Proper Spacing of Can Lights
Can lights are the perfect lighting solution to rooms with limited ceiling heights such as finished basements because they sit flush with the ceiling. These recessed lighting fixtures are also great in areas with slanted ceilings like finished attics or lofts. To find the proper spacing for can lights, you have to first decide how much light you want in the room and then apply a few basic math principles.
Types of Lighting
There are two basic types of lighting for the rooms in your home: ambient lighting and task lighting. Task lighting is great of areas where you desire bright lighting like kitchens, home offices and bathrooms, while ambient lighting is sufficient for all other rooms in the home. If you have rooms where the type of lighting varies, consider installing a dimmer switch.
Without getting too deep into confusing foot candle and lumen measurements, the basic premise here is that one light only illuminates a certain amount of space. The amount of space a can light illuminates depends on the ceiling height, the size of the recessed lighting can and the type and wattage of light bulb you use.
To figure out how many can lights you need for the entire room, you now need to figure out the proper can light spacing for the width of the room.
Basic Ambient Can Light Spacing
Can lights generally come in 4-, 5- and 6-inch diameter sizes. An easy and basic rule is to space the lighting in direct correlation to the diameter size of the can. For a 4-inch can, space the lights every 4 feet, a 5-inch can every 5 feet and a 6-inch can, every 6 feet. The size can you use depends on the height of your ceiling as well as the wattage of your lightbulbs. For taller ceilings, use larger cans and for shorter ceilings, use smaller cans. This easy to remember rule works great for rooms where you only need ambient lighting. For task lighting, you need to take a bit more time when figuring out spacing.
Basic Task Can Light Spacing
For task lighting, you want to wash the space in light. In order to figure out do that for your space, you need to know that a 150 watt incandescent bulb gives you approximately 4 feet of direct light and a 150 watt recessed lighting bulb gives about 3 feet of direct light . To figure out the proper task light spacing, here is where a little bit of simple math comes in.
First, measure the length of the wall. Then, divide length of your wall by the number of direct light feet the light bulb you plan to use gives off. For example, you have a 20 foot wall and plan on using 150 watt incandescent bulbs. To get the proper can light spacing, you divide 20 (wall length) by four (150 watt incandescent bulb). Twenty divided by four is five, so you would need five can lights spaced every 4 feet.
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