We've a small kitchen in an extension, approx 3x2m, it's about to be gutted and we're looking at lighting options.
I'd stick a 5 foot LED striplight in it but that's not going to get past managaement,she's talking about spots.
I'm not a fan of spotlights, i've never felt like they fill an area with light. Am I wrong, are some better than others?
General lighting opinions appreciated.
LED ones are much better -:)
Extended lifetime, low power consumption. Not quite as powerful as halogen so you may want more. You will need to think about colour temperature - soft white, cool white or daylight.
I find they are very patchy.
I have refurbed with shit lods of rotatable GU10 based LED spotlamp units. It works OK - just use lots
Under cupboard and above cupboard LED strips are must theses days to the obligatory spot lights.
Not if you use these, you can set any color temp and brightness you like.
I fitted 60W warm white above and 60W cool white under a 3m run of cupboards in the summer and they're bloody brilliant (sic) for ageing eyes
And kickboard LED strips, surely?
I'm about to replace the 2 temporary pendants with the 1950s-retro style brass holders on fabric flex dangling from hooks. With medium format globe LED filament bulbs.
Set of 5 on each fitting in a 5.5x3.5m room.
These are the things that sell for silly money in the fancy lighting shops, but are easy to make up yourself from online parts (including modern versions of fabric covered flex).
With the hooks set on approx 350mm radius around the base and bulbs randomly hung from 150mm to 300mm ish, and using Philips bulbs, I'll get a slightly more even light and about 4000 lumens max (dimmable) - twice what I have now.
I normally hate fashion, but the utility appealed to me - you can pick a rose with anywhere from 1 to about 9 outlets and do what you like with the bulbs. No one said they have to be in a circle. Lots of bulb shapes to choose from.
We replaced two 4' fluorescents with two, four-spot fittings. With LED GU10s (6 or 7W IIRC), we are very happy with the light output and it looks so much better than the old fittings.
SteveW
I'm a fan of LED panel lights which give a nice even light in my kitchen. In a working environment perhaps a LED towards the blue side is better (daylight/cool LED)
I have 4 x LED 6 inch panels as bright as F...! cause thats what management wanted. Its a 26 foot long kitchen. Switched so that I can have either 2 or 4 on. A total of 48w compared to 540 when it was halogen bulbs.
I would have two sets of lighting in the room, separately switched.
You want functional lighting so the room can be used as a kitchen, and I would try to make that all hidden as suggested by ARW. It is to give you high levels of lighting on the work surfaces, sink, etc. and good enough to find stuff in the cupboards.
Then you might want to add some decorative lighting, pendants, spots, whatever you (or she) likes, and you don't have to worry that it might be useless for actually working in the room, but fine for entertaining.
Yep, in friends recently vacated (rented) house the kitchen had a large number of halogen down lights consuming 400+W and the light was extremely poor considering the number of light fittings. Replacing some of the bulbs with LEDS that lit some work surfaces reduced the consumption but did very little for the illumination.
I thought these days that small down-lighters had started to go out of fashion as more people realised that they were a C**p solution to effective lighting.
Strips are better to avoid shadows and more even, spots have the advantage that it can be only lit where you need it and if a bulb goes you still have light. I guess it all depends on how its going to be used. I use a tube in my small kitchen. When i could see it was so much better than point sources for me with failing sight. Brian
on 31/01/2019, R D S supposed :
I have wide angle LED floods, which are OK, but when a brighter more general lighting is needed, I have a 6' fluorescent, converted to e-ballast, hidden on top of a run of cupboards that can be switched on. Its invisible, but bounces its light off the ceiling to give a really good even light spread.
Like the kitchen, I have several lighting options in other rooms too - I find options important.
In message <q2vnql$1kv$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, R D S snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes
Our kitchen is around 3.5 x 3.5m.
I fitted 8 (slight overkill but they are dimmable) of these Enlite EN-DDL15
I was thinking about spotlights.
I forgot about LED panel lights, a longish slimline one would do nicely.
It will be open plan so that would do nicely for when working in there and as others have suggested i'll think of a more ambient alternative when not.
In message <$ snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk>, Tim Lamb snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk> writes
Correction:-) 4.5 x 3.5m
>
Actually, they do work well.
I never saw the point of those mini 1W LED spots that people used to fit.
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