Pot Light Installation Questions

[DJDiggler]

I'm in the long process of finishing my basement and am on a roll so far... I have all my wiring in for my pot lights but don't know what to do now! I plan on putting in a suspended ceiling but don't quite want to tackle that job yet, is there a way to hook up all my pot lights with just the bare joists?

As I understand it I need these brackets that attach to the suspended ceiling rails. Are those what I need? They just mention those brackets are for "pre-drywall" on the boxes of pot lights I bought. I figure I can just hang them between the joists for now and, if possible, use them for the suspended ceiling after.

[Carlos J]

As long as the ceiling is NOT INSULATED you can use those brackets(yes you will need them for the suspended ceiling or the tiles will SAG over time) just screw them in on the joists, you may have to add a couple pieces of 2x3 in order to get them where you want.I DO NOT recommend doing this as a temorary solution until you put up your ceiling as without the gyprock/ceiling tile in place you will have to shim the pot lights with a similar material to get it to hold as the bracket by itself is too thin.How long are you going to wait?It would be a lot less of a PITA if you went out and got a couple of temporary pigtails http://www.1000bulbs.com/Temporary-C...ighting/41459/ and the protective gaurds http://www.1000bulbs.com/Temporary-C...ighting/41452/. This will save you the hassels of having to install and then rip everything apart later to put back into your suspended ceiling .Keeping in mind that these fixtures are on the lower budget side you will have to be extra gentle on the removal and reinstallation?Spend a couple $ get the pigtails ,gaurds, bulbs, and save yourself a lot of hassels and time!By the way after the ceiling is up those brackets just hang on the T-BAR frame of the ceiling they work well!

[gzink]

I'm not sure you have it right. I would hope some additional comments would follow. The mount says "plaster".
Are you considering halogen?? Today that might not be the most energy efficient route. Two 300 watt halogen bulbs were eating up a lot of our electricity bill. Changed and our costs went down significantly.

[Carlos J]

The fixtures in the link are GU-10 50watt halogen,they are the size of an MR-16 bulb but work on 120volts so there is no transformer,i actually prefer these bulbs to the MR-16's.And yes those are the right brackets they do have other models but as long as the supports for the bracket can be secured to the T-BARS you will be fine.

[DJDiggler]

Thanks for all the help Carlos J! I was going to just install them in the panels but it just didn't seem right, I'll pick up some brackets today and decide weather I want to go to the trouble of a temporary install. I already have 2 lights down there that the builder installed, so it's not like I NEED to put them up. (but I do want to see how they look.)

They are 50 watt halogen, I do have efficient CFL's throughout the house but I couldn't justify the massive cost increase getting CFL pot lights. Plus I have these on a remote control dimmer, (it's a Home Theater), and was unsure about CFL dimming.

[Carlos J]

He is going with a suspended ceiling that is why he needs the brackets or over time the CEILING TILES WILL SAG!Sure for a gyprock ceiling it is not really needed,as it is more solid.

[Jake]

I just want to mention that there is a large range of deformation from dry wall to ceiling tiles. I used 1" thick ceiling tiles that did not flex (bit of pain to install) but do not require any support structure. The tiles were picked because of their design and acoustic properties. It was only after that we realized the installation advantage.

[Bent]

I use a frosted PAR 20 bulb in a 4" pot-light can that has brackets that straddle the ceiling grid, no joist attachment necessary. It's tough to find frosted PAR20's though.

a hole cut through the tile to accommodate the can and a matched bezel on the other side of the pot..

8 of these lights are in my theater, (22' x12.5 they provide exceptional light and excellent dispersion.

a PAR 20 bulb is a tad more robust than a gu10 based bulb, so it should last longer.

I used GU10 based 50 watt MR16 units in my old place in the same way, but the pot's thermal cut-out would trip when the lights were on at full brightness. switching to 35 watt GU10's solved that with very little loss in light output.