Ltooz
Building, Fixing and Improving Stuff...
REMODEL IC RECESSED LIGHTS
These days we see "GREEN" everywhere, to save energy, we need to replace those incandescent high wattage light bulbs with lower power fluorescent light bulbs. We like the day light ones and Costco have those 18W (75W) for ~ $1 a piece. We decided to replace all the incandescent bulbs with these and at the same time, we want to put some recessed lights in our bedrooms and kitchen. We went to Home Depot and got these 6" remodel fixtures & fluorescent baffles for our lights. After reading all the information about recessed lights, we got totally confused, but now I understand more after installing a few of them.
IC and NON-IC fixtures: IC is for insulating ceiling and it's fire safe with insulation around it. NON-IC is for NOT having insulation around it. To me, I haven't seen any of my ceiling without insulations, therefore, IC they must be.
Deep & Shallow fixtures: The base is long or short, if we use the flood bulbs, we should use the shorter base and depends on the baffle trims we use. For these flourescent light bulbs, we need the chrome baffle trims and deep fixtures. The fixtures we got can be use for both shallow and deep, they're set default at shallow setting, we have to change these to deeper setting. Recessed lights consist of 1 fixture (housing) + 1 baffle trim, in some restaurants, some don't use baffle trim to save money. There are 2 types of fixtures, remodel & new construction, remodel is easier to install, new construction is harder but more sturdy. If we cut the hole too big, the remodel won't fit well.
Set it deeper for the deep baffle trim.
Fluorescent baffle trim
Each fixture comes with a round template already cut so we can just put it up on the ceiling and circle around it with a marker or pencil. The important thing is where we should place these lights: how many and how far apart they need to be and where are these 2x4 stud on the top so we don't cut into them. We need to knock around to find the studs since we didn't buy any stud finder. Luckily, we did them correctly. Home Depot sell these 6" recessed light cutter for $30.00, but I'm cheap so I just got a drywall saw from Harbor Freight for about $3.00. So all we need to do is use the template, draw the circle around it, use a portable drill with a large bit, drill 4 holes inside the circle across from each other (4 corners on a circle?
). Stick the saw in one hole and start cutting to the next one, inside the drawn line (to make sure the hole won't be bigger than the template). The drilling is also to make sure that we don't place the light on to a stud in the ceiling. It's fast to cut these holes and it's easy to place these fixtures. We make sure we wear nose mask and goggles and place some tarp to catch these drywall stuffs falling down from cutting. 
We use our hand to push all the insulator up to make room for the recessed fixture. Position the wiring box of the fixture on top is also important for the next fixture wiring. Place the fixture up slowly and surely, when everything is up, just push at these clamps up in place.
Push the baffle trim in place and make sure it's centered and put in a bulb to see if it looks nice.
Unbelievable, we did it, the first one really looks nice!!! NOW WIRING. This is the hardest part.
MAKE SURE THE CIRCUIT BREAKER IS OFF FOR THESE LIVE WIRES.
We went up to the attic, find the cable for the switch, push the new wire down and try to get close the switch box, we tried a few times and there it is.
When it's there, just connect those wires together and the one in the fixture box.
After the wiring is done: White to white, black to black, Green to Ground and we're ready to turn them lights all.
In the kitchen, 3 are not enough, 6 would be better.
They do look nice and bright and especially all 6 lights only use 18w x 6 = 108 W total.
Cheers,
Ltooz
Dec 08
