How to Space Recessed Lights

By SHE L L E Y FROST Updated OCTOBER 19, 2019

Recessed lighting gives you illumination where you need it with the flexibility of flush fixtures
that don't hang down into your room. With regular lighting fixtures, you typically have one placed
centrally in the room, so placement is easy. When you add recessed lights, you face the spacing issue of
deciding where to place multiple smaller fixtures around the room. Several factors can help you decide on
the spacing for recessed lighting and the proper positioning.
Decide on the Purpose
Identifying the purpose of your recessed lighting can impact the layout. General lighting aims to
brighten the entire room with even light, so you want the recessed lights spaced evenly without leaving
dark areas between them. Accent or task lighting focuses on a specific area, often a workspace where
you perform tasks that need bright, concentrated light.
Recessed lighting also works well as a wall wash application. The goal in this situation is to shine the
light on a particular wall. This is usually to highlight something on the wall, such as artwork or a
fireplace.
The purpose often varies depending on the room and the intended activities for the space. Recessed
lighting in family room spaces might focus on general lighting to make the space feel bright and
welcoming. In the kitchen, it might provide task lighting above workspaces, such as your cabinets or
kitchen island.
Consider Focal Points
Does your room have an architectural detail you want to highlight? Your recessed lighting layout in
living room spaces might focus on a fireplace, for example. In the kitchen, you might choose the island or
sink as the focal point.
Start with the lighting placement around that focal point to ensure the light highlights it. Work out from
that focal point around the room, using uniform spacing between the recessed fixtures.
Watch for Corners
Corners can be tricky for recessed lighting placement because it's easy to cause shadows there. A good
guideline is to place lights about 3 feet from walls. This allows for a proper distance to reflect off the
walls without creating shadows. Shadowy corners can make the ceilings seem lower, which creates a
cave-like feeling.
This can be particularly important for the recessed lighting layout in basement spaces. Basement ceilings
are often low already. You don't want dark corners or recessed lighting layout issues to make the ceilings
seem lower.
When choosing your light layout, ensure your corner lights stay 3 feet from the two walls that meet. Use
that placement to determine the space and location for the rest of the lights, ensuring you keep the
distance uniform.
Calculate Room Measurements
The size of your room and the ceiling height help determine recessed light placement and spacing. The
general recommendation is to base the spacing on half of the ceiling height. In a room with 12-foot
ceilings, that means to space the lights 6 feet apart. If you have 8-foot ceilings, the lights should be about
4 feet apart.
Keep the room dimensions in mind when adjusting that distance. You want the recessed lighting
installation to look balanced with even spacing across the room. You may need to adjust the distance
between the fixtures to ensure that spacing is even without awkward placement near the walls.
Sketch the Spacing for Recessed Lighting
A sketch of your room helps you visualize the recessed light spacing. It also helps ensure even spacing
and serves as a reference during installation. Use grid paper to create a scale drawing of your room.
Draw in the existing permanent features and furniture in the room. Draw in the lights at your starting
point, which is often a focal point in the room that you want to highlight. Add in the rest of the lights
using the spacing you calculated.

Recessed Lighting Spacing: Finding Just the Right

Measurements for Your Room
Recessed lighting spacing requires a few simple calculations based on your
manufacturer’s specifications.

There is a lot of information out there about recessed lighting spacing.

Unfortunately, much of the information is incomplete. In general, the advice tends
to make assumptions about the height of your ceiling, the width of your cans and
the beam angle of your bulbs. As a result, advice like “if you have four-inch cans,
space them four feet apart” is simply misleading. This will only be true for certain
four-inch cans. In this article, I will discuss how to calculate the best recessed
lighting spacing, based not on such general rules, but using precise measurements
that you don’t even need to do yourself. I will also discuss how to calculate what
bulbs to purchase if you already have recessed lighting installed.

Definitions
First, I will define some general terms and provide some general principles and
terms:

Spacing: The distance between recessed lighting cans.

Spacing Criterion: This is a number used for calculating the light from two light
sources such that the light where the two light sources meet is equally as bright as
the light directly under one source.

Beam Angle: Since most recessed lighting is directed light (it shines in one
direction only), this beam has an angle that is important for calculating the spacing
criterion.

Mounting Height: This is the distance between your recessed lights and what you
are trying to illuminate. Note that if you are illuminating, for example, a countertop,
this is the distance between your ceiling and the countertop, not the distance
between your ceiling and the floor.

Application and Calculations

The most important number for calculating your recessed lighting spacing is the
Spacing Criterion (SC). Unfortunately, unless you have access to the light fixtures
themselves as well as to a light meter, you won’t be able to calculate this number.
Fortunately, manufacturers of recessed light fixtures usually do this work for you.
When purchasing your light fixture, look for the “Spacing Criterion”, “SC”, “Space to
Mounting Height Ratio”, “S/M Ratio” or “S/M”. This will usually be a number
between about 0.5 and 1.5.

This number gives you the ratio for the maximum distance between two light
sources. However, it is not simply telling you the maximum number of feet to place
between your recessed lighting. In that case, you need to do some calculations. The
formula to use is the following:Spacing = Spacing Criterion * Mounted Height

Let’s take a straight forward example. Your recessed lighting fixtures have a
spacing criterion of 0.7 and you are planning to light from an eight foot ceiling. In
this case, your spacing would be the following:
Spacing = 0.7 * 8 feet = 5.6 feet apart.

Note that this is the maximum amount of recessed lighting spacing you should have
between your light fixtures, not necessarily a minimum.

This is especially important if you are using a grid layout for your recessed lighting,
rather than a honeycomb layout (I discuss the difference in my article about
choosing a recessed lighting layout. If you are using a grid layout, you will want to
make sure that the diagonal of the squares of your grid are less than 5.6 feet apart,
not the sides of the square. Since the honeycomb layout is composed of triangles,
this will not be an issue.

Let’s take another example, this time including a surface. In one area of your
kitchen, you want to be illuminating a table, not simply the floor. The table is 2.5
feet tall. In this case, you need to calculate the spacing based on the distance
between your table and the ceiling, not the floor and the ceiling.

Spacing = 0.7 * (8 – 2.5 feet) = 0.7 * 5.5 feet = 3.85 feet

This will be the case for anything that you wish to illuminate, from tabletops to
counters or coves in which you intend to place artwork. Unfortunately, the term
“mounted height” is misleading, but that is the standard term.

What if I Already Have Lighting Installed?

In this section I will discuss what to do if you already have recessed lighting
installed, but the recessed lighting spacing is wrong. Fortunately, you can correct
this by putting new fixtures into the recessed holes that have a different Spacing
Criterion. This will save you a lot of money versus drilling new holes in your walls to
fix the problem.

In this case, you just need to use the same formula to calculate the spacing
criterion rather than the spacing itself. The formula looks like this:

Spacing Criterion = Spacing ÷ Mounted Height

So, if you come into a home with eight foot ceilings and recessed lights that are six
feet apart, you will have the following example:

Spacing Criterion = 6 ÷ 8 = 0.75

In this case, you will want to get fixtures that have a spacing criterion of at
least 0.75. This will make sure that the light in your room is more evenly
distributed.

As mentioned in the previous section, if you are using a grid structure for your
lighting, you will want to measure the distance between your lighting on the
diagonal, not on the sides of the squares of your grid.

What About Walls?

The final question is how far you should place your recessed lighting away from
your walls. The answer is fairly straightforward. Place your recessed lighting half
the distance from your walls as you do from each other. This will create a wall-
washing effect such that the light creates an attractive light object on your walls
while bouncing ambient lighting into your entire room.

Putting It All Together

Calculating recessed lighting spacing is not simply a matter of choosing can
distance based on such simple rules as “four feet for four inch cans”. Instead, you
should use the formula mentioned above to calculate how far apart your lights may
be:

 The formula for spacing is Spacing = Spacing Criterion * Mounting Height.

 This represents the maximum distance, not the minimum, so err on the side
of being too close.
 You can calculate the spacing criterion you want by using Spacing Criterion =
Spacing ÷ Mounting Height
 Illuminate your walls by placing your recessed lights half the distance from
the walls as they are from each other.

By using the above method, you can have even, attractive light from your recessed
lighting.
 Recessed Lighting Spacing
After you plan your recessed lighting layout, you must calculate recessed lighting spacing to
ensure effective light distribution all over the destined area. Constantly remember that recessed lighting
placement lead to improving the total view or arrives at the view look disoriented. When we talk
about can light spacing not only talking about the distance between the light fixtures but including the
distance between the first fixture and the wall which should be half the distance between fixtures in the
same row.

After you have determined  how many recessed lights you need  , now by some calculations you will
know exactly the spacing necessary for effective lighting.

Recessed Lighting Spacing Calculations for general

recessed lighting layout

 Determine the length of the area (L).

 The number of light units in a single row for that length (N).
 Divide the length (L) by the number of light units in that row (N), you get the exact distance
between light units in that row.
  Divide the distance between light units by 2 that will be the distance from the wall to the first
light unit.

Now repeat the same steps for the width of the area
 Determine the width of the area (W).
 The number of light units in a single row for that width (N).
 Divide the length (W) by the number of light units in that row (N), you get the exact distance
between light units in that row.
 Divide the distance between light units by 2 that will be the distance from the wall to the first
light unit.
For practical calculations check out the Recessed Lighting Placement Calculations by Examples

. Recessed Lighting Spacing Calculations for task recessed lighting layout

The calculations for task lighting are the same as the general recessed lighting spacing except if the task
area sits near a wall:
 Measure the distance from the ceiling down to the surface you wish to light, for example, the
floor or a countertop.
 Divide this distance by 4 to determine the distance from the wall to the first light unit. To light
the task area without creating the harsh lighting on the wall, So for an 8 foot ceiling lights should
be placed two feet away from the wall.

Can Light Spacing Calculations for wall wash recessed lighting layout
 The general rule for installing wall wash recessed fixtures are about 1.5 to 3 feet away from the
wall.
 Fixed trims should be placed closer to the wall.
 Adjustable trims may be placed farther away from the wall.
 Wall wash fixtures should be spaced apart the same distance from each other.
 Recessed Lighting Placement Calculations
In this tutorial, you will learn recessed lighting placement calculations by examples but
first, you should read  recessed lighting spacing to understand this simple formula, which
tells you where to place the light units in your recessed lighting layout.

A room dimensions are 15 feet long (L=15) and 10 feet wide (W=10)

So, total area is 150 square foot and total wattage required for this room=150*1.5=225
watt.
-By using 60W bulbs, you will need four bulbs to effectively light this room.

Recessed Lighting Placement calculations for 4 bulbs

 The distance between bulbs in the long rows =L/N =15/2=7.5 foot.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the long rows =7.5 foot/2 =3.75 foot.
 The distance between bulbs in the width rows =W/N =10/2=5 foot.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the width rows =5 foot/2 = 2.5 foot.

By using 40W bulbs, you will need six bulbs to effectively light this room.

Recessed lighting placement calculations for 6 bulbs:

 The distance between bulbs in the long rows =L/N =15/3= 5 foot.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the long rows =5 foot/2 = 2.5 foot.
 The distance between bulbs in the width rows =W/N =10/2=5 foot.
 The distance between the first bulb on the wall in the width rows =5 foot/2 = 2.5
foot.

A room dimensions are 16 feet long (L=16) and 12 feet wide (W=12)

So, total area is 192 square foot and total wattage required for this room=192*1.5=288
watt.
- By using 60 W bulbs, you will need five bulbs to effectively light this room.

Recessed lighting placement calculations for 5 bulbs

 The distance between bulbs in the long rows =L/N =16/2= 8 feet.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the long rows =8 foot/2 = 4 feet.
 The distance between bulbs in the width rows =W/N =12/2=6 feet.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the width rows =6 foot/2 = 3 feet.
 The fifth bulb should be in the middle (L/2,W/2) =(8,6) foot.
- By using 40W bulbs, you will need eight bulbs to effectively light this room.

Recessed Lighting Placement calculations for 8 bulbs:

 The distance between bulbs in the length rows =L/N =16/3= 5.3 feet.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the long rows =5.3 foot/2 = 2.66 feet.
 Bulbs in the middle row are equally spaced apart and from the wall 16/3 =5.3 feet.
 The distance between bulbs in the width rows =W/N =12/3=4 foot. but remember
there is a virtual place in the middle so the distance will be doubled (2*4) =8 feet.
 The distance between first bulb and the wall in the width rows =4 foot/2 = 2 feet.
 Bulbs in the middle row are equally spaced from the wall 12/2 =6 feet.

As you see Recessed Lighting Placement calculations are simple and always tend to Space
your fixtures evenly. Once recessed lighting placement exact locations determined, you
should find out if they can be installed in these particular locations. You can use a stud
finder and determine where the ceiling joist are located. You may have to adjust placement
locations to avoid hitting a ceiling joist.
 Recessed Lighting Layout Basics - How
Many Recessed Lights?
If you are thinking to buy recessed lights, you should create a recessed lighting layout  first,
to ensure that you will buy the required number  and size of recessed lights. When the
design of the recessed light layout has been ordered in just the right way, it leads to many
benefits, like a room can seem larger, is pleasing to the eye, certain aspects of the room
may be emphasized and blends well with the ceiling.

Since the purpose of the room where recessed lights are being placed is an important
factor, according to the needed lumen so, you have to know how the recessed can spread
light.
As you see light taking a cone shape, which has high intensity at the center and decreased gradually going
out from the middle, and the ceiling height has a major role in the light circle diameter.

How Many Recessed Lights Do You Need?

Now you need to know How many recessed lights will you need?
 Determine the area per (ft²) of the room or space that you want to light.
 Determine the total wattage required for this area by Multiplying the area by 1.5, which is the
average watt/ ft².
 In some areas the desired amount of lighting may rise to 3 watt/ ft² like kitchens.
 Divide the total wattage by the wattage of the bulb that you are using or  plan to use, so you get
the number of recessed lights in this area.
For general lighting to simplify you can use one light/ ft², it will usually be sufficient to light the area. If
the a ceiling height is more than 16 feet, you can use brighter lights since the area will need more amount
of light.

General Recessed Lighting Layout

The destination of the general recessed lighting layout is to supply an equal distribution of illumination
throughout the room, regardless any object in it, The cans should be equally spaced throughout the room,
usually they are in rows with an equal number of cans in each row. You can see some samples of layouts
that depending on the number of recessed lights to be installed in the below video.

Task Recessed Lighting Layout

Task lights aim to light the important areas where you perform your tasks. Like  lighting your
kitchen counter space, under cabinet, also can be in bathrooms and reading rooms.

The below layout makes the difference between general and task lighting clear.
After you get your layout you must calculate the recessed lighting spacing to ensure you can have effective light
distribution.