How to Hardwire Under Counter Lighting

Plug an electric radio into one of the outlets along the counter. Turn it on with the volume on high. Turn off and on each of the 15- and 20-amp breakers inside the breaker box until you silence the radio.

Leave the kitchen outlet breaker in the “Off” position. Write the word “STOP” on a piece of masking tape and place the tape over the breaker in the breaker box. Place a note on the breaker box door to let your family know you are working with the electricity, and they should not turn on any breakers in the box.

Test each outlet along the counter with a non-contact voltage sensor. Place the sensor against each outlet. The sensor lights if an electrical current is present at the outlet without having to insert any part of the sensor in the outlet.

Remove the screws holding the wall plates to the outlets you intend to use as a power source. Take out the screws holding the outlets to the electrical boxes in the wall. Carefully pull each outlet from the box.

Loosen the terminal screws holding the white wire, the black wire and the bare copper wire to the side and bottom of the outlets. Depending on the outlet location, the outlets may have an additional black insulated wire and an additional white insulated wire attached to the sides. The outlet only requires one black wire and one white wire to operate, the additional two wires, if any, lead to the next outlet on the circuit. Take the wires off the outlet and sit the outlet aside.

Insert a 1/2-inch wood drill bit into a cordless power drill. Drill a hole through the wall directly beneath the bottom of the wall cabinet and above the outlet. Repeat for each location you intend to hardwire an under counter light.

Thread a stiff piece of wire, like an unbent coat hanger, up through the opening in the top of the electrical box in the wall. Use a flashlight to watch for the end of the stiff wire to appear at the half-inch hole you drilled in the wall.

Insert needle-nose pliers into the hole to grab the wire. Pull the wire from the hole.

Bend the end of the stiff wire to create a small hook. Bend the end on a length of 12-2 nonmetallic electrical cable around the hook in the stiff wire. Secure the wire and the cable together with electrical tape.

Extract the stiff wire from the electrical box, threading the electrical cable through the wall cavity as you remove the stiff wire. Cut the cable with wire cutters and disconnect it from the stiff wire, leaving 8 inches of cable exposed at the hole and electrical box.

Rip the exterior plastic sheath from both ends of the NM cable with a cable ripper to uncover the 12-gauge solid wires inside. Use wire strippers to remove one half to three-fourths of insulation off each of the exposed wires at the wall hole and electrical box.

Remove the covers from the light fixtures to expose the electrical wiring. Knock out the metal circle along the back of each fixture by positioning a screwdriver against the plug and striking it with a hammer. This leaves a "knockout" hole about one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter.

Insert the threaded end of a nonmetallic cable clamp, sized to fit the hole, through the knockout on each fixture so the threads are on the inside of the fixture. Use the locknut, provided with the clamp, to hold the clamp securely to the fixture.

Attach the under-counter fixture to the bottom of the wall cabinet with half-inch wood screws. Thread the exposed wires protruding from the hole in the wall through the cable clamp connected to the fixture.

Use a twist-on insulated wire connector to connect the white insulated wire from the electrical cable to the white wire from the under-counter light fixture. Join the black insulated wire from the cable to the black under-counter fixture wire, and the solid copper wire from the cable to the green fixture wire with two more insulated connectors.

Install the cover back on the fixture. Tighten the screws connected to the nonmetallic cable clamp on the outside of the fixture to secure the cable.

Cut one 8-inch piece of 12-guage solid black insulated electrical wire, one solid white insulated electrical wire and one solid green insulated electrical wire for each power source outlet. Remove 3/4-inch of wire insulation from each end of the 8-inch pieces of wire.

Attach one of the black insulated wires, if there is more than one, and the black insulated wire from the new NM electrical cable to the 8-inch piece of black insulated wire with an insulated wire connector. Repeat the connection for the white insulated wires and the 8-inch green insulated wire to the bare copper ground wire.

Bend the other end of the 8-inch black insulated wire around the terminal screw at the top of the electrical outlet you removed. Bend the short white insulated wire around the bottom terminal screw on the outlet. Bend the short green insulated wire around the green screw along the bottom of the outlet.

Connect any remaining black and white insulated wires around the terminals on the opposite side of the outlet. This only applies if the outlet had additional wires attached to it prior to removing the outlet from the electrical box. Tighten each terminal screw to secure the wires remain to the outlet.

Push the wires and outlet into the electrical box. Connect the outlet to the box with the screws you originally removed. Replace the wall plate over the outlet, and turn on the breaker to supply electricity to the outlets and under-counter light fixtures.