Hi I am going to fit four LV IP44 halogen spotlights in my bathroom ceiling. The room is 190 * 175, and I am trying to decide on the best positioning of the lights. I don't know whether to arrange the lights equidistant from the centre of the ceiling, or equidistant from the edges, IYSWIM.
I.E. They could be either 35 cm from the edges, creating a "rectangle" pattern, or 35 cm from the centre, creating a "square" pattern. What's normal?
Going on the size of your room, if I was going to put them evenly spread around the room I would put them in rectangle shape spaced somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the width/length of the room in from the walls.
something like this
80 *
90 90
80 *
However, I would suggest considering if that is the best way to arrange them. IMO the spot nature of these lights makes them better suited to arranging to have the light more specifically where you want it.
We have 12V spots downlighters in our bathroom. 5 in a room about 2.4 m sq roughly. The lights are arranged so that 2 are over the bath (corner bath) 1 over the hand basin (another corner) and 2 over the shower (in the other corner These highlights and gives the light where you want it most.
We also have two wall lights either side of the mirror on one wall. These give better light for doing things to your face, and also give a bit of ambient light around the bathroom. I would not to rely on just on ceiling spots.
I have considered putting another one over the door area corner as that doesn't have a spot, but it doesn't really need one from a functional point of view, but aesthetically it would probably look slightly better as
Having just installed 12V downlights in my bathroom as well, I agree with Chris. I took out a fluorescent fitting and installed 6 x 35W lamps. I can't believe how much darker it is.
"Normal" is "anything that works". The unquestionably best way of finding what works is to tack the lights up temporarily - hold in place with a single screw, say - and see what lighting pattern results. Halogen spots give rather sharp shadows, with high resulting contrast between the illuminated areas and the shadows. Experiment with positioning until you're happyish - and also try some electrical counters or on-line suppliers for wider-angle reflector bulbs (unless your IP44 fittings use a capsule bulb and have their own reflector, natch) - though sheds tend to sell only "spotlight" bulbs which concentrate most of the light into a 20-degree-or-so beam, the mfrs also make wider-angle blubs which roughly double that angle (38 degrees is the nominal figure in my head), which can help to give more of a wash of light than a number of illuminated pools.
You might also end up deciding to complement your spots with a "background" tungsten source - maybe over the mirror above the sink, say?
Seriously, start with the assumption they won't be the main lighting in the room -- they are useless for general lighting. They are also horribly inefficient -- the lamps themselves aren't, but so little of their light makes it to where you need it. If you really want some, use them to accent features, in addition to the main room lighting.
Thanks for all your comments on this. I must admit I am worried the room will be too dark. I have got 4*35w bulbs, 38 degree beam, but seeing as the room is only 190 * 170, and currently illuminated with a single 60W bulb, I am hoping it will not be noticeably darker. If it is, I can replace the 35W bulbs with 50W, and still be within the allowable range of the transformer and light fittings.
So as to the positioning of them I will use trial and error. I thought there might be a standard way of going about it (like tiling - always have whole tiles at the bottom) but I see the sense in taking the room and its uses into account.
I don't fancy binning them just yet. I've gone to quite lot of trouble replacing the ceiling already (used to be Artex).
"Winged Cat" wrote | Thanks for all your comments on this. I must admit I am worried | the room will be too dark.
The thing with bathroom lighting is that halogen lights usually just throw light onto the floor. But for shaving and make-up, *sideways* lighting is required, particularly for shaving which really needs upwards lighting to illuminate the chin. With halogens you will have comparatively little reflection from walls to provide this.
Although I normally tend to agree with Andrew's pronouncements, this is not my experience. When I did my bathroom, I replaced a 100w central tungsten bulb with 6x35w 12v spots. The room (approx 2700x1750) is much brighter than before and SWMBO loves it. I do agree, however, about positioning aspect. I tried to place mine so that there were few shadows over the basin, etc and ended up with an elongated U-shaped arrangement.
Since you now have almost twice the wattage of lights which are at least twice as efficient you have something like four times as much light so it's hardly surprising it seems brighter. One the other hand
100 watts of fluorescent ligting of some sort would probably make it seem brighter still, have fewer shadows and use less electricity (though I suppose bathroom lights aren't on for long periods so efficiency isn't so important).
There are several free illumination designer programs ... where you input your room sizes & wall materials, and you can place as many lights and of what types you want and it will calculate and visually show light spread & shadows, you can play about as much as you want.
They are free .... Thron, Illuma, Osram etc. will send you the CD for free.
Thanks for the lecture Chris, but I had worked that out - however, SWMBO refused point-blank to consider any form of fluorescent lighting. I was simply making the point that it is possible to achieve a decent light with the 12v spots. I'm sorry if that offends your sensibilities.
Thanks... I have had a look at the Osram one and decided to have one extra halogen light to make 5, plus extra illumination by the mirror, and I think this should get rid of the shadows, and make the room bright enough.
I have played about with the positioning but it's not easy to get an idea of the effect without a ceiling! I have noticed that the floor is incredibly bright but further up the walls it is quite dim. Perhaps this effect will lessen once the ceiling is up. 60 degree bulbs will probably help too.
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