I will be putting in a lot of can incandescent lights into my basement. Are there any dimmer switches available that I can use that can handle more that 600W total? I would like to get more than 8 lights per switch. What's out there?
Thanks, Kevin
Forgot to mention....I'm in the USA.
Holy moly. I had no idea they made so many types. Thanks! Lots of browsing to do...
Kev> 1500 W
Since I'll need about 30 75W lights, I think I'll go with (3) 15A circuits (750W per circuit) and have each one using one of the 1000W dimmers.
Thanks again, Kevin
With that much light you may want to rethink the incandescent can thing as it will be pretty expensive if you have them on a lot. Recessed cans are also a pretty poor way to light an area unless it has a fairly high ceiling which basements typically don't.
With a low ceiling and a lot of recessed cans you get a bunch of spots of light on the floor with dim spots between them and very little light on the walls or ceiling, making the room seem dark even though you have a couple kilowatts of light.
Bi-directional wall sconces (up/down) and / or soffit / cove lighting combined with specific area lighting such as floor lamps in a reading area or an overhead light over a pool table will give much better results and overall room feel.
Pete C.
You may want to take a look here also.............
:-)
The use of floodlight bulbs helps spread the light as opposed to spotlight bulbs that concentrate the light in a small area.
In theory yes, in practice, not really. Look at the beam angle specs for the fixture and translate that to the spot size on the floor for the given ceiling height.
You can of course adjust the lamp position in the fixture lower to get more beam spread, but by the time you get a decent spread from a low ceiling the lamp isn't very recessed any more and you still haven't solved the dark walls and ceiling issue.
Light colored walls and ceiling with wall sconce light washing the walls and ceiling combined with task lighting produce a much lighter overall feel and use less energy as well.
I've seen plenty of basements done with recessed cans and all felt dark and cramped despite the high wattage in use. I've seen other basements done as I noted and they felt much lighter and more open despite using significantly less wattage.
Pete C.
Hi Kevin,
I don't know the size of the area in question or its intended use, but thirty 75-watt fixtures strikes me as a whole lot of light AND heat.... 2,250 watts at full load. Is that amount of heat likely to cause any thermal discomfort?
Recessed lighting can provide big punches of light that, if done correctly, can add considerable drama to any room. But having installed a large number of these fixtures throughout my home, I find I seldom use them. I've pretty much gone back to using table lamps equipped with good quality CFLs because of their softer, more home-like light and significant energy savings. If I were to do it all over again, I would go with far fewer recessed fixtures strategically placed to highlight key focal points, i.e., a painting, piece of furniture or some architectural feature in the room.
Cheers, Paul
Right, people tend to go overboard with recessed cans since they are cheap and unobtrusive, unfortunately they rarely spend any time looking at specs and coming up with an actual lighting plan. Ultimately, unless you have 15'+ ceilings, recessed lighting is really task lighting, not area lighting.
Pete C.
Do you really need "dimmable" lighting ? How about selected groups on separate switches.
and
While you're at it, DO consider compact flourescant bulbs. ( 25 watts = 100 watts worth of light output )
The GE brand sold at WalMart give excellent results.
Walmart has committed to selling 100 million CFL bulbs per year. They are promoting and price-cutting something fierce. GE and other makers of old-fashioned incandescent bulbs are not pleased.
See today's NY Times:
You've raised a couple of good points. In my family room, I have fourteen 100-watt halogen IR PAR38 lamps on five independently switched runs, each with its own programmable dimmer. I seldom turn on more than one or two sets of lights at a time, and when I do, they're always at full power. Flexible switching, as it turns out, is a lot more useful to me then dimming and, in hindsight, a simple on-off switch would have done the job just as well.
I ended up removing the halogen lamps and dimmers from my kitchen, den and various parts of my house to put in these:
I've been using the 3,500K version indoors and the 5,000K outdoors. Excellent performers all around. I especially like the fact that they look exactly like a standard halogens with their flat glass face.
Cheers, Paul
Everyone should check out
They have example plans and good descriptions of the most basic lighting design concepts.
Richard Reid, LC
Pete C. wrote:
I bought a bunch about a month ago. I liked the reasonably normal shape of Walmart**, at 10 dollars for 4 60Watt-EQuivalent, but HD was even cheaper at 10 dollars for 6 60WE. I didn't like the coiled shape of HD, but they are now short enough to go in my 6 inch spheres, where the coil is not really visible anyway.
**I avoid walmart, but I was already there. I was going to every store in town looking for the perfect Shop-Vac. Looking for something about 5 gallons, it seems that no two companies sell the same model. Target, Lowes, Sears, Walmart, PepBoys all had different sizes with different size motors and different features from the other stores. No repetition. I know this sort of thing is done, but to this degree, it was quite amazing. I ended up going with PepBoys, which was the most expensive, but had the biggest motor (intended for cleaning the furnace) and a built in handle (one other store just had indentations so one really needed two hands) and other stuff. 10 dollars more expensive. PepBoys only had one and might have been out of them.Thanks for your feedback everybody. I will definitely consider your insights and definitely check out the lighting plan website!
Kevin
I'm thinking about going with some type of low profile surface mount fixtures instead of using can lights. With this type of light, I think I can greatly reduce the number of lights I will need to nicely light the room. Probably down to about 10 lights max. Wall sconces would have been a neat idea but drywall is already up and not coming down to run more wiring.
Anybody have any recommendations for some nice low profile surface mount fixtures (attached to joints but sit on lower furface of ceiling tiles)? Fixtures that can take CFLs would be nice as an option but not essential.
Thanks, Kevin
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