Our lighting architect suggested Kichler LED under cabinets and LED Pucks for above the range area. They illuminate in a warm white. They come in various lengths and we got 3 --12 inches-- and one 20 inch in a bright stainless steel. She suggested to go bright stainless because our granite is shiny and one gets a good feedback of light when going that way instead of a white or a brushed stainless. I do have stainless appliances etc. Halogen in the recessed.
She did talk about zenon so I am not sure if I have those too. The under cab lights are very thin...very nice and the pucks are less than 1/2 inch. Expensive but very nice. We have not had them installed yet, but our electrician said that these were top of the line in lighting.

All the various incandescents produce a lot of heat.
Under any name (zenon, xenon, halogen, etc), they are all incandescent.
They all make more heat than light.
You can safely disregard opinions about "zenon" or "brand X" of zenon.

LED is going to be the only way to go.
LED lighting is improving every year.

Fluorescent (long thin tubes) is the 3rd option.
Fluorescent light tubes (when expensive) can produce very good light.
The tubes can be as thin as 1/4"; many are available in 1/2" thickness.
key concepts: CRI ; temperature .
web search to get more info.
read more here too http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/lighting/

Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb forum for lighting

I went with Seagull Ambiance lighting in and under the cabs. They are LED pods, 10W each. They do not plug in to the outlets. I dont' know if the big box stores sell them. I got mine from a local electrical supply house. I would recommend doing the lighting before the tile.

hERE'S A PIC OF THE SYSTEM:

And the little light pods that can be plugged in anywhere on the cord.

And installed under the cab

And in the cab

Good luck! HTH

There are a lot of options. Let us know what you want:

- Direct wire vs 'plug'
- Dimmable vs non-dimmable
- line voltage or low voltage
- Price range

The big box sores do have direct wire options. They often include a detachable cord so they can provide the option. For direct wire you would feed romex into unit and make your connections.

Low voltage uses an external transformer to step the power down and then you run the lights from there.

LED is the preferred option, but good quality LED lights are more expensive than their xenon/halogen counterparts, Especially if you want them to be dimmable. Quality of Fluorescent tubes will also vary from poor to good depending on price. xenon/halogen produce a bit heat (halogen produces a little more I think) but they're going to be cheaper, typically dimmable, and produce more consistent lighting across brands.

If you want actual task lighting it requires more lights than you would think.

A spacing of about half the cabinet to counter distance between lights puts double coverage for most lights avoiding harsh shadows on the work area.

That and the lights need to be at the front of the cabinet, not the back.

Thanks so much everyone! You are so awesome on this board. I am making notes of everything and will take it to the local electrical supply house--I guess there are a lot more options out there than what the big box stores sell. I won't rule out LED afterall. Thanks for the info on spacing, Brickeyee--very useful info. I definately want to avoid the harsh shadows. Celtin, thanks for the photos- the light pod idea sounds great. I will also check out the ones you mentioned, Jakzof3--I especially am glad to know there are such good thin ones out there, I don't have much room under the cabinets and bottom trim to hide the lights.
Thanks again, everyone.

We have just had our undercab lights installed, and I couldn't be happier.

Through this AMAZING forum, I found a reference to Environmental Lights in California. I was interested in LEDs, but very leery of the light quality/color.

Long/short, we ended up ordering MaxLite LED strips from them. These are warm white (2700K -- I was very particular about that, cuz I can tell the difference with so called warm whites that are 3000K). They are dimmable. They do not require transformers or 'drivers' -- they connect to 120V. They come in 12" lengths; we got the ones with 33 bulbs/foot, which is 200 lumen output.

They look fabulous! Better even than I'd imagined... The electrician, who had never installed them, was thrilled...said they were incredibly easy.

And Environment Lights was terrific to work with. You can buy a sample -- one 12" unit with a plug, to see what it will look like.

You can (maybe should) bypass your local electrical supplier, and definitely bypass the bigbox guys.

Re spacing: I just bought them to run the lenght of the cabs to the nearest foot increment. They are not very big...maybe 3/4 of an inch?...so they tuck right behind the frame at the front edge of the cabinets. Could not be easier.

Here is a link that might be useful: Environmental Lights -- Self-Driven Dimmable MaxLite

A new way to lights up your life for led lights bulbs.

Hello Fun2Learn! Sounds like you've made up your mind re: heading to the local electrical supplier for more info, but wanted to send a couple of good resources to help you make your decision.

I wrote this blog post awhile back on "How to Choose Under Cabinet Lighting": http://blog.pegasuslighting.com/2010/07/how-to-choose-under-cabinet-lighting/

It's a nice overview of all the options.

Also, here's a post to help you determine how many fixtures you actually need to buy:
http://blog.pegasuslighting.com/2011/02/how-many-under-cabinet-lights-do-i-need/

Hope those help.

Feel free to check out our selection at pegasuslighting.com to see what's out there! Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Under Cabinet Lights at Pegasus Lighting

I really like the tiny fluorescent tubes, like the T4s: they're inexpensive and efficient, they fit in tight places, and there's choice in color temperature.

But ballast quality matters. How good are the ballasts in the little under-cabinet fixtures that Pegasus and others sell? Is there anything to be done beside buying and trying?