How Far Apart Should Recessed Lights Be Placed

Overall the wattage should range from 2 1 2 to 3 per square foot.

How far apart should recessed lights be placed.

A good general rule for placement if to divide the height of the ceiling by two. 4 inch bulbs should be 4 feet apart 5 inch bulbs should be 5 feet apart and 6 inch bulbs 6 feet. Of course these are just the rough numbers. The common rule is that 4 inch fixtures should generally be placed at least 4 feet apart and 6 inch fixtures about 6 feet apart.

The result is the amount of space to leave between each light. Now do the same for the width of the room. The average distance between cabinets and recessed lights is 12 18 inches. Some experts recommend leaving a space between light fixtures that is twice the distance from the wall to your first light.

This will give good spacing for general room lighting. However if you plan to install a ceiling fan in the kitchen you might need to adjust that distance to allow for at least a 9 inches between the lights and the blades. For instance if your kitchen has a 10 foot ceiling the lights should be 5 feet apart. For example recessed lighting spacing for an 8 foot high ceiling would be 4 feet between each light.

If you place a light 2 feet from your wall your remaining lights should be 4 feet apart from each other. How far apart should recessed lights be placed in a kitchen. The recessed lighting spacing formula is to set an equal distance between recessed lights to get a uniform lighting distribution and make the distance between recessed lights and the wall half the distance between recessed lights. Wall wash fixtures should be spaced apart the same distance from each other.

Adjustable trims may be placed farther away from the wall. Center recessed lighting fixtures in front of the objects you wish to light a painting bookshelf or drapery panels for example and about 12 to 18 inches in front of that object. This formula is critical for lighting a space because if the lights are too far apart they will look like spotlights with big shadows between each other. When determining how much distance to put between lights professionals recommend to take half of the ceiling height.

Fixed trims should be placed closer to the wall. For general lighting use 5 inch bulbs for large rooms use 6 inch bulbs also the diameter of the bulb is consistent with how far the spacing should be. If a 6 inch light has a spacing criteria of 1 5 and the ceiling height is 8 feet the maximum space between each light should be 12 feet. The general rule for installing wall wash recessed fixtures are about 1 5 to 3 feet away from the wall.

Depending on the size and shape of your room following all of these guidelines may prove impossible. Keep each light close to 3 feet away from the walls or corners we don t want to cast shadows don t install recessed lighting with equal spacing between the lights and the walls.