Oct 09, 2026 / By the Lumibox team / in LED Guides
Building a new home is the one moment when LED lighting costs nothing extra to get right. Before the drywall goes up, every wire, box and housing can go exactly where it should. After the drywall, every change means cutting, patching and painting. This guide walks through LED lighting for new home construction in Canada, room by room, so you can hand your electrician a clear plan instead of a list of afterthoughts.
It is written for homeowners building or finishing a house, for contractors who want a simple checklist to share with clients, and for condo buyers choosing options before delivery. We cover recessed lighting choices, colour temperature, dimmers and controls, the basement, the kitchen, stairs, the exterior, built-in LED strips in aluminium profiles, drivers and power supplies, and what changes in a condo.
Walk every room with the framing open and mark each fixture on the studs or joists. A pot light above a closed cabinet door or behind a headboard is wasted light. Use the recessed lighting calculator to get a starting count per room, then adjust for the layout. Our guide on pot light spacing explains the logic.
At this stage, decide three things for each room: the fixture type, the switch location and whether the light will be dimmed. Those decisions dictate the wiring. A three-way switch at the bottom and top of a staircase, a dimmer in the dining room, or a low-voltage run for under-cabinet lights all need to be in the walls before they close.
There are two main ways to put round LED downlights in a ceiling. The first is the slim (wafer) downlight: a thin fixture with a small remote junction box that installs through a hole in finished drywall. The second is a recessed housing installed on the joists during rough-in, into which a trim or module is fitted later.
Slim downlights are fast and work well where joist space is tight. Some systems add a rough-in plate so the hole lands exactly where planned: the LUMENSTARLED 4" rough-in mounting plate is made for its 4" 15W downlight with five selectable CCTs (2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K), rated IP65, dimmable and ETL approved. Housings and frames take more planning but give a precise, often trimless, finish. CANOLIGHT offers round frames in trim and trimless versions for its DL3 series in 3, 3.5 and 4 inch sizes.
Any light that goes into a ceiling under an unheated attic, or into an exterior wall, crosses the building envelope. Ask for fixtures or housings rated for contact with insulation and built to limit air leakage, and confirm the exact requirement with your electrician and the building inspector: rules vary by province and by the type of construction. Slim downlights with a sealed body often simplify this, since there is no open can in the ceiling. Where the attic detail is complex, surface-mount fixtures on the top floor are a simple alternative.
Mixed colour temperatures are a common complaint in new homes. Pick one CCT for the main living areas and stick to it across every fixture type: pot lights, ceiling lights, strips and pucks. In residential spaces, 2700K and 3000K are the usual warm choices, 3500K is a neutral middle ground, and 4000K or 5000K suit a garage, workshop or laundry room where task visibility matters more than ambience.
Selectable-CCT fixtures make consistency easier. Many recessed and ceiling products have a switch on the driver or fixture: the ORTECH 12" flush mount offers 2700/3000/3500/4000/5000K, and the LUMENSTARLED 4" and 6" downlights offer the same five settings. Set every switch to the same value before the fixtures go up, and write the setting on your plan. For colour accuracy, look at CRI: products with CRI 90 render wood, paint and food more naturally than CRI 80, which matters most in kitchens, bathrooms and dressing areas.
Decide on dimming before rough-in, because the dimmer type has to match the driver. Most residential LED fixtures use TRIAC (phase-cut) dimming, the kind found in standard wall LED dimmers. Commercial-style fixtures often use 0-10V, which needs an extra pair of low-voltage wires from the dimmer to the fixture. For example, the ORTECH 6" dual selectable commercial downlight runs on 120V-347V with 0-10V dimming, which is ideal for a condo lobby or a shop but needs that extra wiring in a house.
Put dimmers where the mood changes: dining room, living room, primary bedroom, home theatre and kitchen island pendants. For closets, laundry rooms and storage rooms, consider fixtures with a built-in sensor: the ORTECH 5 inch flush mount includes a motion sensor and gives 600 lumens at 10W with 5CCT, so the light turns on when you walk in with your hands full.
A new basement is a blank slate with a low ceiling. Slim downlights preserve headroom, and a grid of evenly spaced pot lights avoids dark corners. Plan zones: a family room on a dimmer, an office or gym with brighter neutral light, and a mechanical room with a simple ceiling fixture or linear light. Our basement lighting page groups the fixtures that fit low ceilings. A bulkhead can also hide a cove of LED strip lighting.
The kitchen needs layered light: general light from pot lights, task light on the counters, and accent or decorative light at the island. Position the pot lights over the front edge of the counters, not in the middle of the floor, so you are not working in your own shadow. Under the upper cabinets, plan either puck lights or a continuous strip in a profile. The ORTECH LED puck light runs at 1.5W and 120 lumens with CRI 90+ on 12V DC, with three selectable CCTs, and needs a low-voltage driver hidden in a cabinet. ARANI also offers a recessed mount and trim for under-cabinet puck modules. See the kitchen lighting page for pendants, track and under-cabinet options.
Stairs are where good planning shows. Step lights recessed in the wall next to the treads light the path without glare, and they need a box at each location during rough-in. The LUMENSTARLED RT05 low-voltage step light fits a single gang junction box and runs at 12V and 2W; an RT05 version also exists at 120V for line-voltage wiring. Decide which one you want before the boxes go in, because low voltage needs a driver. Add a three-way switch at each end of the stairs. More ideas on the staircase lighting page.
In bedrooms, a dimmable ceiling light or a few pot lights on a dimmer is enough; avoid placing a pot light directly above the pillow. In bathrooms, choose fixtures with a wet or damp rating near the shower: the LUMENSTARLED 4" and 6" downlights, for example, are rated IP65. Plan the vanity light and mirror together so the wall box is centred.
Outside, plan for three jobs: the entrance, the paths and the decorative layer. Wall boxes for outdoor wall sconces beside doors and the garage need to be framed in before the siding. The CANOLIGHT LED exterior light is rated IP65 and gives 500 lm at 13W in 3000K, a good match for warm interior lighting. For decks and outdoor stairs, the LUMENSTARLED DECKSTAR is a trimless recessed light at 12V DC and 0.5W with IP67 and dimming: it needs a low-voltage run and an outdoor-rated power supply, so leave conduit or cable in place before the deck boards go down.
Soffit pot lights light the facade and walkway without anything visible on the walls. Put exterior lights on a photocell or timer.
New construction is the best time to build in LED strips, because the profile can be set into the drywall instead of stuck on the surface. A trimless profile gives a clean line of light flush with the ceiling or wall. CANOLIGHT's 6114 trimless recessed profile is designed to go in after the drywall and comes in 10 ft lengths with end caps and a PC diffuser cover; the 5515 trimless recessed profile is another option. For corners, NEXLEDS makes an inside angle drywall profile that creates a line of light where wall meets ceiling.
Plan the strip runs with your drywall installer and decide where each power supply will sit: a closet, a utility room or an accessible box, never sealed behind drywall. Browse the full range of LED aluminium profiles and read the aluminium profile guide before choosing widths and diffusers.
Every low-voltage element in the plan (strips, pucks, step lights, deck lights) needs a 12V or 24V power supply. 24V is the usual choice for longer strip runs; 12V is common for pucks and small fixtures. The rule of thumb is to add up the wattage of the lights on each supply and leave a safety margin rather than loading it to the maximum. Choose a dimmable driver if the strip will be on a dimmer, and match the dimming type to the wall control.
Some drivers are designed for new construction because they install in or as a junction box: the ORTECH dimmable LED driver in a junction box handles up to 60W, and the LUMENSTARLED 288W junction box power supply (96W x 3, 24V) supports TRIAC, 0-10V and PWM dimming among its five protocols, with a wet rating. CANOLIGHT's dimmable constant voltage driver at 60W and 24V works with TRIAC and phase-cut dimmers. Explore LED power supplies and drivers to compare wattages and enclosures.
In a condo, the concrete ceiling usually limits what can be recessed. Options include surface-mount ceiling lights, slim downlights in a bulkhead or dropped section, track lighting in the kitchen, and LED strips in profiles under cabinets or in coves. If you buy on plan, choose the electrical options early: adding a box to a concrete slab after delivery is far harder than at the design stage. The same one-CCT rule applies, and in an open-concept unit it matters even more.
Before the electrical rough-in, ideally while the framing is still open. That is when boxes, housings, low-voltage runs and switch locations are cheap to place.
It depends on room size, ceiling height and the light output of the fixture. Start with the calculator mentioned above, then adjust spacing around cabinets, furniture and walls.
4 inch downlights give a discreet look and are common in modern homes; 6 inch models such as the LUMENSTARLED 24W version produce more light per fixture, which suits higher ceilings or larger rooms.
Most homes use 2700K or 3000K for living spaces, with 4000K or 5000K reserved for garages, workshops and laundry rooms. The key is to use one value consistently in connected spaces.
Yes, if the fixture is marked dimmable and the dimmer matches its dimming type, usually TRIAC for residential fixtures or 0-10V for commercial ones. Plan the dimmer type before rough-in.
In an accessible location such as a closet, utility room or junction box, never sealed inside a wall or ceiling. Size each supply for the total wattage of its strips with a margin to spare.
Ready to turn the plan into a shopping list? Start with round LED downlights and recessed housings, then add dimmers, profiles and drivers.
