My CFL Downlights, finished!!!

[Steve]

I recently purchased two PL downlights from here and had an electrician fit them in my kitchen. The kitchen is 4.5m x 2.6m and has a 9ft - 2.7m ceiling. The downlights are to illuminate the "working" end, and there is also a 20 watt glode pendant with an acrylic diffuser/shade to hang over the "dining area".

The PL downlights are a product I havent used before. I didnt want to jump on the halogen bandwagon because I dont believe in harming the world I live in by contributing to CO2 emmisions more than I need to , and I would have needed more holes in the ceiling. Also, halogen is a bad light to work under.

So I opted for these fittings. The price was right (cheaper than most), but the electricians had a job on fitting them into the very thick ceiling - its plaster and lath, 100yr old, overboarded with plasterboard. There is a slight gap around one edge of the fittings, but I'm having the ceiling pulled for easy access to the ring main next year so its not a problem for me, and only a minor one.

The light they produce is clean and crisp. The lamps are "just white" - not warm or cool, but in between, around 4000k.

The beam from these lights is very wide - in the photos attached you will see the beam hits the walls about a foot down from the ceiling.

I am more than pleased with the light output. Certainly far brighter than I expected!! And with there being two, there are no shadows on the worktops (well, there are two shadows, but they compensate each other). I was contemplating getting four of these, but I'm certainly glad I didnt now! For 52 watts, they pack a real punch. I would never use halogen after this.

People worried about startup, these fittings have electronic ballasts, which fire up the lamps straight away on switch on. There is no delay. They are instant start. You dont get this on many more expensive fittings! What you do get though is a slight flicker just after startup - they come on, and then flicker slightly, its amost un-noticeable. Warm-up time is impresive too - full brightness within a minute, but I find this more dependant on lamp, than ballast and fitting.

The IKEA pendant is MELODI from their lighting range.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00037980

Its cheap and cheerful, and fitted with a 20 watt globe energy saver. It came with about 8 foot of flex, for people with REALLY high ceilings

There, you CAN light a kitchen without using 400 watts of halogen lamps.

£60 and only 72 watts. Cracking.

Still waiting for the correct glass diffusers for the downlights though.

 

[aptsys]

Only 2? I have 5 in my tiny kitchen, all 2x18W fittings. It's massively over-bright, but they give out great functional light. I didn't bother with the diffusers on mine.

I got 12 of them on ebay for £20 All have been converted to 1x18W with dimmable electronic ballasts apart from the kitchen.

 

[mdj1]

12 for £20 NICE!

I'm in the process of refitting my kitchen and do like the idea of this style of lighting.

Can I ask you a couple of questions.

1. is 1 x 18w per unit enough?
2. Where did you get the dimmable ballasts.
3. What do you find the best position for the lights? Did you place them over the work surfaces? or over the floor area? I ask as I find is some kitchens where the light is behind you you get a bad shaddow in your work space.

 

[aptsys]

1. They will be if you use under-cupboard lights in addition.
2. Ebay again - I think it was a seller called geoffro1955
3. I placed the lights so they were in line with the edge of the worktop. This position caused the top arc of the beam to line up with the top of the wall cupboards so the cupboards are fully illuminated when opnened. I also have under-cupboard lights to eliminate the shadow caused by the wall cupboards (8W T5's I think?).

I used 4000K lamps in the kitchen, which is a good clean white light.

 

[mdj1]

HI Aptsys

Thanks for the info.

We wont be having any wall units on the main worktop runs as there are windows, so what would you suggest?

 

[aptsys]

You'll be fine then. The shadows are only caused by the wall cupboards. If you get the correct spacing between fittings then your own shadow shouldn't cause a problem.

 

[mdj1]

HI Apps

So if I have no under cupboard lights, would you suggest 2 x 18w?

 

[aptsys]

26W might be a better option?

 

[Tony_Park]

Hi,

these lights look great - just wondering, we're having a kitchen installed currently, and previously we've had led lights installed and liked the light they provided - however the ceiling in our new house is alot higher, and I feel that the led lights on their own may not be enough!

The floorspace of the kitchen is approx 21m2, how many lights would be recommended for this?

Thanks
Tony

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The kitchen is 4.5m x 2.6m and has a 9ft - 2.7m ceiling.

Mine's about the same size, and I'm planning to install 4 of them. (Largely because the ceiling currently has 4 large round holes where the existing R80 luminaires are )

Still weighing up the decision between 2 x 13s and 1 x 18s. Current lamps are Genura 23W, which are 1100lm each, and it doesn't seem over-bright.

I'm not convinced I'd ever want to f*rt around dimming kitchen lighting, but I might swap the ballasts for dimmable ones just in case - can always not bother to put a dimming control in.

And/or if I use the 13W I might install 2 x 13W ballasts in each, switched in 2 banks so that I could have them half-on if needed in the day (the room only has a small amount of natural light).

 

[LiamPope]

Mine's about the same size, and I'm planning to install 4 of them.

OMG!! Help - BAS' account has been hacked!!

 

[Steve]

The kitchen is 4.5m x 2.6m and has a 9ft - 2.7m ceiling.

Mine's about the same size, and I'm planning to install 4 of them. (Largely because the ceiling currently has 4 large round holes where the existing R80 luminaires are )

Still weighing up the decision between 2 x 13s and 1 x 18s. Current lamps are Genura 23W, which are 1100lm each, and it doesn't seem over-bright.

I'm not convinced I'd ever want to f*rt around dimming kitchen lighting, but I might swap the ballasts for dimmable ones just in case - can always not bother to put a dimming control in.

And/or if I use the 13W I might install 2 x 13W ballasts in each, switched in 2 banks so that I could have them half-on if needed in the day (the room only has a small amount of natural light).

Well i'll say now i've been living here a month, they are too bright when i come in after a skinfull And if the ceilings were lower, you'd have dark walls - you'd need to space them further towards the walls if you see what i mean, so i'd possibly have needed four less powerful ones.

Mine's about the same size, and I'm planning to install 4 of them.

OMG!! Help - BAS' account has been hacked!!

no, no, its only halogen lighting he's adverse to.

Oh, and by the way, I've completed the removal of halogen lighting from my house, with the fitting of a 32 watt circular fluorescent fitting in the bathroom. It has a plain acrylic diffuser. Modern and very bright.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm not averse to halogen lighting, if appropriately used.

Does a great job in my car, for example.

It's the idea of trying to light a room with small torches recessed into the ceiling I'm averse to, and I'm averse to it whether the lamps are halogen, fluorescent or LED.

 

[leeco]

I fitted 16 LED down lights in my mums kitchen which wasn't very good. I thought it gave off good light but she kept complaining and bugging me to change them so I just added a double strip bulb. That shut her up.

 

[LiamPope]

I'm not averse to halogen lighting, if appropriately used.

Does a great job in my car, for example.

It's the idea of trying to light a room with small torches recessed into the ceiling I'm averse to, and I'm averse to it whether the lamps are halogen, fluorescent or LED.

I see - so small torches are bad (even in a small room), but big torches are OK?

My bathroom is 2.5x2.0 and I have 5 small torches each fitted with 120 degree beam angle 4W LED lamps. The brightness is very high - more than good enough. Any shadowing at the top of the walls (as shown in the photos above) is very smooth and diffuse and only a few inches down the walls (as opposed to a foot or so). Overall lighting is uniform, walls are bright and there are no bright patches on the floor. Now I make that 4.2 W/m^2 of floor/ceiling area. Assuming your kitchen is the same size as the OP's, and, in your favour, you go for the less powerful 1x18W lights, I still make that 6.2 W/m^2, with perfectly acceptable, but arguably not quite as good quality and uniformity of illumination as my bathroom.

Now I'm not saying these PL lights are bad at all (I dont even think 'normal' 50mm downlights are bad), and if I were going to fit recessed downlights in a large room, they would be these ones. But what puzzles me is that you would declare my solution totally unacceptable and criticise me or anyone else for even considering it, yet your solution here is presumably totally fine, or you wouldn't be implementing it. Given the above information, I find your position hard to understand (and always have).