I have a 12×24 foot living room. In the “center” of the room right now is a ceiling fan with 5 lights on it. It is the only source of light. I want to add recessed lighting to the room. The goal is to have the room illuminated by the recessed lighting and get a new fan (w/o lights).
I was thinking 2 parallel rows of lights with 4 lights each. My questions are:
– are eight lights enough?
– 4″ or 6″ cans?
– how far in from the walls should the lights be?
I’m not concerned with “spotlighting” any artwork or anything on the walls. I just want an evenly illuminated room. Is what I suggest good enough? Am I too short-sighted here?
I’ve attached a layout of the room.
Replies
all good lighting catalogues have diagrams and charts to tell you just how to lay out a room..
Graingers has the charts..
some good lighting showrooms will help you do the layout..
it depends on the room, the cans, the trims, the bulbs and the lenses..
also.. dimmers never hurt
Unless you have a tall ceiling, 4" or 5" lights will be less obtrusive. What's above? If it's insulation, you will need IC-rated cans.
For 8 nlights, I would use two switches so that you could turn on fewer lights, maybe leaving one end of the room darker for the tv, or maybe lighting over the table or someething.
What about low voltage small-head track lights?
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Ditto Mike Smith's post.
Trim and bulbs seem to be the biggest variable. Bear in mind you will never achieve perfectly even light using cans (and you may not want it).
2 rows of 6 cans 4' on center and 4' off the walls yields an apparent "even" light pattern, however, the charts and coverage cones for each trim style & bulb combination need to be consulted due to overlapping cones. I lean toward 6" cans due to wide variety of trim / bulb combinations readily available.
Leviton dimmers are very nice and unobtrusive -- miniature slide dimmer next to a standard toggle switch, fits in a standard toggle type switch cover plate. Note - all dimmers require a good amount of switch box space - big!
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Here's a cool hole cutter:
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/RoundHoleCutter.jsp
Billy
As others have suggested, a quality lighting store is the one to do a site visit and advise the size, number and placement. If using a 6" can and a regular white baffle trim I might use 8 cans coming off the walls at the corners 36-42", equally filling in with the remaining cans. However joist location is the screwer. That and you want to stay away from a ceiling fan at least a foot from the blade path to keep from the stroboscopic effect. You can cheat a few inches on centers and no one will pick it up.
I try to center on doorways, windows, that woodburner and other points of interest when possible. You have the opportunity to switch these in any configuration you wish and the use of dimmers is the ticket for mood lighting. There are some very nice new options from Juno in trims, more than just a regular can. If you go the old style route, lose the trims in the ceiling by going with white.
Be prepared for some serious patching or perhaps a complete ceiling job, you could have swiss cheese running across the joist spaces and running the switching.
Best of luck.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Edited 6/16/2005 8:57 pm ET by calvin
Thanks all for the suggestions. I have a lighting store near my house so I'll see what they have to offer. Placing the lights on two dimmers is a great idea as well. I was going to put all the lights on one switch. I like the idea of splitting the room up. There's no tv in the room (it's in the family room) so I'm not concerned with that. We may get lamps for the end tables for accent lighting...not sure yet (I don't want them, wife does...I think she's going to win...as always).I'm in the process of renovating the room so patchwork is not a problem. I was planning on running the wire behind the new crown moulding. Has anyone done this? This would help alleviate the need to cut holes in all the joists. It's a first floor ceiling with no insulation also.I was also thinking of using some eyeball trim on some of the lights to provide directional accent lights. I did consider small track lighting but it wouldn't fit with the decor. We plan on decorating it with a traditional furniture style and track just screams contemporary to me. I'm not against track lighting; I'll be using it in my home office.
I did a similar project last year. My family room is 13x19 (9' ceilings) with a fireplace in the middle of the long wall, and the entry door in the corner on the short wall. We do have a TV in the room though.
I used 10 - 6" cans in two rows on three dimmers. Two banks of four lights at each end, and two wall wash in the middle (focused on the fireplace and an "art" wall) on the third switch. I find we use the wall wash a little less than one or the other zone. It tends to shine into your eyes if you sit in the middle of the sofa across from the fireplace. We also had to tilt the mirror over the FP a little so it would not reflect the can in the ceiling.
Be ready to fix the ceiling. My ceiling went from under a bedroom to insulated open to the attic and the joists changed from 12" on center (very tight for the 6" cans) to 16 on center under the attic. Had an extra hole to patch.
Use an electricians's long (48") bit to bore through the ceiling joists. Its not that bad, just be sure you don't let the bit wander up too far and drill into the room upstairs. Once you get into the joist bay where one light is at, use a snake to pull a wire across the ceiling to the can on the other side of the same bay.
Think about running a 14-3 to the fan - even if you ditch the light fixture. Coil off and tag the extra wire. Just in case.
I ran surround sound wire under the crown we put up and I was terrified that I was going to nail the cable. Managed to miss it, but with mounting blocks cut to the angle of the back of the molding, it was tight.
Don't forget that if you gang together dimmers, their rating goes down (ie two 600 watt dimmers ganged together will be something around 500 watts each, three the end ones will be 500, and the middle might be 400 watts).
Lots of good stuff out here in netland. I found a local source for ICAT (in contact air tight) cans that was reasonable (maybe $10?) and a site called http://www.usalight.com/ where I bought some trims and bulbs. Some good deals for a one time type buy.
For the few extra dollars, use air tight cans, even in a ceiling with a floor above. I have a can that is not AT in a bath that has a second floor bath above it and you get a draft from the can all the time. Not so much fun.
Don't forget to get your kids involved somehow. My youngest (then 4 1/2) thought for a long time that every bit of drywall dust needed to be cleaned up with a plumbers flux brush as that was her job to help with the wiring. She had a lot to do after I sanded the newly skim-coated ceiling with a dust(less) drywall sander from Porter Cable.
Good luck with your project.
Your mind already set on even lighting with cans? Mike's thread has the answer.
May be you want to reconsider the whole lighting scheme to make things more interesting and practical?