Kitchen Downlighting - Suggestions please

drdr · 5 Oct 2015

I am having a new kitchen and need to sort out the lighting. Currently it has five halogen 40w downlights and this is adequate, and we frequently use the dimmer.

I will have to replace these five lights with six new downlights. It has been recommended that I move to LED lighting, which I know little about.

We use the dimmer a lot, so that facility is mandatory
So my questions are ...
is it better to move to LED (rather than halogen)?
should I have low voltage or mains?
can I get a warm light rather than harsh light?
will it give me the same amount of light as I currently have with the 5 x 40w halogen lamps?
Can anyone recommend a product that I can see on the internet that might be suitable?
Thanks

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 5 Oct 2015

LED lamps are much more efficient and give off similar light intensity. If you want to dim these lamps you will require to purchase dimable LEDs as some will not dim. Also I would personally stick with 230V rather than 12V option.

http://products.energybulbs.co.uk/search#w=dimmable gu1o led

ban-all-sheds · 6 Oct 2015

drdr said:
I am having a new kitchen and need to sort out the lighting.

Seize the opportunity to install lights which are designed to do the job you want them to do, i.e. light up a room.

Which basically means bigger ones, fewer in number, rather than a multiplicity of recessed torches.

RF Lighting · 6 Oct 2015

Have a look at warm white dimmerable 7W megaman 230V GU10 lamps.

They're brilliant. Despite what some of the nay sayers on here will tell you without actually having any experience of installing them, they will do a great job of lighting your kitchen and will by far out perform your existing lamps.

ban-all-sheds · 6 Oct 2015

RF Lighting said:
Despite what some of the nay sayers on here will tell you without actually having any experience of installing them, they will do a great job of lighting your kitchen and will by far out perform your existing lamps.

How many would be needed per m²?

RF Lighting · 6 Oct 2015

Lighting design isn't as simple as 'x' number of fittings per m².

winston1 · 6 Oct 2015

Why oh why do you want a dimmer in the kitchen? It is a working room and you need to be able to see what you are doing.

RF Lighting · 6 Oct 2015

So you can dim the lights.

Have you never had a candle lit dinner at the kitchen table with your girlfriend?

ban-all-sheds · 6 Oct 2015

RF Lighting said:
Lighting design isn't as simple as 'x' number of fittings per m².

Indeed it is not when you wish to draw a veil over the problem of needing large numbers of them to sledgehammer your way through the problem of them being intrinsically unsuitable for general room illumination.

ban-all-sheds · 6 Oct 2015

RF Lighting said:
Have you never had a candle lit dinner at the kitchen table with your girlfriend?

No.

Nor with my wife.

Nor would I ever pay for a kitchen table in a restaurant.

A kitchen is a place of work.

PBC_1966 · 6 Oct 2015

I don't understand the trend in recent years to using these things almost everywhere. If you want to spotlight one particular place under the ceiling as some sort of feature, fine. For general illumination of the room, they're a terrible idea.

JohnW2 · 6 Oct 2015

PBC_1966 said:
I don't understand the trend in recent years to using these things almost everywhere. If you want to spotlight one particular place under the ceiling as some sort of feature, fine. For general illumination of the room, they're a terrible idea.

Spotlights are, indeed, useless for that purpose. However, I'm not so sure that 120°, or even 60° beam-angle ones qualify as spotlights (mighty big 'spots'

). I have to say that I use hardly any of them myself, but I do sometimes wonder whether some of those who appear to have a blanket aversion to these things may have not noticed the developments since the days when all that was available were narrow-angle spotlights.

Kind Regards,

PBC_1966 · 6 Oct 2015

Saw quite a few with the new types in homes we looked at on our recent search earlier in the year, including one with about 20 of the things all over the living room ceiling, as I recall. I still didn't like them.

winston1 · 6 Oct 2015

RF Lighting said:
So you can dim the lights.

Have you never had a candle lit dinner at the kitchen table with your girlfriend?

Never. I use the dining room for that purpose.

ban-all-sheds · 6 Oct 2015

JohnW2 said:
I do sometimes wonder whether some of those who appear to have a blanket aversion to these things may have not noticed the developments since the days when all that was available were narrow-angle spotlights.

One thing I have not noticed anywhere is the development where large numbers are not needed in to order to sledgehammer a way through the problem of them being intrinsically unsuitable for general room illumination.

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Kitchen Downlighting - Suggestions please

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