kitchen units lighting

[hammerman]

Just fitted a new kitchen and we want to put lights under the wall unit. What is the best way to do this. We want the lights to come on when the ceiling light is switched on.

 

[breezer]

you will need to run a cable from your new kitchen lights to your existing ceiling light. you should then connect the cable across the same two wires that feed your actual ceiling light.

you should use 1mm twin and earth cable

How ever, i think you will regret doing it as you intend, suppose after a while you do not like it, bit alkward to change it then isnt it?

why not put a switch in series with the new lights and wire it from the feed to the light on the ceiling. you could put the new switch next to the new lights under the cupboard.

At night you could just leave these lights on instead of lighting the whole kitchen. better to do it now than decide you want it later.

make a note / drawing first of what cables you have in your ceiling light then post back what you find

 

[spark]

.....or you could run a 3-core down from the ceiling light carrying a switch-live, permanant-live and neutral. that way you could switch it on and off with the ceiling light now and if you change your mind later, just do as breezer said and connect a switch up in-line. Why did you fit the kitchen and then consider fitting the under unit lights , the number of people I upset by telling them I'll be trashing their freshly plastered wall and newly fitted kitchen to fit flush cables....

 

[il78]

I know its not what you have ask for....but you could always put a switched fuse spur next to a socket outlet and run the under cupboard from this........little bit easier.....less hassle......just another option.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If it were me I'd install a double wall switch in place of the single one you have which controls the existing ceiling lights, and have the ceiling and wall-unit lights independently switched.

Then you'd be able to turn them all on or off at once with a single two-fingered operation, or have either one on without the other. Best of all possible worlds.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

.....or you could run a 3-core down from the ceiling light carrying a switch-live, permanant-live and neutral. that way you could switch it on and off with the ceiling light now and if you change your mind later, just do as breezer said and connect a switch up in-line. Why did you fit the kitchen and then consider fitting the under unit lights , the number of people I upset by telling them I'll be trashing their freshly plastered wall and newly fitted kitchen to fit flush cables....

Cue for a non-DIY disaster story (well, not really disaster, but an amusing opposite of Spark's plaster-trashing.)

A friend of mine was once having a kitchen extension built, and when he got home from work on the day the plasterer had been he went to look at the work that had been done. Something seemed wrong. It took him a few minutes to realise that the plasterer had buried all of the socket boxes which had already been installed .

 

[spark]

Sounds familiar, usually either that or dryliners cover everything up