Take those "watts per square foot" types of calculations with a big grain of salt. Light outputs for different sizes and types of bulbs at a given wattage vary widely, which is why light is measured in lumens -- not watts.

I'm more comfortable doing the calculations for incandescent bulbs, but I'll take a stab at this. With 5" cans I'd assume you might use R-30 CFLs. These seem to typically be 15 or 16 watts, and produce 660 or so lumens. I think six of those in a room might seem a little dim; I'd like to see about 8. You could place a couple towards the center of the room, but switch them separately so that you don't always have to use them.

Since the range hood is likely to have it's own lights,I don't think I'd cram in the one in front of the stove. The hood will also, assuming it sticks out over the cooktop, cast a shadow if there's a light overhead like that.

Thanks for your feedback! We will definitely add the other two.

If we were to add incandescent bulbs, what would be your suggestion on bulbs?

Is there a special dimmer gadget needed to have the option of dimming incandescent or fluorescent bulbs (depending on which we end up using)?

I didn't mean to imply that incandescent bulbs would be preferable, only that I know more about them. 5" cans will typically accept PAR-30 halogen bulbs. Some can/trim combinations can take 75 watt bulbs, some only 50 watts. The 50-watt PAR bulb would produce about the same amount of light that the R30 fluorescents do, but use three times as much electricity and produce a tighter beamspread. The 75-watt version would produce almost twice as much light.

Dimming incandescents is easy - pretty much any old dimmer will do. Dimming fluorescents is trickier, and whether it's possible depends on the ballast that drives the bulb. Screw-in CFLs each have their own individual ballast, which is housed in the plastic base that the ends of the tubes plug into. If you want to dim CFLs, you need to buy special "dimmable" bulbs. It's my understanding that some can be dimmed with common, everyday dimmers and that some require a special type of dimmer, but this really isn't one of my stronger areas of understanding.

Our kitchen was aprox. 11' x 11' with an 8' ceiling, and we used five 5" Juno recessed cans. One on either side of the stove and one on each side of the sink. These cans were centered over the edge of the counter tops. The fifth can was centered on the refer and placed about where the center of the bottom freezer drawer would be when opened. This also tended to place it near one of the doorways into the kitchen.

We used 5 75watt halogen Par wide floods on a dimmer. The trims were the Juno Airlock: White Rim with Wheat Haze cone. We do have two pendants over the peninsula as well as some under cabinet lights. Even without these, the five cans give us plenty of task lighting with little, if any dark spots or shadows, and when dimmed nice ambient light. The trims we chose, while a bit expensive, really reduce glare, and blend in nicely with the ceiling.

The lighting layouts at this website helped me think about my space, although I used different fixtures. In our 9'x14'-4" galley kitchen with laundry at end wall, we used (6) 5" juno cans and xenon undercabs everywhere. My lighting designer friend approved the layout & did not recommend centering the cans over the counter b/c in my application, the cans are the ambient lights and the undercabs are the task lights.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.lightingplans.com

Philips makes retrofit CFs that can be dimmed with an ordinary triac dimmer. I haven't used the R-flood type, but have had good service from some of the exposed lamp type.

Consider using exposed CFs rather than R-flood enclosed CFs. They're much cheaper and may have a better light distribution, depending on what kind of cans you use.

You might think they'll look odd, but after the first week or two you probably won't even notice them any more. A friend of mine uses them in recessed cans and none of her guests has ever commented about them.

David, what sort of trims have you used to get the most out of the spiral bulbs?

I don't know what they are, as these aren't in my own house. I'll try to remember to check the next time I go over there.