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Our kitchen has a soffit over the cabinets.
In the soffit are three recessed lights. When we moved in and
started tearing things apart, I bought air-tight, IC (insulation
contact) replacements. As this picture shows, older recessed lights
don't do a whole lot toward stopping drafts from escaping into the
attic (the gap between the inner can and drywall). Sure a decorative
ring would cover that, but it wouldn't seal.
So two years ago
when I bought the lights, I replaced the one I could access from the
attic. The other two I couldn't reach. I figured the only way to get
to them would be to tear out the soffit and rebuild it. When we
decided to replace the window over the sink, I
expected the window guys to tear up the soffit to put in a window
header. I would simply throw in my lights in the middle of that and
be done with it. Unfortunately for me, they didn't get into the
soffit. I was stuck.
Recently I figured out, while cutting
out a receptacle box, I could cut out the can from the inside and
hopefully gain access to the rest from the hole. It would be messy,
but effective.
Luckily I didn't have to cut the can. I didn't
have to cut anything, though I did on the first one. The three tabs
around the can simply needed bending straight, then the can pushed
straigt up into the
soffit.
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It
was really that
simple.
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With the can out of the way, I had access to
the wires and the rest of the assembly.
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There was a base of sorts that held the wiring
and the can in the ceiling. The base was sort of glued to the
drywall. With a little wiggle, the base popped loose of the old
glue.
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A
little dremel and tin snip work had the whole thing out in a matter
of minutes. I really was surprised at how fast and cleanly the
thing came down.
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With the first light out of the way, I could
put the camera up in the hole and get a better picture of the next
light and the rest of the soffit.
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I
also discoverd (confirmed more like) the mechanics of the "heat
streak." I've been pretty confident the source of the draft is
through the old lights and through the soffit, but the access to the
attic was still a bit of a mystery. Here you can see a piece of old
and new insulation from the attic hanging down into the soffit. In
the top left hand corner is an opening into the attic. Hopefully the
new air tight lights will significantly reduce the source of the
heat. I still need to get up in the attic and try to secure the
insulation or at least cover it over with more.
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Jen
taking a working shot of the new light going in. These things are
hardly air tight out of the box. I remember being in the attic
without a headlamp after putting the first one in and seeing
light come through it. Since then, I'm careful to tape them all up
with thermal tape to insure their air-tightness.
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The
baffle should be white, but I doubt the place I ordered them from
two years ago really cares now if they screwed up the order. It took
a little over 2 hours to put the two of them in. It wasn't anywhere
near as difficult as I had imagined. Hopefully there will be some
relief in the heat streak now, though I still need to get in the
attic and fix the insulation.
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