How many downlighters in a bathroom ?

[MJ]

Fixed.

MJ

[Lurch]

On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 13:30:21 +0000, David M strung together this:

Think I could downrate the lamps and not notice too much difference.

The room doesn't have a window so it is quite depressing when it's underlit. I'd like to point out that they're on seperate switches so they're not always on all together.

[John Rumm]

The response of the eye is non linear anyway, so to get illumination that looks twice as bright as 50W you will need way more than 100W.

[MJ]

Ok, I have to admit there's a mix of black (granite actually) and white, but I had the lights installed and running for some time with just plain plastered walls and it was still ok. And now it's still about 75% white. I do like bright lighting, but nobody has ever complained or even commented on it being too bright.

I find it irritating that every light fitting you pick up says 60w max, which is little brighter than a couple of candles. It makes me wonder what these light fitting manufacturers think 100w bulbs are for. So what happens to all the 100w bulbs you see on the shelves? Probably bought by people like me who ignore the 60w max warning with no ill effect.

Halogen uplighters appear to have taken a downturn as well. They all used to be 500w. When I came to replace one a year or so ago all I could find were 300w max ones. I tried one, and instead of the bright white light I had before, it was a yellow. I examined the dimmer box and it said 500w max. The construction hasn't changed. So I put a 500w bulb in and it has been ok.

MJ

[David M]

Yes the response of the eye is fairly complex, and the point you raise, is another good argument why many of the posters, with a couple of hundred Watts worth of bulbs in a small space, probably would only see a minor reduction in the effective lighting if they halved the wattage.

cheers

David

[Chris J Dixon]

I have used 6 x 35W in a room 2m x 2.5m and it is about right. As with any downlighter scheme, the ceiling is darker and the coverage is a little patchy.

If you fit

with dimmable transformer(s), then for times when it feels a bit bright, you can set it to suit yourself. It is working well for me.

I have got hold of some ultra-wide angle bulbs, but the aperture size of the glass fronted fitting obviously has a limiting effect on this.

Chris

[Doctor D]

It seems as though I'm the only one here who would be terrified by the electricity bill when the kids or visiting in-laws left 300 watts of lighting on all night repeatedly! I'd be fitting a timer or a motion detector (!) :-)

[usenet]

300 watts, that's 7.2kW/day if left on continuously, about 50p/day.

[usenet]

Not to mention that if you are on Economy 7 or some such the night time rate will be only 2.5p/unit or so. Thus leaving the light on continuously from (say) 10pm to (say) 8am will cost:- 1.2kWh @ 7.5p plus 1.8kWh @ 2.5p - total 13.5p

I don't guarantee the exact correctness of my sums but they're about right. I'm not going to worry too much about the bathroom light being left on.

[Doctor D]

Yep, or about £15.50 per month. I currently pay about £25 per month for all our electricity for a family of

4 in a 4 bedroom house with a dishwasher and tumble dryer in regular use. We have CFL's fitted wherever possible, although in a rash moment I agreed to fit 12 x 20 watt halogen downlighters in our kitchen! They don't get much use as we tend to rely on the 13 watt florrie tubes under the cupboards which tend to run continuously from about 5pm to 11pm.

I'm not really convinced by halogens/downlighters. They look great in the ceiling, but don't have the light spread of florries, are not cheap to run (comparatively) and the lamps seem to need changing frequently.

[usenet]

If left on 24 hours/day for the whole month, rather more than would be likely in reality (and as I pointed out if you are on economy 7 it would be considerably less).

[David M]

Until your follow up posts I thought you were actually supporting Doctor D's post!

[Doctor D]

Changing to Economy 7 just because my father in law can't remember to switch off lights is a bit dramatic :-)

I'm paranoid about wasting electricity - it runs in the family, my father's mad as well! I've found myself developing his habit of closing doors whilst muttering "Were you born in a barn" at my kids. The hours just whizz by here you know - I really must get out more.