4" or 6" recessed light?

Question

My house is small. It is a 2-story with 300 sq ft upstair and 400 sq ft down stair. And I can't decide which one to go with.

living room - 11' x 13'
bedroom - 11' x 16' (with cathedral ceiling)

Thank you information that you've shared. Here are more detail of my home.

It's a new construction of a modern home with lots of windows and glass doors. These recessed lights are task lights.

upstair ceiling heigh is about 10 feet
downstair ceiling height is about 8 1/4 feet

Answer 1

I would go with 6" but fewer of them. The big ones will get you more light with fewer lights. This will make your smaller space look bright yet not make the ceiling space look cluttered.

Answer 2

Question is are these lights for main illumination ie " task lighting "or for pictures, wall hung items etc.

6 " cans" will accept a larger watt rated lamp, up to 100 watts.
and there are a larger range of available trims for them, however in a smaller room they may look too big.

4 " cans will accept up to a 70 watt lamp depending on which trim
you select. You need to decide what you want to" light"

You may want to use an MR 16 type fixture which can be steered to point at a particular spot, say to light some artwork hung on a wall. These can include an integral transformer.
(4" typ)

Another factor to consider is how high is the ceiling from the floor
if its more than 15 ft a ceiling mounted 4" can will probably not give you sufficient illumination by the time the spread of the lamp reaches the floor. Your best bet is to go to a lighting showroom and look at what they have if at all possible. There are so many varieties of recessed fixtures, for many concievable situations.

Another factor is placement, you cant' always put a recessed fixture where you want because of the ceiling rafters or joists,
in planning recessed lights you have to look at the whole picture,
and accept that you original plan may not work out as you envisioned. You may have to move a few a foot or six inches from where you hoped to place them.

I have installed hundreds of these fixtures and every situation is different. Hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

I don't have any aesthetic wisdom to impart, but what I do have knowledge of may save a mountain of frustration (and reduce your potential utility bills too) if these "can-lights" are going to be set into the drywall with insulation around/above them (as a typical attic would have).

I work for an insulation company installing attic insulation and much of the time what I see is the cheaper grade of "can-lights" installed into the ceiling and nothing set around it to allow an air space for the light to 'breathe' as it is (poorly)designed to do. What then happens is that the loose-fill insulation gets installed to the correct R-value and the heat from the light fixture doesn't escape. The heat builds until the automatic breakers cut the power and your bulb won't work until the fixture has cooled down enough. There's nothing quite like being in a room with the light source working all pell-mell and the bulbs turning off and on with a seeming mind of their own and to top it all off the bulbs reportedly burn out much quicker too.

How do you get around this problem, without punching holes in the insulative layer in your attic and thus resulting in multiple convection current updraft areas (which then exhaust the warmer air at your ceiling and suck in that nasty cold winter air from outside (the escaping warm air created a vacuum))? The answer to all this is fairly simple: if you install 'can-lights' make sure you get the kind rated as "ICAS". This stands for Insulation Contact Air Seal. Then make sure there's a good seal between the light fixture and the hole in the drywall.

Good Luck with your renovations! :-)

Answer 4

As a painter I've always seen nightmares for walls with the recessed lights too close to the wall meaning it's like a spotlight showing up every nail pop and imperfection on a wall so keep this in mind. I don't know what size to use just wanted to bring this to your attention too. good luck