I’m planning on putting in Lotus 4” recessed gimbals throughout my living/kitchen area. These lights are really impressive as they only require 2.5” of ceiling clearance and this is key because I have shallow rafters. They are secured with spring clips to the ceiling. They are very bright at 1000 lumens and have a nice medium-wide beam angle. There’s a small transformer box sits on the drywall. These are insulated rated, and most importantly, even in proximity to foam insulation, unlike ICAT housings.

There are a number of brands producing these lights in gimbals (lotus, elite, gm, aspectled), but most are 3”/600 lumen. I see this style of light getting more and more popular, especially for remodel. I looked at the slimmest new construction housings and the WAC housing (3.5”) is over $200 per box. Nora has a 4” box but in testing the light I found it did not have a good beam angle (despite their claim of 60 degrees). And it got hot to the touch. These lights have better placement options than a new construction box.

We are building boxes (8x8x2.5”) to create a void for the lights around the foam insulation. This has been signed off by the GC and master electrician. They will be installed in the rafter bays and then hole saw the cutouts and stuff everything inside. This allows 4.5” on insulation between the box and roof deck.

The plan is to install these in just a few days but tell me where I”m going wrong. The major downside I see is the cutout is not standard. These cutouts are 4 1/8”, but many others are in the 3-“ range, so worst case scenario is I’m in for some drywall work. If they fail down the road in 5, 10 years, you may have to replace them all. But I’m confident the options then are going to accommodate the are just going to get better and more compact.