The True Cost of Pot Lighting

When you are planning on going with pot lighting, don’t forget to factor in all of the costs involved. A pot light is nothing like a standard light fixture and is usually significantly more expensive. You might hear a lot of people say “I just picked up a 6 pack of pot lights at home depot for 49 bucks. Yea you did just get yourself 6 pot lights, however they are useless for that new house you are building.

Too many people try to get the cheapest thing possible. Those 6 packs at home depot are called retrofits. They are designed to be installed in an existing non insulated ceiling, they do not throw much light so you need a couple hundred of them, and they heat up prematurely and fail. If you are building a new house or seriously remodeling a new room, do yourself a favor and hire a licensed and insured electrical contractor and he will tell you the price for a real pot light. He will tell you what needs to be done to ensure that your new pot lighting does not heat up and die before its time. He will tell you how to properly air seal your pot light to prevent hot or cold air getting into your home through the gaps in the pot light.

O.k. so you hired your electrician, got your pot lights installed, insulated, drywalled painted, and its time to turn them on. So you call your electrician back to finish the job and he gives you some options on lamp type, size and trim ring options. He then tells you how much it’s going to cost. I have seen a single trim for a single recessed fixture cost as much as 150 bucks. On average a nice one seems to be in the neighborhood of 25 bucks, and a plain white or black one is usually around 12 bucks.

Now for the lamp… most people seem to think they can just throw any old bulb in there and be done with it. That is one option and it will give you light, but if you just spent a pile of time and money getting good quality pot lights, and having them properly installed you might want really really good light. The nicest type of light you can get out of a line voltage pot light is a 50 watt halogen par50 lamp. Each lamp can range from $3.99 up to $15 a piece, but they are well worth the money.

So if you are in the market for some recessed lighting, spend some money, hire a competent electrical contractor and get a quality end result that you will be happy with.

Benjamin Roberts likes to write articles about things he is learning about to help others learn quicker.
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