Lighting layout...really need feedback on this plan!

10 years ago

Can anyone help me with my lighting plan? The electrician came today and I tried to mock up on here the rough lighting layout we came up with. He's coming back tomorrow to wire it, yikes! I'm nervous now, I have no idea if this amount of recessed lighting is adequate. They had that "its totally up to you how many recessed lights you want" attitude, not very helpful, but at least not pushy, just...blah.

The small red & yellow circles are 4" recessed lights...I'm supposed to tell them what kind of lighting I want in those cans, but they balked when I mentioned LED, apparently that was not factored into original estimate and they are $50 ea for bulbs. Not sure that's something I want to upgrade to? Does anyone do incandescent lights anymore? They mentioned fluorescent and halogen too...don't think I want those, but how do I know? Any recs for what type of lighting in these cans that wont blow the budget?

The larger yellow circles are wiring for pendants/chandeliers. I know I want wiring for a chandelier over the dining table.

I'm not sure about island vs. peninsula lighting. I'm thinking a single lantern type pendant over my island. My inspiration photos have this. The island is small (24x54) so any more than 1 would be too cramped I think.
But, is that enough lighting? Do I need more cans?/ Would you put pendants over the peninsula or a pendant over the sink? I'll have a 70" window bumpout there, thought a little pendant might look nice...?

But I don't want to over do anything. I like the idea of having one or 2 really nice light fixtures in this fairly open concept.

Please advise!
There will be wiring for sconces flanking fireplace, not sure if I'm going to use them or not.

Oh, and then theres UCL they want me to pick. soon.

I admittedly haven't searched the forum to death on this yet. Everytime I do a search & start reading, this topic blows my mind. I was going to just let the electrician decide but he wasn't as helpful or knowledgeable as I had hoped for. Just hoping someone would be kind enough to give me some specifics, or point me to the best place to quickly educate myself on this...thanks!

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Comments (4)

calumin
10 years ago
You should read through this thread from the Lighting forum:

LED recessed cans guide for kitchen

The short version of the thread is that LED is a great option for kitchens now, and that Cree CR4 (4") and CR6 (6") are the best LED recessed lights for the price. Home Depot sells a version (EcoSmart) for ~$35-40, with the can will be about ~$50 total.

To get a very rough ballpark estimate of how much light (lumens) you need, take the square footage and multiply by 35. You could go higher but that could serve as a baseline for all lighting. I ended up 50% over that baseline amount but am happy I did that, and have dimmers if necessary (I also don't have all the lights on at once).

The issue you will have with LED recessed lights is the cans. If your electrician is wiring them tomorrow, then you might not be able to get cans at the store -- I had to buy mine online. Cans and recessed lamps are not always interchangeable -- you have to test them first. The thread lists some cans that are compatible with Cree CR4/6. You could just go to Home Depot and get a different LED light like Juno -- but I found the Cree light to be much brighter. I bought 4" recessed lights and it was great -- however if there was less light output (e.g. from another brand) I would have rather gone to 6" to keep the lumen output high.

On the UCLs, one word of advice is to buy them early. I bought TechLighting UniLume which took three weeks to arrive. This thread may help:

led ucl continuation
Cindy103d
10 years ago
I love recessed lights in the kitchen, but am less excited about them in the dining and living rooms. Maybe because it takes so many of them to light the rooms. Your kitchen looks like it may be a little short on the number needed, but follow Calumin's advice to read the guide.

We started out with compact flourescent bulbs, but they are expensive, burn out much faster than good old incadescent and pose an environmental disposal problem. So, we reverted back to incadescent until they are officially outlawed. I LOVE the LEDs, but wow - are they ever expensive.
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buildinva
10 years ago
We just installed 50 (yikes!) EcoSmart Cree LED cans in our build. Do not regret it a bit. They are contemporary and beautiful and the light is great. I used a 10% off Lowes coupon @ HD to help with cost. I used the soft white because that's what I prefer. Beautiful color.

It's true, however, that cans do not spread the light the way ceiling lights do. I would probably use a flush mount ceiling light and lamps in your family room and skip or reduce the number of cans there. You also want to think about "eyeball" cans to spotlight any art you plan to feature. And depending on the chandelier you are using over the table, you may not need cans in those corners.

Finally, I'll give you the advice my contractor gave me when I was so nervous about creating the lighting plan and making mistakes: everything is changeable. If you install something and hate it, you can have it taken out. If you don't end up with enough light, you can have more added. Nothing *truly* bad will happen if you change your mind later!

HTH!
tracie.erin
10 years ago
We've renovated and put a ton of lights in. The thing with recessed lights is that they need to be close enough to a vertical surface so the light is washed down that surface. If not, the light just hits the floor. It's the difference between actually lighting up the room or not.

We found that 18" away from the wall (or cabinets, fireplace) etc. was perfect so the light could wash down the wall and bounce back into the room.

When we started the project, we did 21" or 24" from the wall, which is way too far away. The dining room, kitchen, and office are still too dark :/ at least we have pendants, chandeliers, and lighted ceiling fans in those rooms too.