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schicksal_gw

Kitchen Lighting Design

schicksal
10 years ago

I'm trying to work out a lighting design for our kitchen. I read the huge LED recessed cans guide, and would like to use 6" edison base cans and it sounds like Cree CR6 bulbs are the way to go. One thing that's unclear is whether the inside of the actual can gets covered up by the bulb so there's no need to worry about trim or anything?

Other things that may or may not matter... I plan on dimming with Adorne dimmers:
http://www.legrand.us/adorne/select/dimmers/adth700mmtum2.aspx#.UlYA0RDDt8E
Ceilings are 8 feet high. The kitchen has no exterior walls. The closest windows are in the family room and dining room, to the top and right of the kitchen on the diagram respectively. Other lighting not shown is undercabinet and toe kick lighting. The solid pair of lines above the peninsula is a header between the two rooms; at this point it's unclear how low it will be but I'm assuming standard door height. Lighting came out to 35 lumens per square foot., ignoring all other light sources. Since the kitchen and family room are open to each other, does this change the amount of recessed lighting I need?

Here are the pictures... I appreciate any thoughts and comments!

Here's another shot to help get an idea of the layout of the area. The number of columns is still to be determined, depending on what we find once the wall that's currently between the kitchen and family room goes away...

Comments (12)

  • Karen15
    10 years ago

    What website did you use to create this?

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    The CAD model was made in Sketchup. The 2D layout was made in OpenOffice Draw. Draw was a little bit of a challenge to make cooperate; I had to add dimensions on my own and scale down feet/inches from the model to fit the page layout within the program. A few cells to do the calculations in a spreadsheet made that easy.

    Both programs are free to download and use :)

  • David
    10 years ago

    The CR6 includes the trim, so nothing on the can insides will be visible.

    One section will be more brightly lit than the other. If you need to have a uniformly lit common area on occasion, perhaps, consider shifting some of the lighting from recessed cans to another lighting layer/ source (e.g. - UCL).

    If necessary, you could reduce the number of cans since the bulk of the lighting is necessary for working surfaces.

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks! I may be misunderstanding, but what about changing them all to CR4s @ 575 lumens each, and consolidating the 2x3 row from the end of the peninsula to the pantry into one row? The three lights off the main pattern by the entry hall and hall to the bedrooms at the bottom / bottom left would stay the same. Or would that make things worse? I planned on having toe kick and undercabinet lighting all around.

  • David
    10 years ago

    There is little difference between the CR4 and CR6 variant rated @575 lumens aside from the aperture size.

    Installation wise, the CR4 might be challenging for people with big hands depending on the recessed can housing used.

    It would make more sense to consolidate the 2 x 3 row into a 1 x 3. The loss of lighting can be made up with UCL.

    Toe kick lighting will be accent lighting and not contribute to work space lighting. It will be nice if properly executed.

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks!!! Let me make changes and re-post the picture later this evening so I can be sure I understand everything. If I do that it sounds like the pendant, overhead and undercabinet lighting will need to be on the same switch now, otherwise there may be odd shadows?

  • David
    10 years ago

    No. Separate circuits.

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Here's the new version with measurements. Not sure what I was thinking about the switching... all three switches are right next to each other in both locations, along with one that will control the overhead lighting in the family room adjacent to it.

    I'm tempted to bring up the row of three that are fully in the kitchen area to halfway between the bottom and top row to even them up. Everything should be pretty fully dimensioned in the drawing... Thanks again!

    This post was edited by schicksal on Sun, Oct 13, 13 at 21:52

  • David
    10 years ago

    It would be better to have the lights properly aligned as far as possible. The final layout could be affected by the location and layout of the ceiling joists.

    The toe kick lighting could be kept on a separate circuit. That way, you could light up floor with only the toe kick lighting.

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I've been thinking - would it be crazy to eliminate the 2x3 row on the left hand side, and perhaps carry the one row through the kitchen, then have a light (in line with the pattern) at the entry hall and bedroom hall entrance?

    I'm also seriously considering just getting a few lights this weekend to wire up and experiment with just to see in person at day and night just how much light they output.

  • David
    10 years ago

    Further consolidation could be possible. The enclosed pantry could be lit on the inside (just a thought).

  • schicksal
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I plan on having lighting inside the pantry itself. Something that turns on when one of the doors are opened is the goal.

    I've been playing around a bit with the can lights suspended from the ceiling. The room is bright, but not quite bright enough so I'm going to bring them about 6" closer together (3'6") and see what it looks like. I'm getting close at least...