Recessed Lighting

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
So the wife and I have longed for some recessed lighting in our house. We had a guy that was a friend of a friend come over and take a look and he sort of went through what the process would be like (we have a 2 story house) and what we are wanting is some recessed lighting in our living room (I dunno,4-6 cans) and then maybe 4 or so in our kitchen and then maybe another 4 in our dining room) Anyone have any tips or anything they wish they would have done doing recessed lighting. I also have no clue on what something like this would cost.
 
It will help tremendously if you know where the joists are, which way they are running, and can run the electrical path all along them instead of having to cross them in the ceiling.
Either way the probability of having drywall repair in somebody's future is very high.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
What don't you like about it? We have a rectangular living room and we have about 5 lamps in there to try and brighten up the room.
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Spotlight effects.
Unless the ceilings are high you get all the light in 1 spot.
If you get the right kind of lenses that are a little dome shaped it can help a bit.

But generally in low ceilings you get more light from shining up on a while ceiling than the other way around.

You might consider uplighting that is angled.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
We have a rectangular living room and we have about 5 lamps in there to try and brighten up the room.
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Cans ("down lights") don't fix that. Mind you, we have a bunch of them in our house, all of which we installed. But cans alone will make a room feel dark, because the ceiling (esp in the corners) isn't lit. You need cans along with pendants or uplights to get even lighting and make the room feel well-lit. Two 60W pendants over our kitchen island provide more even light than the 6 65W cans do.

How you go about installing them has more to do with how they're switched and where the power is coming from than anything. Getting the lights in the ceiling and wiring them to one another is easy.

Electricians are expensive.
 
12’ ceilings…you can see the shadowing. Shadows stop somewhere around the 9’ mark. Also have to be aware of tv glares. And because I’m a piece of shit that can never remember what kind of bulbs I have, different warmths and 45w vs 60w…

IMG_4537.jpeg
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We have can lights in most every room. Use the kitchen ones every day. The others are mostly on when we vacuum and a few misc things. Too much light to relax. I like task lighting better.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
What don't you like about it? We have a rectangular living room and we have about 5 lamps in there to try and brighten up the room.
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To get enough light for the whole room, you have to have higher wattage bulbs. Then i can't stand to sit under them since they seem to be shining in our eyes. We have a ton they were in the house when we bought it. I think there are 8 in the kitchen. I would recommend a dimmer switch if you decide on them. We only use the 2 pendants over the island. We have 4 in the living room on 2 separate switches. We only use the pedistal light in the corner. I would love to add a ceiling fan and light to get rid of the cans, but it's too much trouble.

Damn, that really sounds like a lot of rambling, lol.
 
I put 50 cans in when I built my house, all on dimmers and used when I need to see. I have switched to LED bulbs in all the fixtures which helped with heat drastically. If I had it to do over I’d still want them but that’s my .02
 
My wife comes from an anti-overhead-light family, so like @justjeepin86 the only cans we use are in the kitchen, and even then, that is rare. Or for tasks such as vacuuming after dark, which is also very rare. It seems like there's a lamp in every corner of every room, and they are constantly being adjusted for the correct level of "coziness" 🤷‍♂️
 
jeepinmatt said:
My wife comes from an anti-overhead-light family, so like @justjeepin86 the only cans we use are in the kitchen, and even then, that is rare. Or for tasks such as vacuuming after dark, which is also very rare. It seems like there's a lamp in every corner of every room, and they are constantly being adjusted for the correct level of "coziness" 🤷‍♂️
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Our wives must be related
 
UTfball68 said:
12’ ceilings…you can see the shadowing. Shadows stop somewhere around the 9’ mark. Also have to be aware of tv glares. And because I’m a piece of shit that can never remember what kind of bulbs I have, different warmths and 45w vs 60w…

View attachment 399957
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Those different color lights help draw the eyes away from that tan colored smoke detector 😬
 
ramjo said:
Those different color lights help draw the eyes away from that tan colored smoke detector 😬
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Like I said…I’m a piece of shit. Every time ‘I don’t need to bring that widget, my calibrated eye will match it’. When I get to the store Morgan Freeman starts narrating ‘And on that day, his calibrated eye, did not match. May the Lord rest his soul when he gets home to his wife’.
 
Amazon 6" Dimmable Wafer Lights

We installed 8 of these style lights in our kitchen and 4 in our den, all on dimmers. We use them every day and you can dial it up to super bright, or dim them down to very little light output. They're wafers (only 1/2" thick I think), so you can put them anywhere you want (like under/spanning a joist) and the spring loaded arms hold them up with no issues.
 
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getstucksome said:
Amazon 6" Dimmable Wafer Lights

We installed 8 of these style lights in our kitchen and 4 in our den, all on dimmers. We use them every day and you can dial it up to super bright, or dim them down to very little light output. They're wafers (only 1/2" thick I think), so you can put them anywhere you want (like under/spanning a joist) and the spring loaded arms hold them up with no issues.
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I put some just like that in our patio ceiling at our old place. They were so light that I was able to hang them in a viny ceiling without any extra bracing with zero deflection. My wife and I loved them
 
I like wafer thin style as well. Selectable color range, led, and as already mentioned, thin enough to install over a joist if that's where layout lands(still may be tricky to get the box up in the ceiling with sheetrock up ) I believe the shadowing is less than a traditional recessed light as well......but Im not well versed in the science of Interior illumination.


12' ceiling 16x16 area, 8 lights 26" off walls.


20230705_070755.jpg


9' ceiling 14 x 18 room, 4 lights 44" off walls

20230705_071020.jpg


Same room with just fan light on

20230705_071036.jpg
 
Glare is the difference between the brightest thing you can see and the darkest. Your pupils inhibit you from being able to distinguish how objectively bright or dark something is. Recessing the lens makes it less likely for you to see the light source when looking across the room.

We installed a bunch of 3" and 4" fixtures like these:

www.homedepot.com

Commercial Electric Slim Baffle 3 in. Color Selectable New Construction and Remodel Canless Integrated LED Recessed Kit 91468 - The Home Depot

The Color Temperature Select Recessed Lighting Kits are the recessed lights of the future. Not only is each fixture is designed specifically for small spaces where height clearance is limited such as beams or ductwork, you can change the color temperature with a flick of a button. The integrated...
www.homedepot.com

The upside to a smaller fixture is that the lumen output is less, so even when you can see the lens the glare is less. The smaller diameter means the cutoff angle is steeper, too. You can put them on a dimmer, but you don't have to dim them to treat glare.

You can always move the fixtures over a few inches to clear joists. Waste pipes and ducts are a bigger concern.
 
I just really like the look of (especially when we are entertaining) having a very well lit house. Our dining room especially needs it and I think it would just aesthetically looks nice in our house. Although I have no idea on how much it would costs to even have 4 cans installed in 3 rooms.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
I just really like the look of (especially when we are entertaining) having a very well lit house. Our dining room especially needs it and I think it would just aesthetically looks nice in our house. Although I have no idea on how much it would costs to even have 4 cans installed in 3 rooms.
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Maybe I missed it, but how tall are your ceilings? That's what I was trying to get at with my post, the shadows and lighting are god awful for 2-3ft. So if you have 8' ceilings, I'd highly advise against. If you have 10ft ceilings, you can combat the shadows with brighter/higher intensity lights. If you have 12' ceilings, I feel you can get away with any light you want in the can.
 
We had these installed through our whole house when it was built instead of the traditional boob light. They project light a lot better than the can lights in the kitchen.
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ramjo said:
I like wafer thin style as well. Selectable color range, led, and as already mentioned, thin enough to install over a joist if that's where layout lands(still may be tricky to get the box up in the ceiling with sheetrock up ) I believe the shadowing is less than a traditional recessed light as well......but Im not well versed in the science of Interior illumination.


12' ceiling 16x16 area, 8 lights 26" off walls.


View attachment 400041

9' ceiling 14 x 18 room, 4 lights 44" off walls

View attachment 400044

Same room with just fan light on

View attachment 400043
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Finally! Someone said it! Get the thin LED ones and skip the “cans” all together. They are only 1/2” thick and you don’t have to avoid ceiling joists because they are the thickness of your GYP board.

If you like the traditional off white color, there is a color selection for that as well as the white colors. Pretty affordable when you buy in bulk.
 
We are in the process of a kitchen renovation. We installed 6-6" wafers around the island, 3-4" over the island and another 4" over the sink. 3 different circuits, lots of light and dimmable. 3 different light settings, we went with 5k because kitchen.

Our price per can was around $115 installed.

I will be installing more myself around the house once the kitchen is done as it's super easy to do.
 
UTfball68 said:
Maybe I missed it, but how tall are your ceilings? That's what I was trying to get at with my post, the shadows and lighting are god awful for 2-3ft. So if you have 8' ceilings, I'd highly advise against. If you have 10ft ceilings, you can combat the shadows with brighter/higher intensity lights. If you have 12' ceilings, I feel you can get away with any light you want in the can.
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Yeah, we have 8ft ceilings. We just need more light in our house. The sun spends most of the day on the side of our house, so we don't get a TON of natural light during the day and I just like a well lit home. Even If we had a ceiling fan with a nice light on it, I'd be good with that.
 
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