I am in the process of installing both over cabinet and under cabinet kitchen lights. (These will be the T5 fluorescent lights as required by my inspector under California’s current lighting standards). Being deaf, I can’t just call up the building inspector and they don’t supply email addresses, so I will check here.
I have fed end of a string of cabinets with 14gauge BX at the bottom and 14 ga NM for the top. I am assuming that I can just “daisy chain” the T5 lights together (there will be a maximum of 5 lights on a string) using 14 ga BX for the under cabinets and 14 NM for the top. There seems to be adequate room for the three sets of wires to be wire nutted together, but on the 12″ light, I am not sure that when the ballast is taken into account that there is actually the required number of cubic inches. Any comments on standard practice for these things would be appreciated.
Thanks, Casey
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You should be fine with your plan, even on the 12" fixture. With a T5 bulb it likely an electronic ballast. Smaller than the old magnetics, so you have more room in even the smaller fixtures.
Unfortunately, from the building inspector the answer was "you can't do it" on the 12" undercab light as it only has 12 cu.in. of space and , according to NEC, 14 is needed for the three sets of #14 (although I think the internal wires to the ballast are probably smaller than 14). Time for a rethink.
Umm, How about stuffing your wiring and in an external box before it goes to the 12" fixture. I know it sonds extraneous, just a thought.
The problem with an external box is that I can't fine one that is big enough (i.e. over 14 cu in) that doesn't show. I suppose I could fit an extra molding along the bottom edge of the cabinets, but I would prefer not to. I think what I am going to do instead is to replace the 12" and 24" lights with a 36" and cut a notch in the cabinet frame to allow the light to extend across both cabinets. Not what I really wanted, but probably the most feasible solution. Another possible solution is to use one of the Wiremold 12" junction boxes to simply allow to add an extension onto the existing wire and then run that over to the adjacent cabinet and into the 24" fixture and then run a wire back to the 12" undercabinet light.