The standard ceiling height for any residential space is 8ft-10ft. In such spaces any light fixture which fills the room with lighting is essential while also making it appear bigger. Most of them either suspend through the ceiling by the help of cords, chains or flush against it. These ceiling lights add a great value in terms of decoration, although they always require supplemental lighting if the area of the room is bigger than usual. 

Pot lights are easily the most conventional light fixtures which not just work as standalone light fixtures but also excellent supplemental lighting fixtures. Their structural features are evidently the best for contemporary lighting designs in any kind of room. 

What are pot light fixtures? 

A pot light fixture is a small light fixture consisting of three major parts; a housing, bulb and trim. The housing is shaped like a pot which holds all the components of the light and sits inside the ceiling, hence the name pot lights. There are many different names to it such as recessed light, can lights because of this prominent structural feature and its ability to recess inside a ceiling or wall surface and provide light downwards or outwards. 

The lamp can be any of the traditional options like halogen CFL or integrated LED lamps, although LED lamps are better in terms of design and efficiency. The trim of the fixture is the outermost piece, hence it is visible. The basic function of a trim is to control the amount of light and direct it outwards to create an aesthetically appealing lighting layout. You can also pop over here to avail the benefits of LED lamps.

All three components of a recessed light fixture are just as important and work together to create almost any kind of lighting layout. To get a better overview of how recessed lights work check this link. 

The housing of recessed lights are either IC rated or NON-IC rated which identify them suitable for either ceilings with clearance above them or without them. As for these light fixtures it is essential to have minimal clearance above or around so the fixture can stay functional and do not short-circuit. There are different housing types for different ceiling designs such as: 

• New construction housing 

New construction housing is for newly built ceilings which support the installation of pot lights inherently. They have a certain space above the ceiling and the joists are exposed for easy access. 

• Remodel housing 

Remodel housings are for certain refurbished spaces which have ceilings where joists are easy to locate because of other kinds of fixtures but require clearance or a fixture which is capable of working without clearance. The remodel housing is IP rated and is either airtight or Non-IC rated. 

• Sloped ceiling housing 

As the name suggests sloped ceiling housings are for no-typical ceiling designs. These ceilings are commonly found in contemporary or period homes. The low ceiling height supports the installation of recessed lights only as other fixtures hang low and end up occupying more space. 

Advantages of using LED pot lights 

For low ceiling area there is a huge variety of options to choose from but LED pot lights allow variation in several ways such as: 

1. Allow light layering 

There are three basic light layers which are the key to create any sort of lighting layout which is comfortable to the eyes and illuminates the space evenly. The three basic layers are: 

• General lighting 

The general lighting layer is to fill the room with basic bright light for visibility. It requires the highest lumens because it must fill all corners of the room. LED recessed lights can create a general layer as they can arrange along the sides of the ceilings with basic trim designs such as open trim, baffle trim or reflector trim. These trims are for general lighting layers as they create a very diffused lighting pattern. 

• Task lighting 

The task lighting layer is essentially for rooms which have task zones within them. Here the light must be focused within a certain area and it is done with the help of trim designs which are for task lighting. These trims are pin-hole trim, eyeball trim and gimbal trim which have adjustable beam angles and these angles focus the light over a certain spot only while partially or entirely blocking light from over a certain area. 

• Accent lighting 

Accent lighting is a very essential layer to add the decorative aspect in lighting. This layer concentrates the light over a certain wall, object or zone within the room and is either brighter than the general layer or dimmer than that. It is done to highlight any object within the room. 

2. Ambient lighting 

LED pot lights due to their trim designs create a very uniform light layout which blends easily and leaves no bright or dark spots. It requires a little bit of planning prior to the installation as the installation process is irreversible. The lumen output, and correlated colour temperature of the bulb is determined prior to the purchase and is easy to calculate with the help of layout. 

LED offers switchable correlated colour temperature  which is measurable on a kelvin scale ranging from 2500K to 6000K and it produces warm yellow, cool white and daylight like light. The switchable CCT gives a lot of freedom in creating a warm display to extra white whenever needed in indoor spaces. The CRI ( colour rendering index) of LEDs is more than 80 which enhances the appearance of texture and colour of objects in the surrounding which is a key aspect in ambient lighting. 

3. Low maintenance 

LED light fixtures are low maintenance as they do not give out easily and live up to their warranty periods. Most LED lamps have a lifespan of up to 50000 hours during which they barely ever malfunction which has a significant impact on costs of replacements and maintenance over a certain time period. 

4. Energy efficient 

LED lamps are highly energy efficient which is evident when we measure their brightness in comparison to traditional lamps. The brightness of these lamps is measured in lumens and they evidently produce more lumens at the same amount of wattage supplied to a traditional lamp.