Recessed Lighting Blog

Whether one is doing a kitchen remodel or starting from scratch, the lighting design is frequently the last thing considered and often the first thing to get cut from the budget. Design and planning should be phase 1 of a kitchen project whether you are starting from scratch or remodeling. If you want your lighting to look like it was done by a pro, choosing the right light and the right placement of the light will make all the difference in the world. And, these decisions need to occur in the initial stage of the project and not as a 'hindsight is 20-20' kind of thing.
Lighting designers say that using three types of lighting functions is paramount to good lighting design-whether it is in your kitchen or elsewhere. It is a 'layering' technique:
1) general light source
2) task lighting
3) drama or accent lighting (also known as focal lighting)
Some designers like to incorporate dimming systems in their lighting design. Our designer recommends that dimming systems be avoided in most cases-with the exception of dining rooms and media rooms. Here are some reasons why a dimming system should be avoided: 1) color temperature shifts 2) bulb does not dim in the full range . . . Read more

We have all waited a long time for technology to catch up to our expectations of the perfect LED MR-16. The wait is over as the SORAA team took performances issues head on in their design and development of this bulb and conquered them all, we might add.
Here are the top ten reasons why the SORAA LED MR16 lamp is on the top of our list:
1) Perfect fit. SORAA conforms to the ANSI standard, so they do fit standard lighting fixtures (MR16) when used as specified.
2) No noise. Performance, performance, performance. These bulbs do not blink, they do not buzz. SORAA lamps turn on and operate properly with both magnetic and electronic transformers.
3) Fully UL listed. What does this mean to you? It means that you can trust them to work safely as a retrofit lamp in UL listed fixtures.
4) Dimmable-SORAA lamps work properly with many commonly installed leading-edge and trailing-edge dimmers.
5) Flexible. The SORAA LED MR16 works in both NEC Class 1 and Class 2 transformers. While most LED lamps are designed to work only with Class 2 systems, SORAA lamps are UL listed for both systems.
6) Single source light output. Why is this important? The SORAA design allows . . . Read more

You can make your next recessed lighting project less frustrating and more efficient with the recessed lighting kits that Total Recessed Lighting has put together. We find that a lot of people aren't sure about which trim goes with which fixture and bulb, so we've put together recessed lighting kits in hopes of eliminating the frustration and guesswork.

These recessed lighting kits include a lighting trim, a housing and a light bulb. The kits are available for 2", 3", 4", 5" and 6" recessed lighting fixtures.

recessed lighting kit

If you are ready to make your recessed lighting projects easier, be sure to check out the recessed lighting kits that we offer.

Questions. We get lots of questions. When we get a lot of questions in one particular area, this always prompts us to address it in a more global manner. Such as, the questions we get about LED Par 38 versus Halogen PAR 38-and which one is the better bulb. People want to know if  the LED PAR 38 is brighter than the Halogen PAR 38. Is the LED a good option? Folks are taking a good, hard look at LED as an alternative to Halogen because they know they are energy efficient and last longer, but they are not sure if they will be happy switching over. Does this sound like you?
Our team here decided to take it to the test-what they think is a real test-not a fancy, scientific test. We'll just call it an empirical test since it is based on actual experience instead of an experiment. In plain language, it was a shootout:

In this video, our team did a side by side comparison of a 24 watt LED 5000K PAR 38 against a 90 watt 2800K Halogen PAR 38 which should will help you decide if the LED bulb is the one for you and if it . . . Read more

Lighting Chocolate in a showcase
Now, you can get an energy efficient showcase lighting that will not melt chocolate. Really? Really. This LED light fixture is ideal for many applications-it is perfect for all around showcase lighting needs and better still for those glass display cases that are difficult and limited in space.
Remember that saying, 'dynamite comes in small packages"? This fixture has a slim, low profile (it is SMALL!) and has a high output.

LED showcase lighting: slim profile

Here are some of the product details provided by the manufacturer:
According to recent studies LED lighting consumes about 75% less energy than incandescent lighting and lasts much longer than incandescent and longer than fluorescent lighting.
The LEDs used in the LED under cabinet strip are rated to last an average of 50,000 hours. By comparison, incandescent lamps are rated for about 2,000 hours and fluorescent lamps are rated for around 20,000 hours. 24-hour operation for 6 years will require incandescent lamps to be replaced 13 times.
Fluorescent lamps will have been replaced once while the LED under cabinet strip will continue to operate for 5 additional years.
Applications:
LED applications and uses continue to grow. At first, LEDs were used in direct view applications, such as traffic . . . Read more

This posting is in response to a very long thread on the Garden Web Lighting forum (Disappointed With My LED Recessed Lighting)-the original post was from 2008. Our lighting designer and guru was fascinated by all the comments an remarks and varying levels of input from the community at large. He thought it was time he should weigh in and we'd thought we'd share his insights and knowledge with you. To see the original thread that this post was based on, please be sure to use the link through for Garden Web.
"I know this post has been around for a while-please forgive me in responding to such an old post, but the technology has changed so much since then that I thought I'd weigh in. The improvements made in LED recessed lighting has addressed so many of these issues that I find it no longer disappointing. In addition, I get questions related to kitchen lighting all the time and thought I might be able to provide some quick insight from a lighting designer's point of view.
First of all, it seems that many lighting designers shy away from kitchen lighting, although I'm not sure exactly why. I have done hundreds of . . . Read more

We just introduced a LED Retrofit Module and Trim (aka: universal LED Retrofit ) to our line about a month ago and it is soon becoming one of most popular and most sought after items. Want to know why?
-First off, if you have an EXISTING 5" OR 6" recessed light fixture, this retrofit can be used to replace what is already in there. Its application is for remodel and for new construction.
-It fits shallow AND regular IC and Non-IC housings.
Are you impressed yet? Wait-there's more:
-It's energy efficient: it is 14W: to equate it to what you've been used to, which would be the 65W incandescent bulb. That translates to a 75% savings on energy consumption, so this is a very 'green' choice by way of lighting. It also has the Energy Star rating AND meets the California Title 24 requirements.
-It is bright: 620 lumens (remember that lumens is the measure of brightness and not wattage: see our article that explains how this works). Not to mention that has a color temperature of 3,000K-which is a very good approximation of daylight.
-Long lasting (because it is LED): it is rated for up to 50,000 life hours.
-If you so desire, it is dimmable . . . Read more

And, what does this mean to you (WDTMTY)? Or, more accurately, WDTMTM (what does this mean to me)?
This article is an abbreviated version of the article called, "LED, Incandescents, CFL's, Oh No!! (Or, Watt's Up?).
But first, I have to share with you what started that article to begin with. In a phone conversation with my dad's wife (they live on Molokai), she was wondering why the CFL's in her ceiling fan didn't last very long. I went through the trouble shooting list with her-is the total wattage too much for the fixture? Are the lights turned on and off continually throughout the day? And, being on a small island, the likelihood of inconsistent delivery of energy  or variable voltage probably fluctuates enough to affect the longevity of the bulb. During the course of that conversation, it became clear to me that she was thinking of wattage in terms of the brightness of the bulb. Which then made me realize that this is what most people think when they look at the wattage of a bulb.
Wattage is a description of energy consumption. Lumens is a description of light output (or to be even clearer, the higher the lumen number, the brighter . . . Read more

Yes, the quest continues here at Total Recessed Lighting. We want to demystify recessed lighting as much as possible and empower YOU the consumer, with knowledge. After all, life is too short to get frustrated with decisions on recessed lighting, isn't it? We know you have better things to occupy your time with.
We've created a series of videos in regards to 6" recessed lighting and fixtures. 6" recessed lighting fixtures are THE most popular category of recessed lighting-as well it should be as it is the most economical and flexible of fixtures in the recessed lighting world.
Here's a video that gives a general overview of what you should know about 6" recessed lighting fixtures:

You can learn how to install a 6" recessed lighting baffle trim into an existing 6" recessed housing using trim springs. It's easy and fast with this video tutorial.
Or, see how easy it is to install an air tight 6" recessed trim into your existing 6" recessed housing (did you know you could do that?).
If you'd like to keep track of all upcoming videos here at Total Recessed Lighting, you can subscribe to our You Tube Channel. Be sure to also check off the box that allows . . . Read more

Under cabinet lighting. You want it. But, you really don't want to install a fluorescent fixture that fit under cabinets-because of esthetics-it often is visible unless you find a work around solution. I'll bet you  even thought of getting a bunch of those hockey puck style LED lights as a solution. But, your intuition tells you, "bad idea".
Total Recessed Lighting is excited to offer what we think is one of the best solutions to under cabinet lighting (perfect for under your kitchen cabinets). A super slim profile with high output, these LED under cabinet fixtures come in 5 different lengths and 4 color temperatures. Our LED fixtures are perfect for under kitchen cabinets, straight cove lighting or placed anywhere where super slim, rigid LED fixtures are required by the designer. It is energy efficient, easy to install, is rated to last up to 50,000 hours, and comes in several color temperatures. We recommend the 4100K as it is a nice, clean light. Most incandescent lights are in the 2700K color temperature range-which appears to be very yellow. So, if the space you are installing these lights in have other light sources that are int he 2700K range, the 4100K will . . . Read more