Kitchen-diner lighting tips /advice

[Peter Boulton]

We're having an extension built which will create a largish kitchen diner (42 sq m!). I'm interested in experiences with various lighting options. Specifically:

- I like the light which halogen spots throw out (more 'theatrical') but due to the ceiling arrangement cannot have a transformer. You can get 240v halogens these days - but are they OK / safe for use in ceilings? Halogens get quite hot!

- If I understand correctly, it will soon be impossible to buy anything else but low-energy bulbs. Does this have any implications for choosing the lighting options?

- Any experiences with low energy halogen spot replacements? I've seen you can even get dimmable ones these days, which would be ideal - so that we can vary the brightness between the kitchen part and the diner part etc..

- I have a few low-energy lights of various sorts in the existing house. Some seem to go bright pretty quickly, whereas others (spots) start as bright as a candle and meander their way through to acceptable brightness in up to 10 minutes! I could not cope with the latter in a kitchen!

Experiences, advice and suggestions most welcome! Thanks.

Pete

[mick]

I would say that if you have room for 240v halogens then you should have room for 24v halogens with transformers. The transformers can be remarkably small now - and you don't need to have them directly next to the lights anyway. The life of 24v halogens with a soft-start transformer is *way* longer than 240v types. Depending on the transformer they can be dimmable with a standard dimmer too.

My son has a couple of GU10 based high efficiency spot replacements. They seem to reach full brightness in about 2-3mins. As you say though, the light isn't as "theatrical"! They are also rather bulky and not particularly nice-looking.

[Peter Boulton]

access in case they fail. My builder is trying to steer me clear of them! The info on lo-energy spots is v helpful - the `theatrical` light thing is quite important.

So do we all need to stockpile non-lo-energy bulbs? The lo-energy ones still don`t seem to deliver on all fronts.

Pete

[Steven Campbell]

I've just had some halogen spots put in by a spark when my loft was getting a refit. I didn't realise they were 12V with a transformer until I went to remove the unit in order to paint around it.

I couldn't believe the size of the transformer, it is tiny and you need one with each light plus it is silent.

last time I put 12V halogens in a ceiling for my parents, the transformer was the size and weight of a brick and buzzed like hell and I was struggling for a suitable place to locate it.

Steven.

[stevelup]

Your builder is giving you bad advice. Stick to the 12V lights - the transformers are tiny and fit in the hole behind the lamp. If ever you need to replace a transformer, just pull on the cable and it will come back out of the hole.

Steve

[timng]

As far as I know the only bulbs being "phased out" are the normal "GLS" 40-60-100W bulbs. I don't think there is any suggestion that halogen spots etc are going to disappear.

Tim Mitchell

[meow2222]

=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BD(Working in a M$-free zone!)

Builders are rarely lighting experts. A few of these articles will answer your Qs and more:

[Adam Aglionby]

LV halogen as suggested, its 12V rather than 24V though.

Possibly consider light pipes

first one google came up with.

Adam

[mick]

Good point! Mine are, indeed, 12v. I have a couple of odd 24v 50W units too though that take the "capsule" bulbs. They came with a *huge* 400VA (IIRC) torroid in a case, with terminals & fuses to feed a load of such bulbs. Well, they were being thrown out... :-)