How difficult to add can lighting?
Question:I would like to put this lighting in my ceiling. I have insulation above in the attic. How do you wire it to the light switch? Is this a job better performed by an electrician? Any advise is helpful!
Answers:
It is really not that hard to do, but it is very time consuming and difficult to explain over email. What I would do if I were you is go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a "how to" book on electrical work that will explain to you step by step what you need to do.
In general you need to spot the cans, pull back the insulation, cut holes in the ceiling and test fit the cans. Go into the crawl space or attic and find if there are any available circuits that you can tap into off of the same light switch that already controls you kitchen lights. If not or if you want them on a seperate ligth switch, you will need to run a new circuit. Go to your breaker panel, take the cover off, put in a new 15 amp breaker, run 14 guage wire from the breaker up to teh crawlspace where the lights will be and then go into the kitchen and cut a hole where you want the light switch to be and get a "old work single-gang construction box"; next drill a hole in the top cap on the studs and pull out enough wire to fish down to where the lightswitch will be and then cut it and tape it to the "running end" off the spool of wire and fish the two stands of wire down to where the hole is cut in the wall and put them into the old work box. Cut the wire back to expose the individula stands and you should find a black stands, white strand and a copper strand. Strip back about 3/8 of an inch on both the white and black strands, take some wire nuts and connect both of the white ends with a wire nut and push them inside the box to the back. Take the black ends and a light switch and the switch will have two brass screws on the left. Place one end of each black strand onto each of the two screws then get a small piece of bare copper wire about 4 inches long and take the two bare copper stands and this 4 inch "pig tail" and use a wire nut to put the three of them together, then use the exposed end of the pig tail and place it on the green ground screw on the bottom of the sswitch. Push your lights into place and go back into the attic and run wire to each of the lights. If you have more than one light, you will need to cut additional strands of wire to each of the lights. On the back of the can there will be a box that contains the wiring for the light, open it up and put the three blacks together and wire nut them off, three whites together and nut them off and the copper grounds together just like you did for the switch. Somewhere in the light fixture there will be a ground screw so you can ground the light fixture. YOu are finished with this individual light, go to the next and repeat.
As you can see, there is lots involved, Get the book that explains it!
This is a job better handled by an electrian if you have no experience. This can involve a lot of work and mess if not careful. If you have an existing light switch that you want to control the new cans then the install would be easier but not simple. You can buy old work cans that are installed without getting into the attic. They can be purchased at any home improvement store.
Very and not for the beginner. Should be done by a qualified contractor.
Unless you know something about electricity, you are better off paying someone who knows what they are doing than trying to do it yourself. Call and get about three estimates to get an idea about the cost involved.
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