Assuming you are not going to have a problem fishing the wire to the new lights, then it becomes a design and load issue.
Design: What looks good to you based on what you see elsewhere.
Load: How many amps is this circuit currently (pun intended:laughing: ) drawing. Unfortunately, without an amp meter, that is tough to establish..... We will undoubtedly need a little more info.
as andy in atl was mentioning a little more information would be helpful.
heres a few questions,
1. how big is the area your trying to add/modify the lights?
2. how high is the ceiling?
3. what are the details of the lights that are in there now? how many do you have? do you have pictures you can post?
you may know this but if you currently have fluorescents, (im assuming you have 4 footers with T8 lamps, or something like that) you can get recessed cans which will carry CFL lamps. cfl's put out a great deal of light, better than incandescents.
what are your ideas and maybe i can guide you in a direction of quantity/wattage/ etc.
Ok, room is dining room on one side kitchen on the other Whole room is 10'X35' with 8' ceilings. There are three lights in the room, 4' fluorescent near the middle of the room. Light directly over the sink and a hanging fixure in the dining room. don't know how many amps, but couldn't I just look at the electrial box? In a nutshell I want only recessed lights in the room, unless that means an expensive electrial upgrade.
i can get a mind visual here but is there any way that you can post a picture of the area including the lights that are there???
as for looking at the electrical panel to see the amp load, the electrical panel will tell you the size breaker you have installed but it can't tell you the total amps that the light are drawing (as far as i know). are you certain that the 4 lights are the only items on this circuit? are they any receptacles tied in???
if the lights are the only things tied in, then i can get a rough idea of total drawl.
can you also get me some pictures of the existing lights that are there?
as far as i can tell this can easily be a swap out of existing fixtures that you have for new recessed or surface fixtures. what footcandle level are you wanting to achieve?
Lamps for indoor use use very little current. You have plenty/more than enough if you have a 20 amp breaker and #12 NM cable, for a normal size room. 15 amp will most likely work unless you live in a palace.
Just install the lamps and turn them on.
More pics to come later. No idea what stuff is attached to what circuit. Not sure about the footprint either, however hoping it's the same brightness as now.
That's great, I do appreciate your help. I still need to get ya some pix also the exact dimensions but 10'X35' with 8' ceilings is within inches. Again, my goal is get recessed lighting. I have no size/model in mind, however def wanted something on the cheaper end.
with that kind of arrangement really i suggest that have few recessed cans run it own switches like one room like 6 cans on one switch [ i am sure you will end up putting in the dimmer in there ] and other part of same room have diffrent light circuit.
{note this keep in your mind there are some states are pretty restrictive with the choice of luminaires due the engry codes so just watch out when you slecting the type of light soruce like flourscent or halogen or insecet type }
normally i use most common run of the mill 6 inch cans [ line voltage type]
but if you have to run with low voltage cans MAKE sure you get the proper dimmer if need to they come in either electroinc or mangatinc set up
for the spacing typically 4-6 feet will work with 65 watt PAR
Merci, Marc
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