Recessed lighting cost

Recessed lighting costs $100 to $300 per downlight installed in an existing ceiling, typically around $200. A six-light kitchen is $900 to $1,500 and a large open-plan living area with twelve lights is $1,800 to $3,000.

The price per light falls sharply with count, because most of the cost is the electrician being there, running the first circuit and cutting into the ceiling. Six lights do not cost six times one light; they cost about three times.

What it costs

Access is everything. A single-story house with an accessible attic above the ceiling is the easy case. A ceiling with a floor above it means fishing cable through joist bays blind, and it is slower and sometimes requires opening the ceiling. Expect the upper half of the range.

Retrofit cans and canless

Two products, and the difference is worth knowing before you get quotes.

Retrofit cans are the traditional housing, a metal can clipped into the ceiling from below, with the trim and lamp fitted into it. Larger hole, more depth needed above the ceiling, and it cannot go where a joist is in the way.

Canless or wafer lights are a thin LED disc with a small junction box that tucks into the ceiling cavity. The hole is smaller, they fit where a can will not, they are quicker to install, and most are rated for direct contact with insulation. They cost about the same and they have largely taken over retrofit work.

The trade-off is that a canless light is a sealed unit. When the LED fails in fifteen years you replace the whole fitting rather than a lamp. Most people accept that.

Getting the layout right

This is where recessed lighting goes wrong, and it costs nothing to get right if you decide before the holes are cut.

Spacing. A common rule is to divide the ceiling height by two: an 8 foot ceiling wants lights about 4 feet apart. Closer than that reads as an airport runway.

Distance from walls. Two to three feet off the wall. Lights pushed to the center of the room leave the perimeter dark and make the room feel smaller.

Light the work surface, not the floor. In a kitchen, lights belong over the front edge of the counter, roughly 2 feet from the wall, so you are not standing in your own shadow. Centering them in the walkway is the single most common mistake.

Do not use recessed lights as the only light. A ceiling full of downlights gives flat, top-down illumination and heavy shadows under cabinets and faces. Mix in a pendant, an under-cabinet strip or a lamp.

Fewer than you think. Modern LED downlights are bright. Six well-placed lights in a kitchen outperform ten badly placed ones and cost less.

Color temperature, which matters more than brightness

• 2700K is warm, like an incandescent bulb. Right for living rooms and bedrooms.
• 3000K is warm white. The usual choice for kitchens and bathrooms.
• 4000K is neutral and reads as clinical in a house. Fine for a garage or workshop.
• 5000K is daylight. Almost always wrong indoors.

Many fittings are now selectable, with a small switch on the unit. Choose before the ceiling closes, and choose the same temperature throughout a sightline. Two different temperatures in one open-plan space is very visible and very hard to unsee.

Buy dimmable fittings and a compatible LED dimmer. It is a small extra cost and it is the difference between a room with one setting and a room with several.

Frequently asked questions

Can I install these myself?

Adding a fitting to an existing switched circuit is within reach of a confident DIYer: cut the hole, connect the junction box, clip it in. Running a new circuit or adding a switch is electrician work and usually needs a permit.

Will it damage my ceiling?

A competent installer cuts with a hole saw to the template and the trim covers the edge. Problems come from hitting a joist, a pipe or a cable, which is why they use a stud finder and probe first. Older plaster and lath ceilings crack more readily and are worth flagging in advance.

Do I need IC-rated fittings?

If insulation will touch the fixture, yes, and in an attic ceiling it will. Nearly all modern canless LED units are IC rated. Older non-IC cans require a clearance from insulation, which is why so many attics have gaps in the insulation around them.

Are there airtight versions?

Yes, and in a top-floor ceiling they are worth insisting on. A row of leaky downlights is a row of holes from your heated house into a cold attic, and they undo a meaningful share of the insulation above.

How much does it cost to run?

Almost nothing. A 10 watt LED downlight running four hours a day costs roughly $1.75 a year at average US rates. Twelve of them is about $21 a year.