Looking for an inexpensive way to modernize your home? Recessed lighting offers the perfect blend of form and function to give your home a fresh new look. Well-chosen, carefully placed lights can highlight a room’s best features, improve lighting in areas that are poorly lit, and offer a decorative element to your home.

Your local recessed lights electrical specialist can repair existing accent lights or install new ones for you. Contact our specialist at Recessed Lighting & Electric for fast and courteous service.

What Is Recessed Lighting?

Installed within the ceiling rather than on the surface, recessed lighting consists of two parts: the trim and the housing. The housing’s fixture, which holds the bulb, is installed inside the ceiling. The trim is the finished edge you see when looking up into the fixture.

Outdoor Soffit Lighting

Soffit lighting is a great option for illuminating the exterior of your home. Your soffits are the surfaces underneath your roof eaves. An electrician can install recessed lighting in that area to create subtle, effective lighting for your home’s outdoor living spaces. Outdoor soffit lighting offers several other benefits, including:

• Soffit lighting adds versatile light with various beam angles to accent areas of your home or to be used as a spotlight.
• Waterproof and insulated, outdoor soffit lighting shines brightly indoors or outdoors.
• Soffit lighting is small enough to be hidden to keep your garden or home looking how you originally intended.
• Soffit lighting fixtures may be angled or swiveled to increase their usability.

Uses for Recessed Lights

Many areas of your home could benefit from well-placed recessed lighting. Here are a few ideal locations to consider installing recessed lights:

• In multi-use rooms with dimmers for added versatility.
• Accent lighting, complimenting clean, contemporary interiors.
• Task lighting in kitchens and baths to provide much-needed illumination.
• Spotlighting walls or other decorative elements or artwork.
• Downlighting to brighten a room without stealing the attention of a decorative piece.
• Wall-washing, which is an interior design technique that uses lights to make the space look and feel larger.

Avoid Recessed Lighting in These Situations

While recessed lighting can enhance many areas of your home, there are some purposes that recessed lighting is just not well suited for. Don’t use recessed lighting:

• As the sole source of lighting in a room.
• With concrete ceilings.
• In rooms with decorative ceilings, such as recessed panels or paper, as this lighting can detract from the ceiling’s look.

Factors to Determine Before Installation

The Type of Housing Required

This is determined by ceiling slope, material, insulation, and whether lights are installed on a new home or remodel.

The Number of Fixtures Needed

As there is no universal solution, professional assistance comes in handy. Square footage, bulb wattage, ceiling height, visibility needed, and existing light must all be considered to avoid making your ceiling look like Swiss cheese but efficiently light the space. This can also be confusing when dealing with LED bulbs, which have a low wattage rating of 5 to 8 but are actually comparable to halogen bulbs that are 40 to 60 watts.

The Proper Spacing

A professional will ensure fixtures are spaced evenly, resulting in a balanced look.

Appropriate Fixture Rating

A professional electrician can advise whether the model selected needs to be rated for moisture. If lights will be installed in a bathroom, basement, or covered outdoor space, choose a fixture rated for moisture. This ensures your family’s safety and prevents the bulb from being damaged.

Electrical Load

To avoid overloading circuits, an electrician can help you determine the safest way to wire in new lights.

Form and Function

Enlisting the help of a pro ensures you will get not only the look you want but the most ease of use out of your investment. For instance, a lighting expert knows when to use an adjustable Gimbal fixture to create focal points or a reading light for your favorite chair, or add dimming features to dim lights by zone. Wouldn’t a separate dimmer switch for each light over your bed be nice?

Our specialists at Recessed Lighting & Electric can help you select the perfect recessed lighting to modernize and brighten your home, helping you choose from:

• Incandescent
• Fluorescent
• Energy Star
• Line voltage
• Low voltage halogen
• Standard halogen
• Fire barrier housings
• Multiple recessed spots
• Swivel lighting
• Down lighting
• LED swivel lighting

Let the professionals at Recessed Lighting & Electric help you select the right mix of recessed lighting and other lighting to modernize the look of your home. We have all your home’s lighting design, installation, and maintenance needs covered. Call our specialists at Recessed Lighting & Electric today at (949) 473-0424