We are in the process of adding a backsplash to our kitchen and were thinking of moving the outlets under the cabinets and started searching for under cabinet outlets
have it narrowed down to the Legrand Adorne and Tasklignting TR series
We have 3 switches for over cabinet, under cabinet and sink light that are currently GE ZWAVE and tied into our automation
anyone use either ? If so, how do you integrate the zwave switch or an Aeon Microswitch into either unit ?
We just went through same process, headache but totally worth it. I was able to reroute the Smart Dimmers for the island & breakfast nook to an adjacent wall (which made more sense with our layout anyway) and replaced all the outlets with top mount Legrand power strips. Kitchen Hood is powered through a SmartOutlet inside the cabinet which gives me the ability to turn it off by power cycling, but it also triggers a lighting scene for cooking after watt threshold is reached indicting exhaust fan is on. However at the end of day I just couldn’t reasonable get around the sink light and garbage disposal. Sure I could have switched garbage disposal to a sink top air switch and rerouted or hid the sink light switch, but I decided to keep those switches mainly because I didn’t want to have to explain to anyone new how to work a kitchen sink…and I’m married. Haven’t install cabinet lighting yet, still not sure what I’m going to use, but to be safe ran additional power under toe kick for floor/step light and above cabinet for uplight. Also note, I did have to install 20 amp GFI breakers at the main since the strips I used were not GFI.
thanks for the reply. Guess i can remove two of the switches that control the top and under cabinet lights and go with Hue strips and plug them in directly
This would leave only one switch for the sink light which i can leave on the wall for easy access
I did see some strips with built in GFCI as this will remove the need to change the breakers at the panel
Last question: Did you cover the existing outlet holes in the wall with Drywall or put a blank plate on it ?
Yeah, ideally I want the RGBW Fibaro Micro Controller for each zone (toe kick, under cabinet and up light) but that would mean I need 8 of them if I want to include island and butlers pantry. I’m having a hard time stomaching that after all the other HA stuff, its definitely a disease, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I went in knowing I probably wasn’t going to have physical wall switches for them, as there would be way to many of them and I was comfortable fully automated through other switches, motion detector or ultrasonic occupancy sensor. Let me know what you end up with, I have some LED strips in our pantry right now and I’m concerned they won’t be bright enough for under cabinet task lighting. I should have just done the ready to mount GFCI strips. The metal commercial Legrand strips I used were disassemble, cut to length and then painted to match (way more work than I expected).
As for the outlets, we removed, capped lines with wire nuts and electric tape, and then duct taped right over the holes. Worked perfect, outlets were perpendicular to the 2x4 tile so each one had drywall support. Of course depending on what tile size you end up with, additional support may be needed. Doesn’t need to be pretty, just flat.
thanks for the update, its been a great help… Bought some HUE Lightstrip Plus (yes they are expensive) along with a couple of extensions for the kitchen (have over 30ft of counter space)
prob end up using them and run the adapter on top of the cabinet to hide them
Not planning on running any lights under the toe kick or in the island for now… so i guess it will work out in our case
Planning of going with the Legrand Adorne system as its the most flexible in its configuration…
If you just want the typical white under/over-cabinet lighting, you can by LED light strip really cheap on amazon and then just control it with a Zwave switch. Granted this wouldn’t be dimmable via SmartThings as the strips have special dimmer packs (also cheap). I haven’t finished off our over-cabinet LEDs because our cabinets are in 3 sections and one doesn’t have easy way to hide power (plus external/insulated wall). I just use the small RF remote (also cheap) to turn on the two areas
@BatraD and I were just discussing that, specially the brightness of Hue vs the others. He mentioned Hue’s as be so bright they can produce a dot effect unless diffused. Me personally I’m concerned with those others not being bright enough for task lighting under cabinet. I’m starting to think maybe the hardwired GE Led under cabinet strips at Home Depot and Lowes may be the best bet. Would like to hear from others who have installed and their thoughts.
Hue is a good product but expensive if you need several.
For my cabinet lighting I bought the DIY LED light strips (about $10 per roll on Amazon) and some aluminum channels w/ diffuser for another $50. With transformers and wiring it was about $100 total. I got the dot reflection effect on the counters w/out the diffuser.
These LED strips are controlled by smart GE on/off switches which connect to the DC transformer for the LEDs. In one cabinet section I installed the smart outlet inside the cabinet, directly above a regular AC outlet so there are no power cables from the wall to cabinets.
In my case I have the two smart switches grouped in a zone to turn on/off by Alexa, but you could implement a similar function with a smart app.
OK, I def need some help with this. Its all so confusing tying the undercabinet system to the smart system. We also are replacing backsplash and, while I am doing this, I want to make it smart so as to be controled by Amazon Echo. I was thinking of using a legrange under cabinet strip but I don’t know if I can tie that in with a smart things hub. I do know that I can use the legrange hub, but that does not appear to work with Amazon Echo. It would be nice if there was a Wink or Smart Things under cabinet system.
You could use an Aeotec micro switch for the leagrand undercabinet lights. There is very little space in a single gang box, so try to go with the 2 gang control box if you do decide on this route.
We only have one switch in our setup for the sink light and I decided to leave it alone for now and might replace it with a smart bulb
For our under cabinet lights decided to go with osram strips as I got a few on sale thanks to Amazon along with diffuser channels.
