician to run them to a switch.

One run of lights - on the other side of the kitchen - is just hardwired, with no switch on the wall. We just use the switch on the light - it's our 'always on' nightlight run!

One other thing to think of is dimmer switches. For Xenon and Halogen, you can connect to a dimmer switch (if you wire to a switch on the wall). We didn't, because we have dimmers all over the place and never use them!

I have seagull linear xenon low-voltage. It was really expensive, but my countertops would be a black hole without it. I have lots of wood and almost black soapstone.
It is a very pleasing quality and color of light, the 10w bulbs are spaced two per foot or so; under a 24" cabinet, there are three bulbs.
I have a lot of other lights I can use, but while cooking, the U/C's are always on.
Casey

Hi again-
I just answered your email, but in response to you question above: our plug (at least the receptacle that the lights were plugged into) was turned on by a wall switch. BUT if you are trying to save $$ and dont want to pay the electrician for that extra step, you dont need it. The Ikea lights have switches on each fixture. I just found it easier to flip a switch and turn them all on at the same time :)
Hope this helps!
Stacey

UL listed LED strings from LEDtronics.

kas

My lights are indeed connected to a switch in the wall...in the backsplash. They are also dimmable...not just high/low, but a slider to allow "infinite" light levels. They are halogen and do put out some heat, but I haven't noticed it to be too bad even in the summer.

I think an outlet in a cabinet would work well...you might consider putting the outlet at the top of the cabinet and then running the wiring up the inside side of the cabinet. Since plugging something into an outlet generally takes up cabinet space, putting them on the top means the plug is taking up space that's seldom used...all the way at the top and in the far back of the wall cabinets.

If you have Plugmold/wiremold under your cabinets, you might be able to plug under cabinet lights in at the Plugmold w/o having the plugs show very much, if at all.