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Suggestions?Lighting Basements

Recessed Lights in Family Room

4 years ago

I have a long narrow room that measures roughly 29 feet long and 10 feet wide of actual ceiling. Two and half feet of the width is a soffit which contains an air duct making the actual width of the room 12.5 feet.
We currently have two ceiling fans with lights which make the ceiling seem lower. The ceiling height is roughly 7-8 feet high. I want to remove the ceiling fans and add recessed lights to add more general light to the room because it feels really dark.
It has a finished ceiling, and the contractor is talking of WAC 3000k led lights FM-306-930-WT. If this light goes out, I would need to replace the fixture which makes me worry years down the road when this specific model is no longer available.
I would like to do 10 lights. Suggestions on lights, sizes and spacing? Thank you!

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Comments (7)

HU-955941711
4 years ago
LED fixtures are advertised as lasting 50,000 hours of use. That'd be 15 to 25 years for me. The exact fixture may not be available that long but something similar enough probably will.

JM$.02W
wdccruise
4 years ago
Those WAC lights are surface-mount, not recessed: FM-306-930-WT specs

The Juno Slimform is flat and shallower.
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Dimmers will definitely mitigate the risk of overlighting, but I don't know if they will get you to the effect in your inspiration pic. Are the 6" recessed fixtures the only lighting he's recommending? It is hard to tell from your inspiration pic, but it looks like there is uplighting on top of the stone fireplace surround, and possibly downlighting washing down the stone as well. If so, it was nicely done as there aren't any real "hot spots" as can sometimes happen. The time of day might also be contributing to the effect in the pic. You can see high on the left wall a patch of sunlight through the high windows, and the trees in the distance are lit from the side--I think the pic was taken late in the day, which is making the room especially photogenic.
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mike_kaiser_gw
4 years ago
I’m a little confused because the title of your post is “recessed” yet the product you mention is a flush (surface) mount. Personally I don’t like the current crop of fixtures that replace bulbs with an integral LED that can’t be serviced or replaced. It’s not if the fixture will fail, but rather when and I don’t have a lot of confidence in things lasting the 20+ years that some manufacturers claim.

If you want a recessed fixture, then put in a recessed fixture and use either an LED bulb or one of the “retrofit” modules than are commonly available, inexpensive, and easy to replace.
Megan S
Original Author
4 years ago
That is my fault. I guess they would not be recessed lights... but surface mount. I am thinking of getting the remodel recessed lights vs the surface mount. I think in the end I would prefer actual recessed lights.
wdccruise
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
"I want to remove the ceiling fans and add recessed lights to add more general light to the room..."

The WAC and Juno surface-mount fixtures mentioned above can (very likely) be attached to the existing ceiling electrical boxes after the fans are removed. Recessed lights will require that the electrical boxes be removed, and housings (for recessed lights) or no-housing recessed lights be installed in their place. This will require more work than using the surface-mount lights.

The surface-mount lights are so cheap (I used Halo SMD* in a bathroom so I didn't have to remove the old electrical box) that you might just try them and switch to the recessed if you later find them unsatisfactory.

*Halo SMD 4", Halo SMD 5-6".
Megan S
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you. The problem with only putting lights where are existing lighted ceiling fans are is that it would still be too dark. That is the current problem I am facing. I understand it is more work, but I need more lighting in that long and narrow room. I want to do it right since the original homeowner failed to install many lights.

So I have an air duct that runs the length of the room. How does one space lights next to that?
wdccruise
4 years ago
"The problem with only putting lights where are existing lighted ceiling fans are is that it would still be too dark."

Then remove the electrical boxes that held the fans, replace with recessed fixtures, and add as many additional recessed fixtures as you need.

OR

The surface mount fixtures (e.g. Halo SMD) can be installed into electrical boxes and recessed housings. You could use those fixtures with the fans' electrical boxes and into recessed housings you add IF you don't mind having surface-mount fixtures instead of recessed.

"So I have an air duct that runs the length of the room. How does one space lights next to that?"

Someone will have to look inside the ceiling to check the duct's location and whether there is space for recessed lights and wires. There are canless lights that require only a small amount of vertical space inside the ceiling (example: Commercial Electric 91277 Ultra Slim 4in. Selectable New Construction and Remodel Canless Recessed Integrated LED Kit for shallow ceiling)

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