Lights under kitchen presses

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decembersally

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Would anyone know if installing lights under kitchen presses to shine on worktops is a simple or difficult task?
Any idea what steps it would involve?
thanks
 
Depends on where the nearest supply for power is. If it is handy, then fitting them with a small pullcord switch hanging under the pelmet is the simplest, as opposed to brigning wires over to an existing wall switch.

As kitchen and house designs vary, ou will need am electrician to look at it and give you an estimate.
 
I did this myself, the trickiest part was feeding the wire to the socket above the extractor fan. I had to drill cable width holes in the top and bottom of a kitchen press and the shelves enclosed in that press. The cable can be concealed easily enough.

The lights I installed were flourescent strip lights also, not the halogen ones
 
thanks for the feedback. The extractor fan socket would be the closest/ easiest to use and then as Stobear suggested i can feed the cable through the presses. Excellent, thanks again, Sally
 
I did this myself with flourescent strip lights (not recessed halogen lighting or anything fancy like that) and it was a doddle. Have hardly switched them on since though! :|
 
I recently bought some link lights in Argos for this purpose - just over €16 euros each - Just pop a 3 pin plug onto them and plug into a regular socket. They fit quickly onto the base of the unit and can be linked together if there is a large span of units to be lit. We are very happy with them. There is a little switch on each one to turn on & off
 
I always intended trying to wire them into the extractor hood light/switch so that switching this on switched the lot on but (a) I never got around to figuring out the appropriate wiring and (b) I'm not 100% certain that this is a good/safe idea. Any comments?
 
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Shouldn't be an issue clunman i would think. I had the electricain leave a wire for me when he did the house(within an estatre, the wire cost me 65 euro!) so that there are three switches on the main kitchen light switch. 2 of them ffor ceiling lights, 1 for the under presses/halogen spot light in the cabinet with glass door.

the wire he left was the basic single core wire for any type of light fitting, so obviously doesn't need to be suited for a big current.

Most extractors are actually just plugged into a single plug socket in the wall just above the top of the presses. A socket would actually have wires that can take a bigger current so there should be no issue with using lights and the extractor. Does your extractor not just plug into a socket like that???
 
Wouldn't the on/off switch on the light strip suffice? Keeping them independent would seem a better option IMO. Would need to study the wiring on that before I could comment on that end of it though.
 
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Wouldn't the on/off switch on the light strip suffice? Keeping them independent would seem a better option IMO.

I'd just prefer to be able to flick one switch and have the lot comes on. But it's not that urgent seeing that I've survived without really using them at all to date!

Does your extractor not just plug into a socket like that???

It does indeed. It's just that to control the strip lights as well as the extractor light from the extractor light switch would require me to figure out how to wire in the former which are currently wired in at the extractor plug - not at the extractor switch. (Am I even making sense now!?). I'm sure that I can figure it out once I put my mind to it and I guess that the loads are light enough not to cause any concerns.
 
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"I guess that the loads are light enough not to cause any concerns"

Not really if you use fluorescents, as the switch in the extractor will have a low rating. Switching fluorescents requires a switch with twice the rating of the load, due to inductive feedback and arcing.

In other words, the fan light switch is probably underrated for fluorescents..............., and would burn out.
 
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In other words, the fan light switch is probably underrated for fluorescents..............., and would burn out.

Thanks for that warning. Is there any way for me to check the extractor light switch rating? Anything in particular I should look for?
 
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If you can get a torch and view the side of it, it should give the amperage rating. If it's above 2A, you're okay, for a few fluorescents.
 
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Thanks Ocras - can't see anything obvious right now but will check again if/when I eventually get around to finishing the job!
 
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if it were me clubman...I'd do the fiollowing. Run power for a switch off the plug powering the extractor. Put a switch off that into the side of a cupboard where it is nicely concealed. Power the tubes off this switch.
bear in mind that you might not want to have those lights on every time the extractor is on, and vice versa, you might want them on sometimes without the extractor so i say keep them seperate with their own independent switch.
Because I had mine prewired I have the switch at the kitchen door. However, I got tubes with their own switch also...i just always leave them switched on...but I did that in case for example I wanted them to stay off but still have the eyeball light in the glass cabinet come on...
 
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if it were me clubman...I'd do the fiollowing. Run power for a switch off the plug powering the extractor. Put a switch off that into the side of a cupboard where it is nicely concealed. Power the tubes off this switch.

Good point - solves the problem of trying to hack things so that the existing extractor light switch controls all three lights (extractor hood light and two strip lights).

bear in mind that you might not want to have those lights on every time the extractor is on, and vice versa, you might want them on sometimes without the extractor so i say keep them seperate with their own independent switch.

Actually, just to clarify, the hood already has separate switches for the fan and light and I would be happy for the three lights to be operated off the one switch but I would like to maintain separate control over the fan!

Anyway, useful suggestions. Will look into them at some point. Thanks.
 
not having found anything else on the net to help, i'm ressurecting this topic. have purchased a lytlec 20w flourescent fitting for under kitchen cabinets. have a electric wire protuding from the wall for the connection. on the basis that this isn't rocket science (from other posts) can you tell me what connection you use to connect the light's wires to the mains wire? The instruction talk about a 3 amp fused spur outlet. Any notion what this is or where to get it? I've only 1 light to fit and will be using the on/off switch on the light. also, dont wat to put plug on it for plugging into a socket as existing wire would be redundent!

cheers
 
Just a little tip....If you intend to light up the top of the presses fit a ling single fluorescent on the top of the press rather tahn several light fittings, less wiring and also less shadowing on the ceiling.
 
I installed 3 strip lights myself under presses in about 2 hours, including all wiring, and I'm no DIY expert.

I would suggest buying a separate switch to control all lights in one flick of a switch, as opposed to using the individual switch on each one. In my case at least, I rarely want just one, it's all or nothing.

Lights cost me about Eur 15 each.
 
jrewing said:
I installed 3 strip lights myself under presses in about 2 hours, including all wiring, and I'm no DIY expert.

I would suggest buying a separate switch to control all lights in one flick of a switch, as opposed to using the individual switch on each one. In my case at least, I rarely want just one, it's all or nothing.

Lights cost me about Eur 15 each.
Click to expand...


on reflection maybe i could do with 2 more lights so this would be a better option - have a thing about having decent lighting in the kitchen! so did you just combine wire to first light with wire from wall in order for the single light switch to work?
 
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