I like that reply (a good idea). Ignoring the aesthetics (even if only initially), find out what's required (light levels in this case) and go from there, especially when it isn't you that's making the judgment.
I did the same when buying a new suction cleaner, took a sound level meter into the local shop and actually measured all the likely candidates. It was surprising (especially to them) how loud some of the machines they put forward as 'quiet' turned out to be. ;-(
Local library has been refurbed with some amazing LED panels that are about 4x2 feet and have none of the usual LED 'sharp' points of light but evenly diffused over the whole area. Great for reading.
"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:qnes8g$3pd$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...
And LED downlighters tend to have a narrower angle than tungsten and therefore need to be closer together for a given ceiling height.
I've measured the spacing of the LED GU10 downlights in our kitchen ceiling. which is 250 cm high. They are in a grid, 100 cm apart in one direction and
130 cm in the other. Those are standard GU10s - don't know make and therefore beam angle because they were already fitted when we moved into the house. However another array of lights with similar spacing and a slight lower ceiling have Philips Hue white (ie not colour) GU10s, and the illumination is fine. Philips quote the bean angle as 38 degrees, which I assume is 38 degrees either side of vertical, so 76 degrees from one edge of the cone of light to the other.
For a kitchen or a corridor (eg hallway) an array or line of GU10s provides good light. I'm not sure they are as good in a bedroom or a bathroom where you may be lying on your back reading or relaxing in the bath and therefore may be looking partly towards the lights.
Our house has a grid of GU10s in the bedrooms and they are not lights that you'd want to read by: I much prefer a bedside light for that, so it's more over-the-shoulder lighting.
At least Philips Hue lights can be dimmed and can have the colour changed - either slightly between 2700 K warm and 6500 shady daylight (for "white" bulbs), or between much wider constraints (for the "colour" bulbs), and unlike tungsten, the colour remains fixed as you dim the light.
For some reason, one bedroom has 12 V tungsten bulbs (the sort which have fittings which are GU10 diameter), with each fitting having its own transformer, whereas the other has GU10 fittings that had warm white LED bulbs. The LEDs use a *lot* less electricity than the 12 V tungstens: 60 W at the bulb is going to be a bit more at the mains input - and there are fifteen in that bedroom so that's about 1.2 kW, assuming the transformer primary uses about 80 W for 60 W output (plucking figures out of thin air).
And the average domestic property isn't a workshop either.
Decent lighting is part of the decor. Even in a kitchen it's possible to have attractive and practical lighting. Although it will likely cost you more to buy and run than just plain adequate illumination.
I have found that while they give a very nice working light, the life expectancy of those small T8 tubes can be pretty poor. I fitted a bunch of them for a neighbour once (over and under cubboard - so they functioned as uplighting as well), but after a year or so it became a constant stream of replacements. In the end I swapped em out for similar styled fittings but with LED tubes. That was a good few years back, and they have not had a single failure since.
I did a short run of under cupboard here with LED tape (about 14W/m), and that gives a really good even light as well.
In message snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk>, "Dave Plowman (News)" snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk> writes
For a kitchen, 5.5 x 3.6m with moderately dark work tops I used 8 EN-DDL15 dimmable LED downlighters. All on, in new condition and undimmed they are a little too bright. 1500lux?
I think the supplier has been taken over but try this
LED strips work much better. Much easier to have them the length of the cupboard, trivial to vary the brightness, much easier to have completely automatic with a movement sensor and you can vary the color temperature trivially. And the best of them will last longer than fluoros too.
I don't think you understood my point. What I meant was you should start from a decision about how far apart they are going to be. The total number is irrelevant.
People tend to put relatively high powered ones too far apart, because they look at the total wattage.
Ohh, the light output is more than adequate. I too was worried about them looking too modern but I found that painting them brown reduced the light output.
Yep, plenty of light. One of the biggest problems with effectively point source down lighters is that they cast shadows. The biggest one being yours over the area of work surface your trying to prepare food on. A big soft source tends to fill your shadow as light can arrive from the sides.
If a tube parallel to the work surfaces doesn't get past management try bunging them on top of the cupboards hidden by a cornice and bouncing the light off the (white...) ceiling. Or if downlights are insisted on under cupboard lights. LED strips are quite effective with the individual LEDs spaced at about an inch.
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