Doing away with ceiling lights?

We have in our open plan lounge/diner, although we've gone with floorstanding lights plugged into round-pin outlets wired to the wall switch. However, the renovation work this is being done as part of is still underway and so we are not in a position to say whether it was a good idea or not! The driver for us was flexibility in room layout that fixed ceiling lights might hamper, and also the potential for much nicer atmospheric lighting than could be achieved from something hanging from the ceiling.

Our lounge had no ceiling lights in it when we moved in. Instead theres an 8' fluorescent tubes along the tops of the windows which are on two sides of the room (so 2 tubes in all).

I fitted 3x wall lights for less glarely lighting, but generally we only use a floor standing uplighter for evening TV watching.

The problem you have is that unless you wire whatever lighting you intend to use to a wall switch then you will sooner or later find yourself blundering round a dark room. I removed the ceiling light in my very first house installed a number of 2A round pin sockets around the room for table lamps all wired back to the wall switch.

Although we still have ceiling lights but only rarely use them instead technology has moved on and we now use Alexa to turn on table lamps which otherwise come at programmed times.

Some places it is not practical not to have ceiling lights such as hallways and stairs.

Richard

In message <qo7e7q$54a$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, R D S snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

We haven't done away with ceiling lights, although very, very rarely use them in living and bedrooms. We just have table lamps scattered around, and are happy with them. We do use ceiling lights in bathrooms, but not kitchen, preferring under cupboard lights and, when necessary, lights in the cooker hood and a suspended light directly over the breakfast table.

A previous lounge/diner just had wall lights.

The middle of the room tended to be a bit gloomy unless one had uncomfortably bright wall lights.

If the ceilings are high enough you can have wall lights high enough and bright enough to bounce off the ceiling without causing horizontal dazzle.

Track, or 12volt bare wire systems, are alternatives to digging out the ceiling.

I now have 4 wall lights (and 4 table lamp points) in the lounge for TV watching, and 2 pendants for general illumination. The former single central pendant has been replaced by a smoke detector.

Owain

In my bedroom I use a remote control to operate table lamps and a tall lamp. Much more atmospheric. The ceiling light is still there but I only use it when I need to flood the room with light.

Graeme used his keyboard to write :

Very much the same here, except we do use overhead lighting in the kitchen. Every room has ceiling lights, but in the living room and bedrooms they are rarely used - nice have where a more general spread of light is needed.

Not done away with them, but we rarely turn on the ceiling lights in the living room. With the cooler running of CFLs, we upgraded our wall lights from a pair of 40W candle bulbs to a pair of 100W equivalent CFLs in each. We often use only the one light.

I have seen some houses with low ceilings that just use uplighters on the walls.

SteveW

Don't use ceiling lights except when cleaning or when first entering the room before turning on other lamps.

Cheers

Not if you use the Hue system and movement sensors. And you can have wire free switches with that system too.

Much easier now with the Hue system.

I use movement sensors instead, completely automatic.

That?s not right either, wall lights work fine there.

But surely wiring up wall lights is just as bad as wiring up ceiling lights since it means chasing cable trucking into the wall, or using unsightly surface stuff.

Brian

I lived in a flat like that,

it was a crap way to light a room

tim

I have just wall lights in all the bedrooms and living areas. Not te kichens toilets or corridoors or other working areas - these have downlighters.

It works but standard lamps are handy for e.g. reading.

I prefer to have just wall lights (I currently have just up-lighting standing lamps in the corners of the room)

But I usually keep the centre light as I'm sure that the next person in the house will want it

So what did you want to know?

tim

The question you and others answered, thanks.

Upstairs (2 floors) at work needs a rewire, not sure I can be arsed wiring anything into the ceilings.