Recessed Lighting Trim & Housing - Please help!
Lindsey Brady
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kudzu9
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Please help with recessed lighting
Comments (2)If you have access to the area above the ceiling, you can use "New Construction" housings, otherwise you'll need "Remodel" housings. If there is insulation near the housing, make sure that the housing is IC rated. 5 or 6 inch trims usually use a BR30 bulb, which uses the same screw in socket of standard light bulbs. If you dropped down to 4 inch cans, the bulbs are often smaller halogen bulbs....See MorePlease Help me with my Recessed Lighting! (Alzak? Halogen? 6 in?)
Comments (3)First you have to know what the inulation is over your ceiling. You will be limited to the wattage for insulated ceilings unless you are using batts and not blown insulation. My most favorite light solution in a kitchen is the deep alzack refelctors (deep)They use regular A lamps and if you purchase good quality ones, they spread the light out wonderfully and have a great cut off anlgle which controls glare. IF you buy cheap specular trims and the bulbs sit low in the trim, it is very bad. Juno and Lightolier both make deep alzack trim. Not sure about Halo, haven't sold them in a while. The very best ones in my opinion were made by prescolite but they can be hard to find. On an 8ft ceiling you will not need more than 75 Watts. Another tip has to do with the bulbs. While I am a big proponant of 130 V long life bulbs, they are slightly more red than the 120's. What works the absolute best in a good alzack reflector is a soft white, sometimes called reader white bulb. Use these with a dimmer to extend the life of the bulb and adjust the dimmer whenever you don't need all the light. Recessed lighting can be confusing and with all the bulb changes coming, even more so in the future. The LED bulbs that were suggested are great for energy savings and also they never burn out. I still find them strange however for lighting kitchens and the deep alzack trims are not designed for anything but an A lamp.If you buy a reflector trim and then use either a Par or R lamp, you wasted your money. As to spacing, IF you are lighting any room other than a kitchen then 4 deep alzack reflectors with 75-100 watts iis fine for general lighting. Kitchens are more comlicated since we need both general and task lighitng. I would use 6 if that room is a kitchen making sure that you have all the work areas covered. In a kitchen if you place the recessed cans 18" from the wall, the light will fall on the counter surface and also illuminate the cabinet doors and inside spaces when open. Don't forget to have lighting over any island work space. Use undercabinet lights under your counters. That is a good application for LEDS. The Alzack refelctors will cover about 6 ft of area of that 8 ft ceiling. On higher ceilings the area of light increases, but the footcandle level will be lower on thework surface. Tall ceilings need 100 Watt A lamps but 8 & 9 can usse 75 watt. Whatever you use, be sure that it meets you local electrical code. Don't be bullied into just whatever the contractor likes. Sounds like you found a good showroom where you were getting good information. Perhaps you could purchase the recessed there, where you may be getting professinal advice. Remember most Electricians are not lighting designers!...See MorePlease help with recessed lighting
Comments (8)I didn't mean to imply that incandescent bulbs would be preferable, only that I know more about them. 5" cans will typically accept PAR-30 halogen bulbs. Some can/trim combinations can take 75 watt bulbs, some only 50 watts. The 50-watt PAR bulb would produce about the same amount of light that the R30 fluorescents do, but use three times as much electricity and produce a tighter beamspread. The 75-watt version would produce almost twice as much light. Dimming incandescents is easy - pretty much any old dimmer will do. Dimming fluorescents is trickier, and whether it's possible depends on the ballast that drives the bulb. Screw-in CFLs each have their own individual ballast, which is housed in the plastic base that the ends of the tubes plug into. If you want to dim CFLs, you need to buy special "dimmable" bulbs. It's my understanding that some can be dimmed with common, everyday dimmers and that some require a special type of dimmer, but this really isn't one of my stronger areas of understanding....See MoreRecessed lighting trim color?? Photos please :)
Comments (4)In our home theater room (dark gray/black ceiling) we painted the trim black but didn't like the look and ended up buying new white trims. In my opinion the trim piece looks best if left alone (doesn't need to match)even if your ceiling isn't white. Its a similar anology to when you paint wallswitches instead of leaving them white--yes the blend in better, but it looks homemade IMO....See MoreRL Relocation LLC
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