Pot light placement advice

Rule is every 2.5ft for even distribution (I maybe wrong) .. stick them on a dimmer.. I even split larger rooms on separate switches for more control.

sunny5533 wrote: ↑ 29107627-345C-4DF0-A72F-8CBA58A0226D.jpeg

Hey everyone, I am unsure of how many lights to put in each room and what placements for each. I obviously don’t want to overly do pot lights and keep it minimal. If anyone has done pot lights and has feedback/advice on placement please share your thoughts.

Go wild my friend.

https://blog.recessedlighting.com/reces ... alculator/


It's up to you, there 's probably high level recommendations, but it depends on where your furniture is and living space set up.

I'd say you d want more potlights in your kitchen, moderate in the living room,dining room. Minimal in hall ways. Key is also have a dimmer, so If it's too bright, you can always dim them down.

If you re going to get a contractor, there a bunch of recommendations on RFD, just search the threads. The contractor can probably further advise.

TLSRULZ wrote: ↑ Rule is every 2.5ft for even distribution (I maybe wrong) .. stick them on a dimmer.. I even split larger rooms on separate switches for more control.

I ve heard, half your floor height. I.e 4-5 ft. 2.5ft seems incredibly small.

I have mine around 4-5 feet apart and it's comfortable and they have good spread to overlap one another. 2.5ft is way too close and you'd have way too many per room.

carnut16 wrote: ↑ I ve heard, half your floor height. I.e 4-5 ft. 2.5ft seems incredibly small.

Yup your right 4-4.5 ft... I just measured mine.. (it's friday of long weekend .. and I've had a few brews ok)

i think 4 to 5 feet sounds about right but i would imagine that you also have to consider the ceiling height. if you're using a contractor like Mr. Potlight, you could ask them what they suggest.

Personally, i like it a bit brighter or at least have the option for it to be be brighter (i.e. I would add a dimmer for all of the switches).

For your floorplan, I would do 4 or 6 in the Den, 4 in the dining room (I would add a hanging light over a dining room table for extra light), 1 in front of your stairs, 5 in the foyeur (with 1 infront of the washroom), 6 in the family room, 6 in the breakfast area (with another hanging light over the breakfast table, 4 in the kitchen (with a hanging light over the island), 2 in the mudroom looking area and another 2 in the laundry (if you plan on doing any potlights in the laundry at all). This is just my personal opinion..

TLSRULZ wrote: ↑ Yup your right 4-4.5 ft... I just measured mine.. (it's friday of long weekend .. and I've had a few brews ok)

Perfect way to start the long weekend.
Cheers mate

sunny5533 wrote: ↑ Hey everyone, I am unsure of how many lights to put in each room and what placements for each. I obviously don’t want to overly do pot lights and keep it minimal. If anyone has done pot lights and has feedback/advice on placement please share your thoughts.

Choose light spacing based on how evenly lit you want your rooms to be.

Choose light output (lumens) based on how bright you want your rooms to be.

The specification sheets for high-quality luminaires will include photometric data, or a spacing criterion specification that can be used to calculate the recommended spacing for your fixtures.

For example, Halo's SMD6 SMD6R69SWH surface mount luminaire has a spacing criterion of 1.26. This means that the fixtures should be spaced at a horizontal distance of 1.26 multiplied by the vertical distance between your ceiling and the surface which you want illuminated (e.g. your floor, or possibly your tables). Working through the numbers, if you have an 8 foot ceiling and want even illumination at a typical table height (e.g. 2'6"), you should space the fixtures at (96" - 30") * 1.26 = 83" (~7 ft).

Continuing with the SMD6R69SWH example, to determine brightness at typical table height, the c-gamma photometric chart on the specification sheet states that the fixture emits 261 candela directly downwards. Calculating the formula lux = candela / distance^2 (using compatible units) for a distance of 66" (5.5 ft), this means that an array of these fixtures will provide ~92 lux at typical table height.

While there is no formal standard for residential lighting levels, lux levels of around 100 are reasonable overall lighting in for most rooms where task lighting is available for finer work. Aim for 400 lux or more in rooms where fine work is performed, such as kitchens or workshops.


(This is how the pros do it for jobs where running photmetric simulations is overkill.)