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Lighting Design Dilemma

Recessed lights and ceiling fans

6 years ago

Our small 900 square foot 5-room home has a serious lighting (or lack of lighting) problem. Only the kitchen/dining room and bathroom have built in lights. We desperately need to add lights to the living room area and two bedrooms.

We are considering recessed lights in the living room and main bedroom, but one issue is that every room in the house (except the bathroom) has a ceiling fan.

Can we add recessed lights to rooms that have ceiling fans and if so, what is the best way to do so? I want to ensure that the fan blades don't interfere with the light cast by the can lights. The house is pretty small, rooms are pretty small, and ceilings are standard height.

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Comments (3)

PRO
Barnes Custom Builders
6 years ago
Do you have to keep the fans? If not, just have the electrician remove them when they are installing the recessed cans. If you need the fans, the electrician can help you place the cans so that the light will not be interrupted by the fan.

Or you can swap the fan with a ceiling light fixture.
Kari P thanked Barnes Custom Builders
Kari P
Original Author
6 years ago
While I'm not 100% dead set on keeping the fans, they are really helpful with air circulation. We are going to do the work ourselves with the help of my partner's dad, who is a master electrician but a far cry from an interior designer, so while he will be helpful with making sure all of the wiring is safe and to code, I don't know how great he will be at helping us lay out the position of the cans - we kind of need to have a plan before he comes over to help us.
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May times when someone wants to use ceiling fans, the recessed lighting is placed around the perimeter of the room. It can get tricky with the ceiling fans. I've seen where a fan was installed too close to the recessed cans and the flickering drove me nuts. If you want a quicker answer than waiting for the lighting book that you ordered, you may want to go to a lighting showroom and speak with someone there. They should be able to give you several suggestions. In the dining room, are you going to put a light kit on the fan to illuminate the table? If so, you won't need to have recessed cans close to it. The cans can be placed around the perimeter and you will be surprised at the amount of light that reflects back into the room. If the kitchen fan is going to be over the eat-in area, the same question applies. Will you have a light kit? With vaulted ceilings my main concern is where is the ceiling fan outlet going to be located. If it is not centered in the room, you are going to have to know the pitch so that you get the right fan and the right length of rod so that the blades don't hit anything.
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If you are using LED downlights in the kitchen, which it looks like they are , then you have enough light in the kitchen using the lights you have at the moment. There is a formula that can be used to work out the amount of light needed. It is a rule of thumb formula that we use in our business and we find it is quite successful. If you measure the size of a room and let us say a room is 4 m x 4 m giving 16 SQM you then multiply that by 70-100. (100 if you need lots of light) So 16 SQM x 100 is 1600. This means the room would need 1600 lumens. Any half decent downlight or globe will have a lumen count on the box. Therefore if the downlight output is 800 lumens then 2 downlights would in enough. You then do need to consider placement of the lights but generally this formula works well. Hope this is of some help.
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@RL Relocation LLC I definitely got a black and gold fan (ha!!!), but I’ll be sure to tell the electrician to not drop it so low. I live in a very hot city so the fan is a must. Thank you for the advice! @3onthetree I‘m living through renovations and haven’t had furniture for a year and a half. I guess I have to buy furniture based on this new layout 😭 yeah, the room is awkward because of that dang “foyer”…thank you to you as well! @fissfiss haha! I agree. Thank you. He actually did a good job! I bought the globe smart wifi lights and they are amazing!!!! I tried a dimmer, but I think I need the one they make specifically…normal dimmers don’t work because the lights are dimmable through the app as well. I can change the colors and everything and they’re LED, super slim too! Never thought I’d be so excited about lighting lol
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mmilos
6 years ago
You can get a battery operated puck light, and hold it up to position to see if you get any interference from the blades. If you keep a distance away, I'm sure it will work with the fans. Or, get a light kit for the fan.

I would try to solve your lighting needs with portable table and floor lamps first, especially in the bedrooms and living room. Just using overhead lighting from recessed cans is not good lighting design - it's not very flattering and looks more institutional.

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