With dropped ceilings, can lighting is one of the easiest things you can do. It allows for a great deal of flexibility, since the lights can be installed directly into the ceiling tiles. Can lights come in many varieties. Purchase can lights designed with dropped ceilings in mind--they come with the necessary frame supports to install the lights safely.
Instructions
1. Map out your light placement on a sheet of paper. Decide where the room needs more light and which tiles will need to have lights to make that happen.
2. Hire an electrician to run your wire, or trade favors with a friend who is a licensed electrician to avoid problems with building codes and city ordinances. Have them run the wire you need from your breaker box to the locations for your lights. In most municipalities, it is illegal to wire anything more than a replacement for an existing fixture without a license.
3. Take the tiles you intend to install lights into down from the grid. Use the light as a template to mark the tile where the light will be installed. Cut the circle for the can using a drywall saw. Set the tiles back into place.
4. Install the support braces for the light to the frame of the ceiling above each tile. Typically there are two horizontal braces that support a round bracket that the light will fit into. You can gain access by lifting out tiles on the side of the installation and working from above. Snap the brace onto the ceiling grid frame from above. You may not be able to remove the light tiles without first removing the braces, for future repairs.
5. Set the light into the bracket. Typically the light lifts up into the bracket from below the tile and clips to the bracket from the top with clips that are provided with the frame. Adjust the height of the light and snap the trim ring onto the bottom of the fixture from below the tile to cover up the edges of the cut hole.
6. Make certain that all breakers and switches to the wiring for the lights are in the off position. Run the wires from the fixture to the junction box provided by your electrician. Some lights have a box on the fixture; if yours do, pull the installed wire to the light to make the connection.
7. Follow the instructions that came with the light to wire it. In general, the wires are color coded. The green wire is the ground, while the white, or red, and black wires provide power to the fixture. Use wire nuts to connect the wires from the fixture to the corresponding colored wires installed by the electrician. Replace the face plate on the junction box and screw it closed.
8. Repeat the entire process for each fixture. Upon completion, double check for any loose or bare wires that were overlooked or unused. Cap them off with wire nuts and electrical tape for safety. Turn the power back on.
Tags: below tile, bracket from, dropped ceilings, from above, from below, from below tile, from fixture