It is not clear to me if you are planning to use these junction boxes for something other then terminating the live circuit.

If you have direct wire 120V AC, you should use direct wire UCL (which may/ may not be dim-able).

Most UCL today (fluorescent, xenon and some LED) are ~ 1" to 1.5" in height.

There are LED bars (e.g. eW Profile, uniLume) that are < 1" in height and are all dim-able.

The smaller the profile, the more expensive - the uniLume bars cost more than the eW Profile.

A remote power supply (typically called dimming transformer) is only used when you have low voltage lighting (the light bars are either 12V or 24V DC).

In that situation, the remote power supply has to be located in an accessible location and separate low voltage wiring (appropriately sized) run to the light bars.

If you just want to terminate the wiring for now until you decide which direct wire UCL to use, the following can be obtained from Home Depot

pancake electrical box

I am replacing direct wire fluorescent UCL and cove lighting with low voltage flexible strip lighting with dimming transformers. I have some 120V wires that I need to terminate and some that I need to extend from where they are now to where I want to place the dimming transformer.

There's a small desk area with UCL in the far corner. It's on on its own switched circuit. I never use that area so I'm having a hard time justifying using a dimmable transformation and dimming switch. That's where I was thinking I might use the "direct wire convenience box" and a plug in power supply. I could add an inline dimmer later if I decided I needed the dimming. There's a plug nearby that I could use, but one outlet is already taken up by the phone so I don't want to use the other outlet for the lights. That box would take care of the romex and give me a plug for the power supply. Environmental Lights has a waterproof non-dimming driver that is another option. Can you connect the romex directly into that and mount it under the cabinet? It's only 1.21" tall.

You will need a small enclosure to contain the splice between the leads from the power supply and the AC wiring (romex).

It would seem strange to go for extremely low profile light strips and have a significant bump under the cabinet. The power supply could be placed in a more discreet location (e.g. - on top of/ inside the cabinets).

I would recommend pricing out all the components necessary before deciding whether to use direct wire or low voltage UCL.

Thanks David. I have priced a complete system with Inspired LED flex strip (60 LED/M for cove and 96 LED/M for UCL) and Environmental Lights flex strips (120 LED/m high CRI) and light bars only (not the connectors) for Phillips eW, Unilume and Maxlite. The LV flexible strip lighting is anywhere from 1/8 and 1/2 the cost of the direct wire options. More importantly, I can make them the exact length I want and I don't have to worry about a component going bad and not being able to get a replacement for it down the road.

Now I'm just trying to figure out the least conspicuous place to put the transformers and terminate the unused romex stubs. Another thing I'm trying to determine is if I can have exposed romex running between a junction box and the dimming transformer or if it has to be in conduit or armored protective cable.

Before we finalize anything we also need to see if we can figure out where the current wiring goes. We might be able to reroute some things.

The main problem is the UCL for the small desk area (that I haven't used in 24 years) in the corner opposite from the rest of the UCL. Would it look stupid to have a direct wire UCL there with the flexible strip lighting elsewhere?

I'm guessing that you aren't using aluminium channel with the tape led? That would probably account for the lower price.

No it would not look stupid to have a mix of direct wire and low voltage. It is more a matter of practicality.

As of right now, we are not using aluminum channel but I have not ruled it out for the UCL. The light rail trim is attached to the cabinets via 3/4" stock that extends 3" from the cabinet front. If I put plain strip lighting behind that, I'd have to go back another 1-2" to keep the trim from blocking the light and I'd rather not go back that far. Inspired LED recommended placing the strip lighting on the back side of
the 3/4" light rail stock so it shines back at the backsplash to
eliminate dots on the granite. I had wondered about that option myself
so when they brought it up I figured I'd see what it looks like. In that position no one will see the plain strip unless they stick their head under the cabinets.

If I don't like that we'll most likely use the channel for the UCL. That would bring the light down about to the level of the 3/4" stock so I could butt it right behind it. It would also give a cleaner look and protect the strip. However my primary motivation is to conserve energy so I'd prefer to avoid losing a bunch of light to the channel and diffuser. We will mount the LED to an aluminum strip for better heat dissipation if we don't use the channel. Even if we used channel on everything, it would still be much less (doing it ourselves) that any of the direct wire options.

I think we have a solution for the desk area. The romex stub appears to be in the same stud cavity as a light switch on the wall behind it. My husband says if he takes out the light switch junction box, he can pull the romex that's connected to the switch out and into a replacement junction box. Then we can extend to the dimming transformer above the cabinets where it will be out of sight.

The aluminum channel serves a couple of purposes

1. Heat dissipation

2. A means to mechanically fasten the strips to the underside of the cabinets.

3. It may make easier to install the runs and repair sections that go bad.

Without the channel, the tape would need to be directly adhered to the cabinets.

Correcting a positioning mistake would need quite a bit of care (using a razor to separate the tape from the cabinet) to avoid damaging the tape - could be twisted/ bent such that the surface mounted components pop off.

Depending on the adhesive used, a bit more of surface material could be pulled off the cabinets if an attempt is made to correct a positioning mistake.

As the adhesive ages, parts of the strip will detach from the cabinets and dangle.

High intensity LEDs are also painful to view and should be used where they will not be in direct line of sight - either used as indirect lighting (bouncing off an intermediate surface) or a diffuser is used.

Indirect lighting invariably requires higher light output as a significant portion of the light is not directed towards the required surfaces (i.e. counter top).

I agree. That's why I said we would be applying the flexible LED strip to a (rigid) aluminum strip (and applying that to the cabinet) strip if we don't use the channel. There is still an issue of the tape detaching from that in the future but they *say* the 3M industrial adhesive that is used on the tape should hold.

Have you looked in to the Adorne under cabinet system? This can provide your switches and lights along with a usb charging port if you would like.

Thanks Mike, but I ordered everything this morning.