Yet more kitchen lighting questions

[lister]

Sorry guys. I have searched but I'm getting mightily confused.

Currently redoing the kitchen. Old kitchen had two fluorescant strip lights mounted under the wall cabinets as accent lighting. I want to change these to spot lights - two or three under the cupboards, and two on the top of the cupboards shining in (glass fronted).

It seemed to me that going for low voltage LED spots was the way to go, but the more I read, the more confused I get. Can someone clarify a few things for me?

1) Do you think LV LED's are the way to go? I was thinking that LV meant that I could run many lights from the two mains spurs that currently service the strip lights, but I'm confused about transformers.

2) What type of transformer is better? Electronic, or torroidal?

3) Is it better to have one transformer per light, or can I put several lights on the same transformer? I would prefer the latter because this means I can route low voltage cable around the other areas.

4) Any preference over DC/AC LED spots? Which is more efficient? (Do AC LED's even exist?)

Many thanks Lister

[ransley]

Led I have seen have poor color, your food and hands might look grey so try them first. The flourescent you have are 75% more efficient than incandesant and halogen and maybe even some LED, Go by tested ratings LPW lumen per watt. Flourescents have come along way there are bulbs that have very good color, that is what i am staying with.

[Jim]

There are several companies that do an LED strip light which might be more suitable for illuminating the worktop under the cabinets.

[meow2222]

One of several options. I wouldnt because of poor light quality, but if you dont mind that then great.

You can run many of any low power type of light, mains or LV.

Electronic are popular because theyre far cheaper. Toroidals are much more relibale, but can occasionally be prone to buzz, so mount them on rubber (eg tap washers).

With LEDs you'll need to have several lights on one transformer. If you use 2 transformers then

- if one fails you still have light

- its easy to select full or half power - though there are other ways to do that too

LEDs are dc by nature. AC ones contain a ballast.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

More likely task lighting, if they were lighting up the worktop.

Need to know if your kitchen is used for food preparation (which requires good general and good task lighting), or if it's rather more of an entertainment showcase, which leaves you freer to do what you like with the lighting as it doesn't need to be good enough for food prep.

No, not for general or task lighting.

AC LED's exist as MR16 replacements. MR16 replacement LED's are currently a joke (unless you go _very_ expensive). The sort of thing you buy in B&Q will be 3W tops, and will give off about the same amount of light as a 3W filament lamp would, except it will be concentrated into a small dot, and be pale blue. They steadily get dimmer and dimmer.

[lister]

Well it is used for food prep a fair bit, but we've never bothered using the strip lights. The general lighting is fine for that, so yeah, I guess you could say it will be showcase lighting.

[lister]

Low voltage LEDs were attractive to me because I could route low voltage wiring to other places like the top of cupnboards etc. If I start splicing spurs into 240V lines for additional lights I suspect I will fall foul of Part P regs. (Possibly I will even with 12v cable, but I thought I'd probably get away with it).

Having hacked out some of the plaster to work out where the 240V lines are coming from, they seem to just snake across diagonally from somewhere, and aren't in any kind of trunking - just held to the breeze block with dobs of plaster. I know little about wiring regs but this seems wrong to me. I'd rather just stay away from it if possible.

[Jan Wysocki]

I like the 230V AC 3W GU10s that Ryness sell:

choose the cool white ones. They only look blue if there is also a filament bulb in the same room. I'm very happy with the colour rendition. At GBP 17ish, it's going to take a while for payback. One on the ceiling is fine for reading with ancient eyes. After a couple of years, I haven't noticed them getting dimmer.

I've got 6 in living room ceiling spotlights, another 3 illuminating a print and my hall and a couple in small uplighters. They don't illuminate a whole room, but you can have 'Blade Runner' style pools of light to work in. 6 x 3W LEDs give a similar light output to 3 x 50W GU10 filaments, but the light distribution is much more directional, with very little spill.

Has anybody tried these:

I like the idea of

9W per holder, but I worry about the power supply. The first 3W GU10 LEDs, that I tried, fried their power supplies, but the Ryness one's seem to have a better design. (There's not much point having a "light engine" that last 30 or 50 thousand hours if the PSU packs up after a few hundred!). Take home: always label the LEDS and keep the receipts.

I'm waiting for someone to manufacture a pleasing tall uplighter, with about a 100W LED array, at a price that doesn't require a bank loan.