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saune_gw

Lighting for new home

saune
13 years ago

Hi! We are in the process of building a new home (MN). We are not yet to lighting, but it's coming and I don't want to screw this up. Our plan is pretty open with big windows and some 18' ceilings. Basement has few windows and will be pretty dark. I like the look of LED recessed lights, but I'm not sure where they are appropriate. What should I keep in mind as we choose our lighting? Thank you!

Comments (7)

  • pussuskattus
    13 years ago

    We are almost done building our new house and we have an open floor plan, too, with a lot of windows (but no basements - I moved from IL to Houston and I miss my basement!)

    Here are a few hints:
    1) Builders NEVER put enough lights in a house. It's an easy way to keep the cost down up front. We practically doubled the number of recessed lights from the initial plan.

    2) Layers, layers, layers. Again, it costs more to wire up several layers of lights - more circuits and more switches, and more complicated, but I love having the ability to turn on just a few lights in the early AM while I am waking up, or a lot of lights when I get home from work and want a cheerful, bright environment.

    3) A lighting designer is something we did NOT do, but I wish I had. I was afraid that I would have to buy my fixtures from their store, and it could get very expensive. If I had it to do over again, I would at least go to a designer and get a rough estimate on how much it would cost to do a whole-house plan. It might have been a lot less than I feared.

    As to your question on the LED recessed lights, my personal opinion is that it is a good idea on paper, but not yet really good in reality. Mostly, by the time you get enough LED recessed lights to get your room light enough, it could be really, really, expensive. CFL's have come a long way, and they can be used in the standard lighting "can" that can also take incandescents. So my suggestion there is - be very very careful on a big commitment to a fairly new technology unless it can also be used on proven technology.

    Good luck!

  • DavidR
    13 years ago

    As you can probably tell from my other posts on this board, IMO the worst error that homebuilders make is installing recessed cans everywhere. They are good for highlighting room features, not for general illumination.

    Cans are currently fashionable, which is probably why they use them. But surface mount and hanging fixtures are much better (and more economical) for general lighting.

  • saune
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for your input, I will take it all into consideration! (Hmmm...not sure I even knew there were lighting designers!)

  • pussuskattus
    13 years ago

    I, unfortunately, agree with davidr that we should not have used as many recessed lights as we did. But my DH and I hate rooms that are dark, and picking out light fixtures and table lamps, well, that takes time. Recesssed cans are easy and we took the easy way out. And those are the kind of mistakes a lighting designer might have helped us avoid.

    You should be able to find a lighting designer at some of the real lighting stores. I bet they would work for a per-hour fee, or a per-square-foot fee. They should be able to help with the right balance of recessed lights, table and floor lamps, under-cabinet lighting, pendants, etc. I do not believe their designs would require any particular fixture - you should be able to do that without the lighting designer, later on when you are at the decorating stage.

    I do suggest you ensure they put enough outlets in - and consider whether you want those outlets switched or not. That's another convenience of the recessed lights - flip a switch and they are on. If you don't plan for switched outlets for the table and floor lamps, then you have to walk around and turn them on - inconvenient.

    But I do have to say that I do regret not having more pendants and sconces - there are some really gorgeous ones out there!

    Don't forget dimmers. I have heard there are CFL's that work fairly well with dimmers (I hope, so - I have some CFL-only sconces that need to be on a dimmer in the home theater), but that is a good question to discuss with the lighting designer - or your electrician.

    And the time to design the lighting plan is as early as possible! I hope your drywall isn't up yet - it's a lot harder to change the plan after the walls are closed up.

    Yep, building a house is a lot of work - but when you are done, it will be your creation, not someone else's idea of what you should want.

    And don't stress too much - enjoy it.

  • polar_sean
    13 years ago

    I would tend to disagree with davidr about the use of recessed ceiling lighting. Our LED downlight products from Cree and Halo all have wide beam angles, in the 70+ degree range, that when spaced properly provide very good general illumination. When installed on a dimmer or on multiple circuits they can provide a lot of flexibility in how much light a room receives. "Spotlights" have a beam angle of less than 25 degrees and can be used in cans for highlighting objects directly below them, or on a wall when using an eyeball trim, but are typically not used in cans unless the buyer just doesn't buy the proper type of bulb. If one couples their recessed lighting with task lighting to provide more illumination on work surfaces, reading areas etc. then things can work out pretty well. One issue to be aware of if you have a lot of recessed lighting is how "quiet" the ceiling looks. In other words, when you walk into a room do you see a bunch of bright points of light all across the ceiling as opposed to a ceiling that looks relatively homogeneous across the space. Looking for lights that are deeper recessed can help considerably with this. I'm not a lighting designer so this is just my two cents from dealing with a lot of our LED lighting converts!

  • saune
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks, everyone, for your input! I appreciate taking your time to respond. Definitely a lot to think about.

  • nakeme
    9 years ago

    I have recently redesign my home & i have installed chandelier in every room. The benefit of using chandelier is that it looks beautiful plus gives a lot of brightness in the room. You can also try this.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Chandeliers