What energy efficient lights do you use for your kitchen?

[mick]

SWMBO said, when it was time to put lights in a new ceiling after a fire, that she didn't want anything fancy. I wanted to play - so we have a compromise!

2off 2D 18W surface fittings in circular glass shades - 1 at each end of the long, narrow kitchen. Those are on 2-way switches so we can use them from both ends of the room. 2off LV halogens in downlighters in the ceiling over a small breakfast bar. Operated from an electronic transformer & dimmer. 8off LV halogens in downlighters in the ceiling, distributed above the rest of the work surfaces, including 2 over the sink (works very well!). These are spread over 2 more electronic transformers from a common dimmer. The 2 dimmers & a 2D light switch are all within easy reach of the breakfast bar so it's dead easy to change the whole mood of the lighting.

The halogens are all fed via a "flying saucer" style PIR in the centre of the room to give automatic switch-on & off.

In addition to that lot, there are another 6 low-wattage LV halogens under the cupboards over the main worktops down one side.

Most of the time the dimmers are switched off or kept quite low, being very good for making a brew first thing in the morning! SWMBO is quite happy with the 2Ds and the under-cupboard lights for most of the time. It's nice to just have the breakfast bar lit though.

[T i m]

Ah, ok.

We only have a couple of hidden lights, it's a 20W CFL sitting on a high shelf on a bit of reflective foil. Lights this smallish lounge up sufficiently for TV viewing etc.

Yup. Small cooler bags, seldom used food storage boxes etc.

We are quite happy with the std flouros Steve. We retain the storage space and also get easy to maintain efficient lighting. I'm also not sure 'hidden lighting' is in keeping with a house over 100 years old?

Ah, well I am old and remember when it was perfectly normal to drag your whole motorbike in the kitchen to work on it, not just the panels (and have done so round my Uncles with his Scooter).

Light goes on, light goes off ... ;-)

The only dimmable lamp in here is a small bedside light with a 25W incandescent.

Light goes on, light goes off .. ;-)

Meh, I'm an engineer, would even 'see' them .. now if you had piston on the worktop ... ;-)

1200 quid for a Mac with a single USB, no optical drive or Firewire Steve?

I bet. I've been there with most of the stuff. This place had gas lighting in when I bought it and a chimney in the kitchen etc.

eh. It's also amazing that the whole space could be illuminated by a

4' flouro while you were doing it! ;-)

We have a 19" TFT and a Pro Logic surround sound system (MS fronts / centre, Celestion Little Ones rear, Yamaha active sub all via a Sherwood R 125RDS) and in spite of my Arcam'd mate getting annoyed because this 'cheapo' setup sounding better than his it hasn't been used for years .. (we aren't film watchers).

You say ... ;-)

Yup. When I was buying this place on my own some 30 years ago whilst working for BT it was all I could do to buy the place and afford the materials. Hours and hours of evenings and weekends disappeared in new floors and removing chimney breasts, rewiring (well wiring as there wasn't much in here), running gas, water etc etc left me pretty d-i-y'd out.

Now it's just a matter of keeping things working and enjoying ourselves outside the house!

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

How well does that work Mick? What sort of time delay do you have them on? Have they ever turned off while you were actually in there and working?

All the best ..

T i m

[mick]

It works very well, thanks. I had the same concern at first (especially as the ceiling is quite low), but I've not had any problem. The PIR has several settings:

There is about 2 secs fixed delay on switch-on. LUX = max brightness (>30) (I think I should probably have set this lower, but it works!) TIME1 = 3min TIME2 = 30min hold-on time after being triggered for TIME1 (IIRC!) METER = 6m range sensitivity

I've not had any accidental switch-offs so far. I was a bit worried about IR from the cooker preventing it from switching off, but that hasn't been a problem either.

[T i m]

Excellent. ;-)

Thanks Mick,

All the best ..

T i m

[stevelup]

I can understand that.

Yes but it's pretty... Same argument really as the one between a single 4ft fluorescent and multiple halogen downlighters :)

Hey - it was 2' actually! To be fair, the only thing it achieved was us not falling over each other1

The front room at this house is half the size of the one where we lived before which is what prompted my to bury everything in the walls. It cost twice as much as it would have done with everything in the room but we've saved an awful lot of space.

Sounds a lot more challenging than my projects!

That will come before too long hopefully... Garden next after the inside of the house!

Steve

[Chris J Dixon]

Which PIR have you used?

I am wavering about filling my kitchen with halogens, but I might be able to square it with energy use if I include a PIR.

Chris

[T i m]

I like the idea though. Does it work well? I was given a 42" Plasma recently [1] but there is nowhere in this 3 bed Victorian cottage to put it!

Well, not really, just more of it maybe. Like when we built the Kit car. Many people (at that time) had done the various bit's involved in building a car when repairing one, they just hadn't done them all at the same time! ;-)

Garden, noo, we aren't *that* old ! No, motorcycling, cycling, boating, power kite flying / bugging, RC modeling, clay shooting, archery, camping .... ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[1] A chippy mate was given id from a trendy clothes shop when doing some shop fitting in there and gave it to me when he replaced it with an LCD jobby. I think there is some slight burn-in on the screen but I thought it might make a good Wii screen. ;-)

[whisky-dave]

4X 35 GU10 halogen, with a dimmer and turned down to just glowing when I'm not in the kitchen.

[mick]

That's a very good question... :-) I can't see a maker's name anywhere on it, it was fitted over 4 years ago and it isn't shown on my original supplier's web site now. I've probably got the info somewhere, but it'll be in the "somewhere safe". :-(

It has to be better than without, doesn't it? :-)

I'm not sure about them now. They look *very* impressive, but if you are looking for a "working" kitchen then IMHO they are not really the way to go if you are also looking for efficiency. We seem to get as much, if not more, usable light from the 2off 2D fittings than we get from the main downlighters - but the under-cupboard lights are good (if rather bright - they are 20W halogens). OTOH a few halogens work very well with some flourescents as they help to "fill in" the colour spectrum.

My particular arrangement was done for a specific reason - a low ceiling. Normal tube types look stupid in there (we used to have some). The halogens look so much better, and the 2Ds don't look out of place. I haven't attempted to light the central floor area with halogens, just put the light where it is needed. That means that the 2Ds are pretty important for cleaning up, really.

[mick]

I was given a 42" Plasma

Here's my address....

;-)

[stevelup]

It's a great way of hiding something that is large and would be otherwise out of place. For more inspiration and loads of pictures of other peoples work, have a look here:-

> >Sounds a lot more challenging than my projects!

Something I have always fancied doing but never had a garage until now. It's on my 'list of things to do before I die'...

I don't mean planting pansies... Big rugged things involving diggers, rocks and wood :)

The nice thing about Plasma's is that they are pretty Wii-proof compared with LCD's!

[John Stumbles]

Our kitchen's a sort of L shape, and we have 4 * GU10 CFLs (7W or 9W each - I forget which) in a bar-type fitting over the worktops, hob & sink which are in the 'foot' of the L, and a single 20W CFL in a pendant in the less-used 'leg' part of the L. The GU10 types are infinitely better than

50W halogens in width of beam and colour (they're "warm white" and a lot nicer than the yellowish colour of halogens) but take forever to warm up, don't last particularly long and cost a lot. And when you replace them you're throwing away a bunch of electronics as well as the glass bit.

However the other day I saw some rather nice fluoro downlighters about

100mm dia (including flange) and 100mm depth, cost about £17 each, replacement lamps (glass only - electronics in the fitting) about £3-4. Masses of light output - I think they're about 10W. Just got to go and drill a hole in the ceiling while SWMBO's out, to see if I've got 100mm clearance to fit them before I buy any.

[Sparks]

They look interesting, got a link to them!?

[John Stumbles]

fraind not. It was at GFE

but they don't seem to have individual products on their wibble.

[muymalestado]

Couldn't agree more - so designed lighting to be all aimed at the walls. Recently changed from 60W spots to 11W replacements with reasonable results - biggest downside is 2 - 5 second delay from darkness.

Only exception is under cooker hood where she insists - rightly - lamps are up under the front, thus illuminating toward the rear and not reflecting toward the user.