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Recessed Lighting for New Build

12 years ago

Hello All,

We are building a new home and are approaching the part where the lighting will be going up. Our electrician does quality work, however, we want to be sure that we have sufficient lighting while we are at this stage and do not want to depend strictly on his word.

We have an open floor plan, so our living room, kitchen and dining room are all within a square 765 sq ft room (22.5' X 34'). The ceilings are 10' high. Apart from the dining room that will have a chandelier, our plan is to illuminate the room with just recessed lights.

Master bedroom will be vaulted, low part of vault at 10', high part of vault at 12.5'. Room is 210 sq ft (15.3' X 13.75). There will be a chandelier in the center.

Kids rooms will be vaulted, low part of vault at 8', high part of vault at 9'9". Rooms are 143 sq ft (13' X 11'). No other lighting in the room.

Finally, our patio is 350 sq ft (35' X 10'). Ceiling slopes down from the house, high part of slope is at 13' low part of slope is at 9'.

For all inside lighting, we want 4" cans. For patio we are ok with 6" to save costs.

We do not want LED lighting because we want to have a soft natural lighting. I admit, I am not that informed. I intend to do my research but felt that I should pose my questions here in the mean time.

I appreciate any help in advance, thanks!

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Comments (3)

David
12 years ago
The kitchen area should have a higher illumination (e.g. - 35 lumens per sq ft) than other areas (e.g. 20 lumens per sq ft for the living room).

Each can will have an effective output of ~ 500+ to 600+ lumens as a good amount of the light is trapped.

Your electrician would love for you to have all the lighting from recessed cans as he would be able to earn more. Depending on where your home is located, the installation cost per can could be ~ $100 or more.

If you use CFL cans (with the integrated ballast), the bulb itself could cost ~ $8 - $10. When the ballast fails, you need access to the upper side of the can, which in certain situations could require the entire can to be replaced or the ceiling torn apart (If there is another floor above, or a hole is made in the ceiling while attempting to crawl through the attic to reach the can).

In 2012, standard incandescent bulbs are no longer sold in the stores so the main choices are either CFL or LED.

What is your definition of soft natural lighting?

How did you come to the conclusion that LED lighting will not provide soft natural lighting?

The Cree LED recessed lights (also available from HomeDepot under the Ecosmart brand) work very well and are at the moment the best lighting you can get for recessed cans.
lee676
12 years ago
> We do not want LED lighting because we want to have a soft natural lighting

The Cree/Ecosmart CR6 (6") and the similar ECO4-575L (4") give off high-quality light that most people won't be able to distinguish from that from incandescent lamps, if that is what you consider "soft and natural". CFLs likely won't look as good.

However, most LED modules of this sort are designed for non-sloped ceilings; I'm not sure if the slight slope of your ceilings in some rooms would require special trims with either fixed-angle or adjustable separate bulbs to work well.

Although traditional incandescent bulbs are being phased out (and actually already have been for the floodlamp bulbs that are usually used in recessed cans), halogen bulbs remain available and though not as efficient as LEDs or CFLs, still give off the best quality light.
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Patricia, that’s my husband’s thought, too. Nearing 60 so...I did find a couple of photos on his phone that show the kitchen, the area that most disturbs me. We have a production builder so excuse all the garbage the electrician left all over. Initially we were just going to place 6 cans around the perimeter cabinets. Then, because I want to use clear glass pendants over the island (builder’s are there now), we added one over the sink and a couple on the other side of the island. When my husband met with the electrician to determine placement, he offered to throw in a 3rd on that side to balance it out, and of course dear husband likes light! So now we have a total of 10 in the kitchen and 4 each in the nook and living areas. Plus the 3 pendants. Ceilings are 9’. We were thinking this morning we should start by replacing with dimmable ultra thin profile fixtures and see how that looks. We were also going to replace or just remove the nook chandelier. We don’t close until the end of October.
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David
12 years ago
If you live in a state like California, you'd be subject to energy efficiency laws (title 24 in CA) which could curtail your lighting choices. Check with your city.

Cheap CFLs like lee676 stated will mostly not provide a good quality light.

Since you do have high ceilings, cove lighting (or some other form of indirect lighting) could be used to augment the recessed cans and chandelier. It would give another layer of light which is also very helpful when you want to change the mood.

Dimmers and perhaps home automation (eg- ZigBee, Z-Wave, ...) could also be used.

Talk to your local lighting designers to get some ideas.

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