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kitchen and family room lighting design: 4" or 6" cans

8 years ago

I am attempting to finalize the lighting design and have come up with
couple of designs, incorporating 4" and 6" cans. Kitchen has Java
Cherry (dark) cabinets with under/over cabinet lighting, light granite
countertop, and travertine floor, with 10ft ceilings. A few questions I
have are..

4" (575 lumens) or 6" (800 lumens) cans with dimmers? Can one mix and match?
Does 4" cans provide sufficient light (575 lumens) ?
Should the cans be placed along the countertop edge even with under cabinet lighting?
Ideal separation between cans for even illumination?

Below are some images. First image is a 3D. Second image is
lighting with 4" cans followed by image with 6" cans. Appreciate all
the help and guidance. Thank you.

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Comments (3)

David
8 years ago
Dimmers are very helpful.

Mix and matching sizes may work in certain circumstances only.

575 lumens works.

Ideally, the light should be placed inside of the counter top. However, this may not be possible due to a variety of reasons

1. location of ceiling joist(s).

2. Insufficient clearance above the ceiling board

Yes, UCL will more than compensate.

Ideal separation - depends on the light put in, how many holes/ cans are acceptable.
kaubbs thanked David
kaubbs
Original Author
8 years ago
Hi David

Ideally, I would like to either go with all 4" or 6" cans. I was persuaded not to use 4" cans as the light output might not be sufficient for 10' ceilings. I am leaning towards Cree CR6 lamps (3000K, 800L, with Legrand Adorne dimmer switch), if I do decide to go with 6" cans or CR4 for 4". My electrician recomends a generic brand (Electric Zone, 3000K, 1200L).

With UCL, would the cans still need to be placed within countertop edge (25.5" in my case)?

I visited a few lighting stores locally and almost all of them placed the lights (cans) in a grid pattern over the walkways, which is contrary to what the correct practice should be as highlighted in the houzz and garden web forums.

I am attempting to get a good lighting balance balance and not over do it. Appreciate the help and guidance.
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David
8 years ago
HomeDepot in your locale may have CR6 lamps at a discount. The performance of LED lamps from different vendors (sylvania, cree, halo, ...) varies - the dimming range, actual output, color temp, ...

With UCL, the cans could be placed up to 32" away since the UCL will provide better lighting than distant overhead lamps.

A grid pattern is actually more desirable - easier for the contractor to layout, less of a random cheese hole pattern.

However, there are exceptions that need to be made from time to time. For example an extra/ repositioned can to provide better lighting at the sink. Or a ceiling joist is in the way.

More in the attached thread. NB - quite a number of the tidbits have nothing to do with LED.

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kaubbs thanked David

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