Screened porch lighting options
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Anonymous
| We are in the design stage of adding a 20 x 16 screened porch to our house. The porch will have a gabled roof and gas fireplace in the center of one wall. The room is southern exposure and gets ample daytime light. At night, I don't really envision needing bright lighting, as I prefer dim lighting in general. I was originally going to have sconces on the posts, but now I'm rethinking and might do four dimmable recessed lights. There will be a ceiling fan in the center (no light). Are there other lighting options I should be considering? I'm also having them include an electrical outlet up by the ceiling so that we can put up string lights around the perimeter of the room. If we go with recessed lights, I'm wondering if we should still include sconces on either side of the fireplace. |
Anonymous
| We have a sconce and one ceiling light, also plan to put on string lights. Prefer the light of the sconce, and wish we'd put in more. I'd say do not forgo any sconces. You don't have to turn them on, but it's good to have. Also, you can't have too many outlets. Get as many as you can. |
Anonymous
We have a very similar setup, OP, and very rarely use the recessed lights. Only if someone loses something important at night. 
We use the sconces dimmed to lowest light regularly. They are on posts that aren't next to the fireplace - which also produces light when we have a fire. If you are doing string lights think about where you want them and include a switched outlet in a good spot for that (near beams?). |
Anonymous
| Also, 16x20 is fairly large space. How big is the fan? How many seating areas will you have - two? You could do two smaller fans over the seating areas. |
Anonymous
Where is your sconce located? One of my concerns is that the string lights will conflict too much with the sconces. |
Anonymous
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Funny.20 x 15 screened porch here. Southern facing. Two skylights.
We have four recessed lights, and a light in the ceiling fan. We recently added the string lights from Costco after 10 years. I’d recommend you do the same, AND get a light on your fan. You can always dim everything, but for the most part, we like it bright. And so do guests. Also, get an enclosure like we did and make it a 3-season room capability. You’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner out there, trust me. It also makes the porch useable during pollen season. www.mosquitocurtains.com |
Anonymous
Yes, we are doing EZE Breeze windows, so it will be usable for a good part of the year. Not sure about the light in the ceiling fan. I've never liked how the lights in ceiling fans look, and can't imagine we'd use it much at all. We will have four skylights. Now I'm wondering if we should do two ceiling fans instead one one. |
Anonymous
20x15 here.. No, one is fine. |
Anonymous
| Oh,,and I’m familiar with EZ Breeze. That’s a nice system. |
Anonymous
Depends on the seating setup, size of the fan, and your preference. If you do a large one with high CFM then you are probably OK. We like to feel with air movement so we did two smaller fans over the seating areas. Be sure to check the CFM either way - the higher the better. And, depending on how high the ceiling is, you may need extension rods to get the fans down to human level. |
Anonymous
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My screened porch is 12 x 12 with southern and western exposures. It's fabulous. I've been doing most of my office work from the porch in decent weather. It's got recessed lights, a single ceiling fan and I use curtain lights on the eastern wall. I've got a rollup blind for the western side because when there are few leaves on the trees, the sun is waaaay too bright and/or too brutal. I've also got multiple internet jacks on the porch because wifi doesn't work so well on the porch.
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Anonymous
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I like layers of lighting (just like inside the house), so we have recessed lights, as well as light fixtures (a higher one over the seating area, and a lower one over the table). I have one Big Ass Fan that has a light on the bottom. It's integrated and dimmable, so it actually casts a nice light. We don't really have a great spot for sconces on that porch, so we didn't do those. Everything is on dimmers. The house surrounds the porch on two sides and the walls are almost all glass, so we can get light from inside, as well.
We also have a front screened in porch that has sconces by the door, but we have floor lamps in the seating area, and we use the lamps more than the sconces. |
Anonymous
| Since this is anonymous, would you be willing to share how much your porch will cost, OP? I'm in the dreaming stage. |
Anonymous
NP here. Contract signed in late 2020: 20x20 second story screened porch with hardwood floor, 8x10 composite deck, Sunscape Windows and door (similar to EZBreeze), gable roof with two ceiling fans- $68,000. Insane, but worth every penny after this past year with everyone at home and my four walls closing in on me. I think there have been 12-15 screened porches that have gone up this past year in our neighborhood of 350 houses. |
Anonymous
OP here. Ours will be closer to $80k, but that inludes the fireplace, blowing out our kitchen wall to install a triple slider, and moving a door from our garage to the the other side of the garage and sealing up the old door. |