• Recessed lighting can heat up insulation and cause a fire.Todd Warnock/Lifesize/Getty Images
  
  Recessed lighting is usually set into a wall or ceiling to provide light in specific areas within a room with unobtrusive light fixtures. While these recessed lights can create a smooth look to your ceiling or walls, they are not without their problems. The holes into which they are set can let in cold air, and melted insulation around recessed lights can cause a fire hazard. Some safety features are built into recessed lights to minimize these hazards.
  
  

Override Switch

• Recessed lighting can generate a great amount of heat which can melt any nearby insulation. The Underwriters Laboratory, which sets wiring and code requirements, stated in the late 1970s that recessed lighting must have a safety override switch within the light fixture that will automatically shut off the light in case of overheating to prevent a fire. The light would turn back on once it had cooled down sufficiently. However, these light housing units still could not be covered by or near insulation.
  
  

In Contact Fixtures

• The Underwriters Laboratory created guidelines for recessed lighting housing that could be in contact (IC) with insulation due to the popularity of vaulted ceiling construction in the 1980s. The Model Energy Code, 1995 edition (Chapter 5, Section 502.3.4 and 602.3.3 - Recessed Lighting Fixtures) states that all recessed lighting housing must be type IC. These types of light housings can be in direct contact with and covered by building insulation, making them safer and more energy efficient than previous recessed light housings.
  
  

Bulb Wattage Notice

• The IC recessed light housing will have a notice on it as to the bulb wattage (usually less than 100 watts) to be used in the housing. In addition to this notice, thermal protection switches in the IC light housing shuts the light off if a 100 watt bulb or higher is used until the light cools down sufficiently. The light will then turn back on until it overheats again, and the thermal switch shuts it off.