HALO Just Changed the Recess Lighting Game with THIS!

there are a ton of videos on youtube about how to install these what are these well they go by a ton of different names recess lights puck lights wafer lights hand lights pot lights the list goes on and on and it gets pretty confusing and almost all of those videos say you do not have to get into your attic to install them well in my 30 years i'm installing hundreds of these in many different homes there's only one time where i did not have to get into an attic it was a two story house the lights were on the first floor the only way for me to access the wiring between the two floors was to get in the bedroom upstairs pull back the carpet cut through the wooden subfloor route my wires through all the joists in the beam supporting the second floor put the subfloor back put the carpet back and nobody ever knew i was there so if you want to know how to install these safely efficiently and quickly without damaging your home or yourself this is the video for you now trying to install lights like this without getting into your attic it would be like trying to change the oil in your car from the comfort of the driver's seat without ever opening the hood it's just not going to happen so in this video we're going to show you step by step how we install these lights and we're not going to just show you the house we're going to explain the whys of why we're doing each step and with halo's quick link low voltage kit there's hardly any wiring involved and the minimal wiring that you do have to do anybody can do it let's get started so what is our first step well we need a way to turn on our new lights right and we're going to do that through what's called a switch leg what is a switch leg well over here at this house it's a coil of wire about right here in the attic and it comes down to this box and we're going to wire it to our new switch hence switch leg and the beauty about the term switch leg every single electrician in america knows exactly what you mean when you say switch leg now on this project we had our electricians come out during the rough electrical stage and they ran a switch leg from this box to the attic and it's ready to go for us so if you're doing a big remodel like we are have your electricians do the same thing and it's going to save you a big headache when it comes time to install your new lights now for most people watching this video you're going to have a single gang box just one switch right controlling a fan and or light in the middle of the room and this bedroom actually had a single gang box when we started but we upgraded it to a two gang box so we could have two switches or more even but don't worry gang we filmed the whole thing we show you how to convert a single gang box to a two gang box with no drywall patches then we came over here removed the old ceiling fan and found it was installed terribly we had to redo the whole thing we installed the new fan rated box to support our ceiling fan you can see we got the new one going on right here then we ran a cable from the new box across the ceiling all the way down through the top plates into our new two gang box so if your electrician can't do it you can run those switch legs and you can even run the switch leg for your new recessed lighting it's a great video we'll put a link below in the description make sure you go check it out so now that you've watched that video and you've got all your wiring done or your electrician has done it for you you are ready for step number two lighting location now there's no secret formula for light location right obviously you don't want them too close to the wall and you don't want them all clustered in the middle of the room the biggest factor that's going to determine where you put your lights is your framing location where are your ceiling joints so we used our magnet and blue tape to help us locate our ceiling joist the last thing you want to do is drill a four inch hole and you find out there's a ceiling joist right there now there are some lights called wafer lights that will allow you to put a light over a joist but with our lights we're using today we can't have a joist in the way now this is a great visual aid for us let's pull out the tape measure and figure out our final location for our new lighting now i like the lights about three feet from the walls let's pull out our tape measure go to the side wall and as you can see three feet puts us right here where my left hand is that is pretty close to the joist and we're going to interfere with it so let's bump over to the other side of the joist and maybe use 42 what do you think jordan you like that yeah all right so if we're 42 on this side we want everything symmetrical right let's go to that side and see if 42 works over there so 42 is perfect right here we won't hit any joist so now let's mark the ceiling for all four of our lights using 42 as our number then we're going to show you a little trick how to be sure that you're not going to hit any blocking that somebody might have put in there later [Music] now all our hole locations are marked but we don't want to grab our four inch hole saw or our six inch hole saw just yet there's one more step we want to do to ensure we spend as little time in that 140 degree louisiana attic as possible what are we going to do i've got a 3 16 inch bit in my drill and i'm going to drill it right there where x marks the spot easy now i've got a piece of wire i just used a piece of number 14 romex a piece of coat hanger wire works great also and i've got it bent into this special shape what's so special about it this dimension is just over the radius of our light got a four inch can light this is about two and a quarter and both of these are equal and i'm going to show you why now i'll be able to put that in that hole just like that and now i can spin it i'm gonna work my way around and see how it's going 360 degrees that means i'm not hitting anything i can even move it up or down to check for any blocking that's higher up in our experience sometimes we have a block right here or there was a patch and there's some blocking supporting that patch who knows what's in the attic right now if i were to hit something say that was a hard stop this one's telling me where it is i know it's right here in the attic then i can adjust if it's right here i can move that hole an inch over that way or an inch over that way and i don't have to patch this hole it's still within the bigger hole we're going to cut so now that we know we're all clear let's grab our hole saw set to four inches and cut these holes now there are lots of ways to cut the hole for these lights the simplest is probably the drywall saw if you're just doing a few all these light kits come with a template put that up on your ceiling scribe the outside edge and follow that with your drywall saw and it doesn't even have to be perfect because this big old flange right here is going to cover any imperfections in your cut an upgrade from that would definitely be a standard hole saw that we usually all have in our toolbox you can even buy a half dome bowl that goes on your drill down here and it catches most of the dust but we do this so much we have the ultimate hole saw this one's completely adjustable collects all the dust and makes a square cut with the ceiling now i've had this a while i'll try to find some information on this and put it in the description below but check out how slick this thing works [Music] now we have found that this rubber seal right here gets dusty and it makes a mark on our freshly painted ceiling so i take a clean rag i just wipe it off every time let's do the rest [Music] all right man super easy that took like 60 seconds to drill four holes i didn't mean to hit you this is the expensive camera sorry it'll be fine now normally when i head into an attic to install lights i am fully suited up with my tool bags right i got my hammer strippers screwdrivers wire nuts cable staples the whole deal but today thanks to our good friends at halo they sent us their quick link low voltage kit and i don't need hardly any of that this thing is pretty awesome check it out we have a single power supply right here we're going to show you that in the attic and our cable our romex attaches to that attached to this power supply is this 35 foot low voltage cable where you can put up to eight lights the kit comes with four but you can buy them separately and add four more if you need it in your application and these things are awesome fully dimmable you can put them in a shower they'll last you 22 years five selectable colors just like all our favorite halo products and of course led you can't go wrong so what's in the box you get for these lights we just happen to be using the four inch ones just like that we're going to talk about how it connects later now let's start with the heart of the system the power supply and there are a ton of features in this thing let's start with this end it is actually hinged right there so if you're installing this from the ground level and you're trying to snake this into a ceiling space or an inaccessible attic it allows you to do that and once you've got it straightened out in the attic it's got a little latch to keep it straight pretty cool now let's open up the junction box and you'll see immediately we've got two integral clamps for your nm cable it also has a knockout if you're using flex or mc or something like that there's a little cap inside we're going to talk about that in just a minute and there's simply the three wires inside the hot the neutral and the ground also factory installed wire connectors you don't even need a wire nut nice now let's go to the other end we've got 40 feet of low voltage self-healing cable and this is what we're going to attach our lights to it's very easy and we don't need any tools to do it now this is 40 feet long like i said enough to do most rooms but what happens if you cut it and can you cut it yes you can cut it but just know that you can't get that length back you can't splice it back together so it's just recommended to leave it long and to loop the wire together at the end with this enclosed cable tie but whether you cut it or not you must use this cap to cover up the exposed wires on the end and while lighting your house with low voltage wiring is a step up in technology protecting your home with wiring is a step down in technology which is why we're so excited to thank the sponsor of today's video simply safe simply safe was kind enough to send us a full on alarm kit and we are super impressed with the entire system the build quality of each component is fantastic and the setup couldn't be easier all of the components connect wirelessly to the base station and there are sensors for every application some of my personal favorites are the glass breaking sensor that listens for glass breaking frequencies a water detection sensor that can save you costly repairs in case of a broken pipe and a temperature sensor that can alert you in case of a hard freeze we can monitor everything through the app and if something happens simply safe is backed by 24 7 monitoring ready to dispatch police firefighters or emts the peace of mind against me and my family is priceless all we ask you try it out for 60 days and if you don't like it send it back save 20 on your simply safe security system when you sign up for an interactive monitoring plan and get your first month free go to simplysafe.com studpack to learn more and thanks again simplysafe so let me gather the few tools that i do need and we'll head into the attic and show you how awesome this thing really is and our goal is to get in and out of this attic in five minutes let me know how it goes all right thanks here's our switch leg this is from the old fixture in the middle of the room we just saved it there's nothing wrong with this cable it's got a ground so our electrician just saved this up here and here's the new 14-3 we ran to our fan so let's find a good location to mount this guy and get it wired up i'm kind of liking this location right here for our power supply it's protected by this duct work so nobody's going to trip on it if they're ever climbing up here i got quite a bit of cable so i'm going to just loop it around like that the switch is off and it's not even connected in the box i'm totally safe i'm going to use my knife slit the sheathing pull it back you're already dripping i know wow i almost bought a thermometer so we could show everybody just how hot it is in here what do you think it is 120 at least at least yeah we're going to strip those all right we are ready i'm going to open the cover get these guys out of the way use my pocket knife we're going to remove this little cap there we go just like that and now that's going to grab the sheathing on my nm cable and put it down so i can press there we go nice three wires to connect and we are done with the wiring dude that's pretty incredible huh yeah and you just get to poke them in right yep one two three wired up awesome let's fold these around make it nice and neat in the box close the cover screw it down i only brought two screws man i usually bring an extra in case i drop it in this insulation all right there's one oh not gonna be able to get to that one i can't get the other one yeah yes i can yeah you got it i got it you got it oh careful oh dropped it got it these happen to be stainless steel that's why they're not sticking to my magnetic bit only the best for stud pack right stainless steel screws all the time there we go a little bit of an angle but it's secure we'll just latch that yeah nice i brought a staple why don't we put a staple in it sure dad actually i'm going to move it around that way and put it right there and again maybe putting it under the duct won the best idea is that your idea of mine we're gonna hammer sideways perfect we are done cool yeah our first light location is actually right here so we'd immediately hit this plywood yep and then we hit that plywood yup and we got this strong back that we'd have to go over right so a lot of these are doing it from up here so while we're up here we might as well just run the self-healing cable to each location all right sounds like you want me to be up here a little longer i'm up here with you man you are i appreciate that this is the middle the mental support right yeah you know what i could do i could just give yourself a little loop a little extra i could just push it right through there huh yeah and then we can easily find it from downstairs yep so i'm going to crawl down there do that one yep and i'll catch the corner and on my way back i'll do this one and we'll coil up the excess cool you know what i'm just going to stick the end in there then i can coil up downstairs and put the whole thing in yeah let's get out let's get out of here man that was just five minutes yeah i'm trying to show how sweaty i was but i'll take a high five here all right we're down from the attic and as you can see there's all our low voltage cable and this is the simplest easiest part anybody can do this this section comes from the factory like that you simply unscrew it and this piece becomes separate and can you see that groove in there yep that is the groove for the low voltage cable and see the pins here that's what pierces the insulation and makes contact with the wire inside and that slot in there is where the cable goes and it doesn't matter if i go this way or the other way polarity doesn't matter on the low voltage stuff so let's slide that in there all the way to the bottom now these can only go together one way you'll just have to figure it out but i already see that they go together this way and then you simply tighten this part that's in my left hand see how i'm tightening that and it's going to push the cable down and push the pins against the conductors it is that simple we are done we got a light we got a light here's our color selector switch we've got it on 3500 put it wherever you want 2700 all the way up to 5000k i'm gonna push everything up in the ceiling and these little springs are pretty strong there we go you ready bud yep i'm gonna let it go done how easy was that wow no tools required all right gang last one that little cap we talked about earlier now it's time to put it on go right in there the bottom's out and you got a little cover i'm still sweaty for being in the attic everything's slippery there we go and we're done completely protected nice now i'm gonna pull this out until it's a little tight right get all the excess out there we go i'll put in my new light here and we'll bundle up all this excess tail with the cable tie try not to move make sure we're set right there's all our excess low voltage cable we're going to use this reusable zip tie keep it all together now we put all this in the attic and we are ready for a dimmer and power it up notice the gasket right there seals against the drywall pretty cool i found it easier to put one in like that jordan push it all the way over and then bend the other one all the way up and let it go without seeing the gasket there we go awesome job dude right here all right gang all of our led lights are in and now it's time to install our switch we're actually going to use a dimmer we always use a dimmer on our leds but before we even stick a finger in that box let's head out to the panel and turn off the power here we are out at the panel and we actually made a drawing of the whole house we used this for our permit too and we labeled it with every circuit in the house we know that our lighting circuit and the master bath is 10a let's go ahead and turn that one off all right now let's head back inside confirm that's the one and we'll get to work all right i can see our ceiling fan is now off our drawing tells us this whole room is one circuit but let's double check it and triple check it i'll show you two different ways this is a klein non-contact voltage indicator green light means it's ready to go put it against the hot wires here and it remains green if those were hot it would turn red and beep here's another way to check it i have a fluke t5 600 meter i know these are my hots right here i'm going to go to ground with one lead and check these and we are all safe so let's remove this fan remote that we temporarily installed and install our new dimmer so we're going to use a lutron diva dimmer it's rated for led lights and we love these things of course we're going to go with all new white devices in this house and these dimmers are suitable for single pole applications where you have one switch or three-way applications where you have two switches we're just going to use it for a single pole application right now so the red wire with the white stripe gets capped if you want to see us install this in a three-way application let us know in the comments and we'll be sure to get that done all right dude let's put in this dimmer all right our box is all open let me sort out the wiring for you this wire right here 120 volts into the box of course we have our ground right here they're all bonded together with that green wire nut with the hole in the top now whenever i install a fan box in a bedroom dining room anywhere else i always put in 14 3 or 12 3 if it's the 20 amp circuit and it's got three conductors we're not going to count the ground right now but i've got a switch leg for the light i've got a switch leg for the fan and they both share the same neutral but in this case this fan light only needs one wire and that's more and more the case now right that fan has a receiver in it and the remote basically is a transmitter so we're actually going to cap this red wire but it's always there in the future so that one gets capped this one is our switch leg to the fan and this one is our switch leg to our recessed lights couldn't be any simpler let me get a bit of wire get our switches ready and we'll wire this thing up all right it's time to put in the dimmer and the switch and i always start with the grounds as you can see the dimmer right here has a ground attached to it at the factory but the switch did not and they both must be bonded to the ground in the box the switch has to be bonded by this ground screw so i put a piece of copper on there and that's a pigtail i simply grabbed it from the piece of romex right here and i pulled it out so now that i have my two grounds right here i'm going to attach them with a wire nut to this one and bond all three together simple as that and we're done now our next step why don't we attach the switch legs so on the dimmer it's this red one it's going to go right here that's my switch leg for the can lights simple as that now let's put on the switch leg on the single pole switch now you'll notice that both of those screws are gold so it doesn't matter which one it goes on you can put the switch leg there and put 120 volts here or you can put the switch leg there and 120 volts on the other screw it doesn't matter the other thing you're going to notice we have the push in feature on the back you could push this wire in there but we never use that now a lot of people are tempted to put a loop in this wire just like i did in the ground and put it around this screw but you don't even need to do that you see that plate right there that is a clamping plate that wire is designed to go underneath and when you tighten the screw the clamping plate is going to clamp down on the wire for a very secure connection so let's put our switch leg right here tighten this down and then we're ready to power this thing up and what advice do you have for people doing this at home where they might feel like they could get confused with which wire goes where well remember how we sorted out at the beginning we knew which one was our hot right here right right and we're gonna come off this and feed both switches switch leg for our fan light switch leg for our new can lights and then all the grounds go together and all the neutrals are already connected in the back of the box right but they might look in the back and see the black wires and they all look the same so how do you know that this one is your incoming power and that one's your switch leg i know it's incoming power because see this wire nut right here i've got three wires under it i've got incoming power i've got power going out probably to a receptacle and then i've got our pigtail for this box for the devices in this box so that's how i know that that is my power if you really want to double check you could take this off and find out which one is power this one or this one but because we put this box in a while ago i already know that that's my power okay all right and i guess if you were doing this for the first time and you ran your switch leg by yourself you can always put a piece of tape on it or something right to identify sure so here's 120 volts into the box i'm going to connect that wire to it to power the dimmer and i got my pigtail here to power up my single pole switch on the right i'm not pre-twisting i i usually don't pre-twist 14 because the wire nut as you can see is doing a great job of doing that for me it's just an extra step i feel like i don't have to do if i'm going uh if i'm connecting larger number 12 wire then i'll pre-twist with my pliers i'll just cut this pigtail we don't need all that wire strip it and this is our last connection this one goes right here same thing under the clamping plate i was taught to put it on that side but it doesn't matter the guy that taught me to do that said when you tighten this screw it tends to tighten this way and pull this wire but to me under the clamping plate it doesn't matter it's not going to move all right gang it's all wired up now let's walk through it one more time so we can compare notes make sure we both understand what's going on so i got the ground from the dimmer i've got the grounding pigtail from the single pole switch all bonded together to my grounds in the box all the neutrals are tied together back here in the box this spare wire for the three-way feature of the dimmer is capped i've got the other red wire on the switch leg to my cam lights on this side on the single pole switch i've got 120 volts feeding the switch 120 volts feeding the dimmer and here's my switch leg going to the fan we're all done let's fold everything up nice and neat in the box attach our switches and our cover plate and we're ready to go don't just stuff everything in there gang learn to fold your wires nice and neat and then what i always do these screws are going to be hot right they're exposed so i always put the ground on the other side see that if i were to put this ground on that side that's not going to be very good now a lot of people will wrap this with tape to protect those screws i'll do that on a metal box but not on a plastic box all right that's going to push in nice and that's going to push in nice i'm going to break these off because they're interfering with that switch and uh this is basically a heat sink this aluminum and these are designed to be snapped off back in the day i'm gonna digress jordan here for a little bit all right back in the day when these were controlling incandescent or halogen lights this would get pretty hot because dimming creates heat and when you snap these off you de-rate the dimmer you can't have as many lights on but with led lights it doesn't matter so that's a whole subject in itself derating a dimmer so i'm just going to snap those off we'll get the screws and we'll put it all together and we are all done we have come a long way from that old blue room with an old ceiling fan in the middle now we have three switches over here full dimming capability on our led lights we can control the fan three speeds and we can even dim the light on the fan kit and these halo led lights bring a whole modern dimension to this room look how dark it gets when i turn them off but it doesn't even look like the fan light is on does it and those halo lights are so easy to install we know that anybody can do it so run a switch leg to your like button smash it for us ask a question drop a comment and we will see you on our next video

Channel: Stud Pack

Views: 768,550

Keywords: studpack, stud pack, lighting, kitchen lighting, bedroom lighting, bathroom lighting, how to install lights, how to install recessed lights, how to install pot lights, how to install puck lights, how to install wafer lights, how to install HALO lights, HALO, cooper lighting, wiring a light, switchleg, HALO lights, recessed lighting layout, no attic access

Id: si2gKUCkggI

Length: 26min 4sec (1564 seconds)

Published: Wed May 25 2022