Planning recessed spotlights - need tips

Hello everyone,

We are currently planning the lighting design of our new building (construction starts in about 4 weeks). We mainly plan to use recessed spotlights on the ground floor (living room, hallway, kitchen).

I am quite a layman in this field. Therefore my question: What should I pay attention to when planning the recessed spotlights? What distance from the wall or the next recessed spotlight should I maintain? The room height is 2.55m.

Do I need to pay attention to something like beam angle when buying the recessed spotlights? Would you rather recommend halogen or LED? (I know LED is more energy-efficient, but I am not sure if it really is worth it.)

The recessed spotlights will be integrated directly into the concrete ceiling, so the ceiling is not suspended.

I would be very grateful for helpful tips so that there are no dark corners after construction.

Thank you very much.

I have also just dealt a bit with the topic of recessed spotlights. However, my starting point is different; in an existing house, I removed the old ceiling paneling and now have unplastered ceilings. I will add counter battens while retaining the original battens and then suspend the ceiling with Fermacell boards. My installation situation does not allow for much installation depth (only 5-6 cm), so I chose very flat LED recessed spotlights, also for heat dissipation reasons. The disadvantage is that the LEDs cannot be replaced because they are permanently installed. Nevertheless, mine are even slightly adjustable to a small extent. Your situation is different, and I suspect that you have enough space to install LED or halogen spotlights with GU10 or GU5.3 sockets; then the bulbs can be replaced later (e.g., retrofitting from halogen to LED). I would probably choose LEDs right away, but of course, that is also a question of price; however, they are no longer that expensive. There are, however, big differences in the beam angle. For example, I bought some for outdoors with a 120-degree beam angle and 390 lm output (high-voltage LED without transformer). I determined the actual brightness (luminous flux) only by buying various fixtures as tests and trying them out. For outdoors, this is sufficient for lighting under the roof overhang. However, if you want accent lighting directed at a wall, LEDs with smaller beam angles (30-40 degrees) are more suitable. After testing, I roughly calculated the number and installation locations for outdoors based on the beam angle and the height above ground so that the ground is evenly illuminated (4 units in front and 4 in the back, distributed over approx. 10-12 m). I still have to test indoors, as the desired brightness and distribution naturally also depend on the room (the kitchen should certainly be brighter than the living room). Here, one should also consider the planned furnishing, since I do not need to illuminate the overhead cabinet in the kitchen from above, for example. By the way, many LEDs cannot be dimmed (mine cannot either). If you plan to do so, you should pay attention to this when purchasing. I only chose warm white LEDs (2700-3000 K); in the office, a more neutral light color might be desired, so you should also consider that.

We plan the same. In the execution plan they have a distance of about one meter.

The kitchen with a little over 15 sqm has 5 spots. However, there are additional light sources such as [zB] indirect lighting in cabinets / wall cabinets and the extractor hood.

The hallway with 11.6 sqm has 6 spots. In the hallway towards the [WZ] 4 (length 5.50) and in the "junction" 2 (length approx. 1.90).

3 spots will go on the ceiling of the recessed apartment entrance. With a width of 3.50m that makes 3 spots.

According to agreement with our architect, this is sufficient. However, we do not intend to install very small spots.

In terms of size, spots up to a max. diameter of 16 cm fit into the intended openings.

Which exactly will be installed is not yet decided.

If the spotlights are to be integrated directly into the concrete ceiling, the installation housings must be set and wired during the concreting of the ceiling. Most of the time, the installation housings "HaloX" from Kaiser are used. Just google it. The shell builder and electrician must coordinate accordingly.

Thank you very much for the answers.

For me, the interesting question is: What distance should the spots have from each other so that the entire room is really illuminated. The living room measures approximately 8.10m x 4.50.

What do you think, what distances should be used? (Furniture and a corresponding distance to the wall are of course taken into account)

Hi, we have planned spots everywhere as well. The distance between the spots in our living/dining area and kitchen is 1.25m, and we left 65cm to the wall. It really depends on the beam angle of the spots used and the height of the room. It is also important whether, for example, they are used only for accent lighting/ambient lighting and whether dimmers are used. You can try drawing the wall height yourself and then mark the angle of the spot (e.g., 30°). Then you can see where the next spot would need to be placed so that the light cones overlap (so that a lot of light coverage is achieved).