We have some old downlighters in out kitchen that take R80 reflector bulbs and fit in a 130mm cut-out. Their spring loaded 'clampy bits' have all broken and there now hanging out of the ceiling.
I'd like to find a source for some new downlighters that will fit into the same cut-out but can't find any - plenty of small ones but none this big. They need to be able to take 100W bulbs. Does anyone know somewhere I could try looking? Google does seem to have the answer.
TIA
I just tackled the same job, and fitted the item below, which works well in terms of light distribution and is reasonably smart in appearance. Needs a 127mm cut-out, but is very shallow in the ceiling void (which I required), as the tube is mounted horizontally. The 13W tube is not quite as bright as a 100W incandescent, though I think TLC also do a 36W unit.
could always fix the originals with some 2mm iron wire
NT
would be too long to fit into the holder. If looked for but couldn't find the 36W units which sounded perfect!
The R80 100w ones. The size of the lamp sets the minimum possible size and
130mm sounds about right for the fitting.
If you can find some open-backed ones, you could fit 23W GE Genuras in them. These are slightly brighter than 100W R80. They aren't cheap but usually last a long time, and don't care how frequently you switch them on and off (unlike conventional compact fluorescents).
The open back depends on the ceiling not being a required fire barrier. (It's needed for ventilation of the GE Genuras to get full lifespan from them.)
Thanks but all of the lights in your link require a 100mm hole.
Right. What you've got sounds unusual - I've got a few R80 downlighters and just measured them and 130mm is about the diameter of the outside of the ring that shows. And they are pretty old too. ;-) With an R80 lamp they sound like they look rather unbalanced with a huge ring showing? About an inch wide?
Just been through something very similar - needing to quickly replace the kitchen lights but not able to completely fill the holes.
Our solution was to cut discs out of 6mm MDF the same size as the outer edge of the old light fittings, drill a hole in the centre to take a smaller GU10 fitting and then paint up and screw the disc into the plasterboard and mount the new light into it.
Easy to do and with seven lights on the ceiling it looks intentional :)
Cheers, Stu
Off the top of my head, the ring is no more than 15mm wide. And there is probably only about 4mm of space between the lamp and the fitting. So if an R80 is 80mm in diameter then the total diameter should be around 130mm. Now you've got me thinking I measured the hole wrong! Obviously I took the fitting out of the ceiling to measure - perhaps I read the tape measure wrong! I'll have to double check.
That said, I have now found some lights in B&Q and although they don't mention the cut-out hole diameter requirements they are quoted as 170mm wide (which sounds like they could be a good replacement if I did measure correctly):
That sounds more like the ones I've got - different makers but all pretty similar.
Incidentally replacing 'normal' R80 with these:-
standard 100W R80?
I also notice they do an R95 halogen bulb - now I'd like to find a recessed fitting for these but can't find any. They'd be good because they'd fill up to my large cut-out nicely and give me lots of extra light! It's funny that lots of places seem to sell the R95 bulbs but not anything to screw them into!
Not measured them but the 'whiter' light looks brighter. The real advantage is they look so much better on or off.
My measurement were right. The cut-out is 130mm and they are 140mm wide in total. The space inside the fitting for the bulb is quite large!
Perhaps they were designed for other than R80 lamps?
If you're anywhere near Saffron Walden, I would recommend "28 Lighting" (at 51 High Street - guess which number they were at originally!)
They aren't necessarily the ideal source for "cheapest possible solution" (although they do aim to be competitive for bulbs), but I'm pretty confident they will be able to find something.
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