LED Recessed Lighting--5 THINGS TO KNOW!! (Can Lights/Downlights/Recessed Lights)

for decades now can lights or recessed lights have been helping people brighten their homes eliminate shadows and spread light around their rooms but in recent years LED lights have pretty much reinvented the recessed lighting market thanks to their cost efficiency and their versatility so this week I teamed up with Harrison peacock of CCS triangle electric in Raleigh North Carolina Harrison is fantastic electrician and he showed me five things to keep in mind when planning your LED candlelight install so let's get to it the first thing you need to know about LED recessed lights is that color temperature matters typical incandescent bulbs mostly give off a soft yellowish light with some lighter tones available but across the board LEDs are capable of producing color in a much wider range when you buy an LED recessed light look at the package it will indicate where that bulbs coloration falls on a Kelvin spectrum the 3000 Kelvin range will give you that yellowish light similar to incandescent which is best for bedrooms living rooms comfortable places where you want to relax LEDs and the four to five thousand Kelvin range will produce a far wider light perfect for bathrooms kitchens and work areas where you want to bring things into sharper focus and concentrate more on what you're seeing and doing but just note that light in the low yellowish or high bluish range can interact adversely with the color of your walls Harrison had recalled one instance where a homeowner had used 3000 k bulbs in a bedroom with brown walls that yellowish light turned those walls pink in that instance CCS electric switched those fixtures to the higher 4000 K bulbs and the wider light once again brought out the brown paint colors in the room the second thing to know about LED recessed lights is that they work better with dimmer switches even taking the Kelvin range into consideration many people feel that their LED can lights are just a little bit too bright it's really just a byproduct of how the light is being produced inside the bulb for this reason Harrison believes that LED can lights should typically be installed on dimmer switches this lets the homeowner set the light intensity to a level that suits them but LEDs draw such a lower wattage than incandescent bulbs that they don't always function well on typical dimmer switches a CL dimmer is specifically designed for LEDs so that's probably what you'll be looking for but just to be safe research manufacturer guidelines for your bulb and your dimmer switch to make sure that you have compatibility between the two products issue number three spacing is very important can lights are meant to be used in quantity a single candle light really has the power to illuminate a whole room instead multiple lights work together to blanket a room with light so when creating a recessed light array Harrison doesn't like to have lights more than four feet away from each other on a linear path even with larger 6-inch lights the overlapping cones of illumination may fail to reach effectively beyond this distance he also prefers a minimum spacing of two feet between walls and recessed lights this distance produces better wall washing or effective light coverage of the area going closer than this can result in wall grazing or sharp light that picks out contours and defects and fails to maximize broad illumination also projections and obstructions should be taken into consideration open top cabinets like the ones in this kitchen can encroach on down lights so cans should be positioned relative to cabinet fronts to avoid interference and ceiling fans can also play a factor if canned lights and fans are spaced too closely together fan blades can sometimes chop the cone of illumination causing a mild but disconcerting strobe effect it's best to work closely with good electricians like Harrison in CCS to anticipate and avoid these layout errors and speaking of layout the fourth thing you need to know about LED recessed lights is that they are way more mobile than they used to be recessed lights used to require a sizeable housing that had to fit between joists and overhead framing lumber making layout very tricky and frustrating in some houses but thanks to newer LED technologies ultra-thin recessed lights can now go virtually anywhere these units are only as thick as the drywall they mount into which means it can be positioned directly beneath framing obstructions and because they're so lightweight they hold themselves in place just by means of spring-loaded clips you can see Harrison reinstalling one here these ultra-thin models used to carry a much heavier price tag but more and more companies have engineered their own models so they're getting widespread distribution these days and if you go on Amazon you can get them for a very reasonable price Harrison's originally from Brighton England which makes these conversations with them a little bit more fun and since we're on the topic of Technology the fifth and final thing you should know about recessed lights is that they're starting to incorporate a lot more gadgets do you like listening to music in the shower here clients do so in these two shower enclosures he installed LED cans with speakers in them these units work by bluetooth and you can link multiple units together to make music and lighting simultaneously available in areas where you might want both he connected to it and queued up a song for me in seconds while we were standing there I've got to admit it's pretty luxurious and while they're not cheap the products are simple and convenient so retrofits are fairly straightforward that's it five quick things to know about LED recessed lights I want to thank Harrison and CCS triangle electric for helping me make this video in the near future I'm going to team up with them again for hands-on installations and more electrical advice so keep your eyes peeled for those videos as always thanks for watching please consider subscribing and hitting that little Bell button down beside the subscribe button to turn on notifications that way you'll know every time I post a new video I'm Nathan James with the Oscorp intercom I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Honest Carpenter

Views: 564,582

Rating: 4.9009147 out of 5

Keywords: recessed lighting, recessed light, led downlight, recessed lighting layout, recessed lighting spring clips, recessed lighting replacement, led recessed lighting review, led recessed lighting, led recessed light bulbs, led can lights, can lights in living room, can lights in kitchen, led dimmer switches, the honest carpenter, ccs triangle electric, can lights in garage, recessed lights in existing ceiling, kitchen lighting

Id: t3F0dwsBFjw

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 10 2019