How to Install Recessed Lighting

How to Install Recessed Lighting

Recessed lighting provides uncluttered good lighting used to brighten dark corners, highlight art, or even turn your dining room tables into a dramatic set. Contrary to track lights, recessed lighting are unexposed and inconspicuous and only until you turn them on.

Bedrooms often use built-in light recessed lighting and most of the time is the only lighting source in room. For these cases, we recommend one fixture is every 25 square feet of floor space. Floodlight reflector bulbs are commonly used for good ambient lighting. But on receiving rooms and dining rooms, spotlight reflector bulbs are recommended for precise accent lighting.

Due to the increasing demands of home users and interiors designers, an incredible number of recessed lighting styles revolutionized recessed lighting and came up with the low voltage, small but bright halogen bulbs and line voltage or the traditional reflector bulb versions. This add great ambiance when properly installed your homes.

Hire a Pro or do-it-yourself:

Installing recessed fixtures can’t be difficult if you have dropped ceilings and can access the attic. The installation becomes trickier when you don’t have access to the attic. Most manufacturers also offer the special “remodeling” fixtures, known as “cut-in cans.” These are “IC” rated for safe contact with insulation and they’re the best kind to install from below, insulation or not.

Proximity to power supply is another thing to consider. Switch off the main power supply. If you have an existing ceiling box provided for your light, simply disconnect the wires from the box and connect them to the cut-in can. The cut-in cans are prewired to their own junction boxes. You simply cut a circular hole in the ceiling. The lead wires are attached to the junction box and fastened. Slide and rotate the fixture up into the ceiling for the mounting clips to catch. Electrical provisions such as this make the job easier and faster. You are now ready to proceed.

Without a provision of an electrical outlet, hire an electrician to run wire thru the ceiling and install a switch for the new fixture. Wanting to do it yourself, do research on how to run the wires and install a switch for your new fixture before trying.

Safety

Buy an (IC) insulation-contact rated fixture. Sometimes when insulation touches an unrated recessed light, fire can happen.

The junction box must be located in an accessible place, such as the attic or basement, when you run the wire into a new junction box to the new light. It must not be covered with drywall or the like.

Easy Step by Step Procedure

1. Cut an opening on the ceiling and begin running wire for the light. Switch off the main power. Locate ceiling joists using an electronic stud finder and trace the outline of the fixture onto the ceiling. Then, with a canvass or tarp beneath, cut the opening using a drywall saw for the recessed light just between the joists. A plaster-cutting blade on a jigsaw would be perfect for the job. Be careful and avoid cutting through existing cables hidden in the ceiling. A drywall circle cutter is a fast tool used to install several recessed lights. It is precise and easy to use.

Insert the electrical wire into the fixture’s junction box and fasten it with a cable clamp. Only strip the wires at required lengths. Splice the wires to the fixture wires with twist-on wire connector. Follow color codes, connect the black wire to the black house wire, the white to white and ground to ground (Green). Stuff the wires cleanly into the box, replace covers and fasten it.

2. The fixture housing comes next. Rotate the fixture housing into place in the ceiling. Do not stop until the mounting tabs engage the ceiling to secure the fixture. Junction boxes don’t have to be secured to the joist since its housing and integral junction box is lightweight.

3. The inner baffle and trim comes last. After the housing clips are snug, you can now attach the inner baffle and any other trim to the fixture housing. Please see manufacturer’s instructions, they may vary according to model and type. Generally it attaches with springs.

Install the bulb, restore the main power and you can now enjoy your new recessed lighting.