The trim ring is all you need. Lights like the Cree CR6 have the trim ring already attached and outperform BR style LEDs.

Your local HD may have the CR6 at a special price.

Thanks. At $45 each we would spend about $2000 on light bulbs. Ouch!

I guess we will go with the old incandescent flood lights and a separate trim ring. Then buy LEDs a few at a time.

Peke

David, this post is more specific about what we have.

Halo H27T- 75W-R30, 100W-R30, 150W-R40, 60W-A19, 75W-Par30
(These are in the great room. Somehow we got 3 different from the rest of the cans.)

Halo-H27ICAT- 75W-Par30 or Par30L, 150W-Par38, 65 or 60W-BR30, 50W-Par30 or Par30L, 50W-R20 or Par20, 40W-A19, 35W-Par30L. (12 of these mixed with the 3 wrong cans so 15 total.)

Here is a picture of the great room. It is 30' by 27'. It is an inside room but open to the left and right rooms. 1 is a kitchen with a 48" window and the other is the living room with 3 windows that are 78" by 81". The great room has no floor plugs to plug in table lamps. 5 cans are on a sloped ceiling but the electrician did not buy the correct sloped ceiling cans. He only bought shallow cans.

What size/kind, lumens, BR, Par, etc do we need until we can afford the LEDs you suggested? We won't buy trim rings since we will buy the CR6s eventually. Thanks,
Peke

This is the kitchen area taken when standing in the great room. There are 2 beams in the ceiling. The darker beam is the start of the kitchen. It is about 10' by 20'. There are 8 shallow cans...not sloped cans so the lights are at an angle away from the countertops. 8 cans lights in slope plus 2 over the sink. I also need to know the size/kind, lumens, etc for the ceiling lights.

I think I need some undercabinet lights since I don't think the cans will illuminate the countertop. What do you suggest for undercabinet lights? There are 28" of counter, then 48" window with sink, then 36" of counter, 42" vent hood with 3 -50 watt halogens (Broan E6042TSS) then 30" of countertop. So not much undercabinet lighting, but I need some. What do you suggest for those? An LED bar?

Thank you for any help. I just don't know what to buy. Peke

Great room

kitchen

Living room has 3 windows 78" by 81". Lots of daytime light. What kinds/sizes, lumens, etc would I use here?

Room is 15' by 25'. 10 can lights in a flat ceiling that is maybe an inch short of 8'. We are putting 2 ceiling fans in there. Don't know if they will have light kits since the ceiling is so low.

Thanks for your help. Peke

The thing is that by the time you buy all those trim rings and incandescent BR30s, you will sink $20-$25 per can. That is more than half way to a Cree CR6-like solution - which is integrated into the trim. (So the incandescent trim you just paid $15/can for gets tossed.) If you live in an area where the LED downlight replacements are not subsidized, check out ebay.

This post was edited by wws944 on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 14:02

The recessed led can guide has more information. I would suggest shopping around your local HD and Lowes as they might have store specific promotions.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lighting/msg010127153310.html?121

If a space is used extensively at night, you'd need to ligh it accordingly. If a smaller subsection needs better lighting, floor standing or table lamps would be usable.

As for ucl, hard wired lighting would be cheaper in general.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lighting/msg1223052432349.html?42

We only have Lowes and they do not have much. We are 2.5 hours from a large city so not much selection. I usually buy off internet for that reason. Our Lowes only has the $6.00 plastic trim rings and they do not have the ones I wanted.

I would rather not buy any trim rings until I can get LEDs.

We were trying to get the light bulbs because we are having trouble picking a paint color. The light bulbs we have make every paint sample look yellow or gold. We have such a mixture of bulbs...cfl warm, LED daylight, etc.

Thanks again, Peke

The color temperature of ~ 2700k (soft white) is yellowish. A higher color temperature > 3000K will be whiter.

The good thing is that the Cree CR series are now available in the 3500k color temperature (slightly whiter than the Sylvania RT series available from Lowes) and at a higher output (625 vs 575 lumens).

The great room should do well with the 3500k CR6 series or similar lights.

If dimmers are used, the max output will be reduced by 5%.

The Sylvania RT series also work with cans ~ 5.5" in depth.