Up til now I have been planning on using recessed lights in my house but have been reading about how bad they are at allowing heat to escape the house. Is there a good way to avoid this without spending a small fortune on the light fixture itself? I live in a Hot climate and only use the heat during a short winter, would recessed lights affect the AC that much during the summer?
Any thoughts on this? Is there a better alternative to recessed lights? I really like the look of a flush light.
Replies
Get the insulation contact (IC) rated light fixtures, and make sure that they get sealed in well.
Juno has a sealed can.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I'm assuming the recessed lights will punch through from the living space ceiling up into the attic, which is not always the case.
As stated above the minimum is a IC rated fixture. In addition to that I once saw a very long list of Energy Star rated recessed light fixtures.
Also, you can build boxes out of rigid board insulation that will go up in the attic to enclose the recessed lights and reduce/eliminate air leakage.
I thought about building a small box in the attic around the recessed light to seal it up but I read that some recess lights are designed to allow heat from the bulb to exit into the attic to keep the bulb cool. If I seal it off am I going to be changing bulbs all the time?
As far as the bulbs are concerned, buy compact flourescents...they use less electricity & convert almost all of their energy to light instead of heat. Little to no heat issues and lower energy use...win/win if you ask me. If you want to dim them, then make sure to get dimmable ones...which cost a fortune.
Well the female unit wants them dimable and I'm on a bit of a budget. I want to use them thoughout the house so expensive ones are out of the question as I need alot of them. What about these at homedepot? It says they are IC rated and insulated. Anything wrong with spending 8 bucks on a lighting fixture?
Cooper Lighting
Edited 11/7/2005 7:06 pm ET by Johnny1985489
In the northeast, lightolier is the only recessed any of the sparky's use. The first link below is for the air seal recessed light, it meets all the energy star guide lines and only costs about $4 more than the normal recessed, about $30 or so. The second link is the full line of recessed. Don't waste your time building the boxes out of foam board, etc, just pay the extra $4 and get the ones that are ready to go.
http://www.lightolier.com/index.jsp?CATREL_ID=5008&CAT_ID=1803&BLK=Y&CAT_NAME=AirSeal+Insulated+Ceiling+%28IC%29&PARREL_ID=2072&A=254&B=363&C=365
http://www.lightolier.com/index.jsp?CATREL_ID=2072&CAT_ID=1030&BLK=N&CAT_NAME=Incandescent+Frame-In+Kits&PARREL_ID=2068&A=254&B=363&C=365