# Residential - installation process for can lighting and switches



## jmolina (Mar 28, 2018)

Hello everyone. 4th hear electrical apprentice. I’ve been starting nag to venture out and help family/friends with simple electrical task around their home, nothing major.

The majority of my apprenticeship has been with low voltage and elevator power / FA distribution with no experience in effectively learning how to do residential.

What Id like to know Is how the efficient experts out there go about planning and executing new lighting with new switches in a residential environment - not roughing in, but adding.

The homes I’ve been helping family and friends with are older and don’t have can lights, but everyone wants to add them.

What is your process?

Layout holes for lighting, drill holes, Check panel, see what’s on the circuit, Run jumpers, tap for power?

Looking for an efficient way because I find myself going in circles in the ceiling and kill a lot of time. I want to be an efficient electrician, not a time eater.

Thanks pros!


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

Find a home under construction. Walk thru it and plan a plan a new install layout.
Learn how a home is built and how to know were the joists are run. 
Knowing how a building is constructed is one of the biggest time savers.


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

Wirenuting said:


> Find a home under construction. Walk thru it and plan a plan a new install layout.
> Learn how a home is built and how to know were the joists are run.
> Knowing how a building is constructed is one of the biggest time savers.



I would also add what and where you are lighting. Kitchens are lit differently than a bedroom or dining room. You need to know where the light needs to be and how to get it there. Not an easy task. 

I find the best lighting is always placed where the user cannot see where it’s coming from. Museums are perfect examples. The light is designed and placed to illuminate what they want you to see. A lot of thought goes into that. Under cabinet lights are the same. Sure you can throw a bunch of cans in the ceiling of a kitchen but if you use under cab lights you don’t need as many. That means the ceiling won’t have a bunch of holes/lights taking away from the look of the ceiling plane. 

I have a buddy that bought a house that has a 15x35 living room. The past owner put in hi hats in 2 rows evenly distributed across the entire ceiling every 6’. Yes you get even light but the ceiling is now full of light cans and it looks like crap. Instead there should’ve been a combination of cans, sconces and switched outlets. Much easier to break up that large space in scenes using different lights and levels. 


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

There are so many unique angles to residential aftermarket work in the islands , it is something that is an art in itself. Single wall construction homes are plentiful and quite different than what 99% of the forum members have ever encountered. Lots of times the ceilings are not sheetrock, they are Canick , with non conventional engineered truss at 2 in 12 slope above the ceiling, along with 1x 4 lath nailed to the lower edge of the truss to hold up the canick ceilings. Once you penetrate the canick surface it is wicked hard to match or repair the surface to blend back in so extra care is tantamount to proper customer satisfaction. Very frequently you will encounter two wire three way travelers and the ability to recognize them from other two wire feeds is going to save you a whole bunch of head scratching time. Getting good at running wooden wire molding is also part of the scene here, compound miter cuts are frequent, but the u shape means you cannot just revers the mold on it's backside to make some cuts. Care is taken also to attach the molding over the wires without shooting a nail thru the cable insulation itself. Additional switches are sometimes quite the challenge with single wall construction, but thinking thru the project gives you the best methods coupled with a good bit of experience in that process.

You should ride shotgun with me for a couple of weeks , you'd learn a lifetime worth of tricks , I've been contracting here since 1984 and working on Oahu since 1976 in the electrical trade.


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

VELOCI3 said:


> *Under cabinet lights are the same*. Sure you can throw a bunch of cans in the ceiling of a kitchen but if you use under cab lights you don’t need as many. That means the ceiling won’t have a bunch of holes/lights taking away from the look of the ceiling plane.


Also known as task lighting.


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

Also the color of the light is important. Bedrooms should never have over 3000 kelvin. There is too much of the blue wavelength at higher temperatures. Never use lamps with less than 90CRI. The rest of the house can be 3500 kelvin. Garage 4000kelvin. Don’t buy any 5000 kelvin or anything labeled daylight. 


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## kb1jb1 (Nov 11, 2017)

One thing I worry about when apprentices are doing " side jobs " for friends and family is that they are taking work away from those of us who pay insurance and licensing fees. Over the past few months I ran into several jobs where someone who works for an electrician did the work and charged top dollar but did not get an electrical inspection. The homeowner asked if I would file it. No way especially after I found out how much the guy charged him. The apprentice's boss want an additional $500. for the inspection when I know the inspection cost is $125.00


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