under cabinet lighting

[Gil Liu]

Anyone have recommendations for especially bright under-cabinet lighting. I recently installed some salvaged kitchen cabinets in a basement shop and want to add some lighting on the bottoms.

Thanks,
Gil

[Bill White]

LEDs. Cool running and use less elec.
Bill

[David G Baker]

Gil,
I agree on the new LED fixtures. They still aren't cheap but are slowly coming down in price . I installed the mini lights a few years ago, they were very hot and the bulb life was not that long. I was always nervous about the lights starting a fire if paper towels or other flammable materials got too close to them. The LED fixtures last for 30,000 hours according to the manufacturer and as Bill wrote they are cool running and use very little electricity.

[Chris Barnett]

The new low wattage "Bright Effects" fluorescent coiled daylight or bright bulbs are fantastic, much better than their standard cool white. I can see much better with the whiter light.
I measured the amps and their data on the packaging is true; I can hold a finger on the bulb of the forty watt bulb without any burning! Hope they have the "Bright Effect" brand in tubular bulbs soon. I put this brand of the three colors in the house, and after one year, had only one failure, and I think I caused that. Have the 40-watt fixtures throughout the shop so that is not an option there (yet) unless I change fixtures. Might be available in the small tubular bulbs; I need to check since we use fluorescents under the kitchen cabinets.

[Jamie Buxton]

Before you mount the lights, paint the undersides of the cabinets white. It makes an enormous difference.

[Bob Johnson2]

Just did a bunch of reading on the subject, sounds like LEDs if you want to spend the $$$ or Zenon are the current favorites for most accurate light. You have to watch which LEDs you get, they are either a blue cast or more of a daylight when they mix the colors.