Lighting for high ceiling kitchen

My mother who has macular degeneration desperately needs some better lighting in her tenement flat kitchen.

At present she has some manly old spotlights with an assortment of CFL bulbs instead of the intended 60W reflectors so as you can imagine it's a bit crap.

I was thinking of replacing them all with something like this, a six spot LED track.

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Given that the ceiling is 3.2 metres high, would the lighting be improved?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+
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My wife wanted bright kitchen and shower room. I went for 6 inch LED cool white panels (12 watts each), I think too bright for kitchen but she loves them. They fit flush with ceiling.

Reply to
ss

always the same for everyone

I think pendant lights in a kitchen will get pretty yucky. So will spots of course but at that height, it'll take longer to notice. ;-)

The light intensity on the work surfaces does concern me though with such a high ceiling. Wouldn't 6x12W with a 24degree spread do the job?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I use ceiling lights for general room lighting, and under-cabinet lights for work surfaces. LED strip lights work well for work surface illumination.

Reply to
S Viemeister

En el artículo , Tim+ escribió:

Suggestion: rather than ceiling-mounting, how about one or more of those tension wire efforts where two horizontal wires are run from wall to wall with lights clipped to them, fed from a LV transformer?

The transformer could go up on the ceiling. This arrangement allows you to position the lamps precisely where the light is needed and is flexible and at a lower, more convenient height.

Used to be all the rage but I don't seem to see it so much nowadays.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Did consider it but whilst they have their merits, I think they would be a bit naff in a kitchen, well this one anyway. ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

The problem with Macular patients is that their detailed central vision has gone. Often they can be trained in what they call eccentric vision, where they forcible attempt to use the peripheral areas instead. What they need is contrast so the aperture can stop down on the more detailed things they need to view. Most tend to use targeted or task lighting. Ie lights under cupboards that direct the light on the work area, but have baffles to stop the direct light getting to the eye and causing dazzle effects. The best people to ask about this are low vision clinics at the hospitals. They might be able to give you a colour temperature to aim for to give best results without fatigue. CFLs are pretty useless spectrum wise but some of the true white ones are a lot better. People often complain about the CFL standard bulbs as making things look grainy faint. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

The best lighting in terms of being practical for seeing things is soft light. In other words, the light source is as large and even as possible. Think a bright overcast day.

Spotlights may look pretty and produce nice looking 'pools' of light. But that isn't the same as giving decent working light. Unless lots of them are bounced off say a white wall. To give that large even light area.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I have to agree with SS who earlier in the post nominated flat panel lights.

I used them for the opposite reason, a low ceiling where the conventional pendant was a bloody nuicance, specially in the bathroom where clothing removal or armpit scrubbing could involve whacking the globe light around.

The flat panels came from Ebay, these were simple to fit involving little more than a Stanley knife and some paint & filler for the odd error.

I seem to recollect they were 18W and 24W.

The bathroom light was so effective, that I went on to do most of the house with them, even to the point of using two 48W panels in a high ceilinged corridor.

The 48W panels did need a bit of DIY work as they are designed to be used as office downlights, but the light output is impressive in a domestic environment and allowed a certain freedom in decor as it was possible to use a darker theme without the corridor being the slightest bit gloomy [Internal corridor with no external light source].

Anyway the flat lights were simple to fit, very effective and easy to add to in areas needing more intense lighting.

The only thing I was a little concerned about was the plastic cased supply units. They had CE markings suggesting some kind of approval, but in areas where they were mounted close to wood supports, I placed the power units inside MK metal clad boxes [double with cover plates]

Reply to
Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp

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