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Buying LED Fixtures for a New House: The Six Specifications That Separate a Good Light From a Cheap One
Finishes and upgrades Lighting From a builder
Buying LED Fixtures for a New House: The Six Specifications That Separate a Good Light From a Cheap One
An incandescent bulb was a wire in a glass bottle and every one was the same. An LED fixture is a semiconductor, a phosphor, a lens, a heat sink and a driver, and every one is different. The box says “50,000 hours” on all of them. Here is how to tell which ones mean it.
Short version: Check six things: CRI of 90 or better where it matters (80 is the cheap default and makes food and faces grey); colour consistency across fixtures (buy one brand, one batch, and look for a tight binning spec); beam angle that matches the job (wide for general, narrow for accent); a real heat sink, because the LED chip runs hot at the junction and heat is what kills it; dimmer compatibility from the maker’s published list; and efficacy of 90 lumens per watt or better with a five-year warranty from a company that will exist in five years. Prices: a decent integrated pot light $25 to $60 at the counter, a good one $60 to $120; the difference is the driver and the heat sink, which you cannot see on the shelf.
1. Colour rendering (CRI)
CRI is how faithfully a light shows colours against daylight, on a scale to 100. Old sodium street lights were about 25; most fluorescents 60 to 80; cheap LEDs 80; good LEDs 90 to 97. In a kitchen, a dining room and a bathroom mirror, the difference between 80 and 90 is the difference between food that looks fresh and food that looks tired, and between a face that looks well and one that looks ill. Specify 90 plus in those rooms and anywhere you chose the paint carefully. Some makers also publish R9 (the deep red component); a high R9 is what makes skin and meat look right.
2. Colour consistency
Two fixtures labelled 3000 K can differ visibly, because LEDs are sorted (“binned”) after manufacture and cheap products use loose bins. Ten pot lights in a ceiling with two colours of white among them is the most common complaint after move-in, and there is no fix but replacing them. Buy one brand, one batch, and look for a binning spec (a 3-step MacAdam ellipse or tighter is the good number); good makers hold colour over time as well as from unit to unit.
3. Beam angle
An LED chip shines in one direction and the lens decides how wide. A 60 to 120 degree flood is general light; a 15 to 36 degree spot is for art, a fireplace wall or a kitchen island; a strip is a line. A ceiling of narrow-beam pot lights makes pools on the floor and dark walls; a wall washer aimed at the fireplace makes the room look twice the size. The spec sheet lists it; the shelf box often does not.
4. Heat
LEDs make little radiant heat, which is why you can touch one, but the junction where the light is made runs hot and that heat has to go somewhere. A fixture with a finned metal heat sink runs its chip cool and lasts the 50,000 hours on the box; a fixture with a plastic back cooks its chip and fades or fails in a few thousand. In an insulated ceiling, an IC-rated airtight pot light is designed to shed its heat with insulation on top of it; a non-IC fixture buried in insulation is both a short-lived light and a fire risk. Ice dams are the other reason the sealed IC fixture matters.
5. Dimming
The driver in the fixture decides whether it dims and on what. Buy fixtures marked dimmable, then the dimmer from the fixture maker’s compatibility list: trailing-edge (ELV) for most integrated fixtures, 0-10 V for strips and commercial-grade installs, leading-edge only where the list says so. A mismatch buzzes, flickers, drops out at the bottom of the range or shortens the driver’s life. LED lighting design covers warm-dim and smart dimmers.
6. Efficacy and warranty
Efficacy is lumens per watt: incandescent about 14, fluorescent about 40 to 60, LEDs now 90 to 150 and rising. Past 90 the money is better spent on CRI and the heat sink than on a few more lumens per watt. A five-year warranty from a maker with a decade of history is the real spec; the 50,000-hour claim is a projection, and the company has to be there to honour it. Payback against incandescent was two years; against another LED it is nothing, which is why the other five specs are what you are buying.
What a builder specifies
| Location | Fixture | Spec |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen general | 4 in integrated IC airtight pot lights, wide beam | 3000 K, CRI 90 plus, ELV dimmable, one batch |
| Kitchen task | Under-cabinet LED strip in a channel with a diffuser | 3000 K, CRI 90 plus, 0-10 V or ELV dimming, driver accessible |
| Island | Three pendants, replaceable bulb | 3000 K or 2700 K bulbs, CRI 90, dimmable |
| Living and bedrooms | Pot lights plus lamps and a sconce or two | 2700 K, CRI 90, dimmable |
| Bathroom mirror | Sconces either side at face height, plus a sealed pot over the shower | 3000 K, CRI 90 plus, wet-rated in the shower |
| Garage and workshop | Linear LED strips or 4 ft fixtures | 4000 K, CRI 80 plus, high lumens, no dimming needed |
| Exterior | Dark-sky down lights, warm | 2700 to 3000 K, wet-rated, on a photocell or timer |
The whole list comes from lighting and outlet planning before drywall; the sealed IC fixture is the one item that also matters to the building science.
Related guides on this site
Sources and further reading
Questions people ask
What should I look for in LED fixtures for a new home?
CRI of 90 or better where food and faces are lit, tight colour binning and one brand per room, a beam angle matched to the job, a real metal heat sink (IC-rated and airtight in insulated ceilings), a dimmer from the maker's compatibility list, efficacy of 90 lumens per watt or better, and a five-year warranty.
Why do two LED lights of the same colour look different?
Loose binning. LEDs are sorted after manufacture, and cheap products accept wide colour variation. Buy one brand and one batch per room, and look for a tight binning spec (3-step MacAdam or better).
Do LED lights really save money?
Against incandescent, enormously; against another LED, no. The saving is settled; the money now goes into colour quality, dimming and fixtures that last, which is what separates a $30 pot light from a $90 one.
Can LED pot lights be covered with insulation?
Only IC-rated airtight fixtures, which are designed to shed heat with insulation over them and to seal the ceiling. Non-IC fixtures buried in insulation overheat and are a fire risk.
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Send it to ICFhome.ca and we will tell you what it costs to build and where the drawing is spending money you may not want to spend.
Reviewed and updated October 2026. Costs are Ontario ranges, not quotes; code references are to the Ontario Building Code in force at that date.
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The prices for LED lights are quite high and may not sound affordable to many. But, though the initial cost is too high, these lights are manufactured to save on a lot of energy and thus the money in the long run.