Kitchen & Bathroom Downlighting

I want to replace my existing 60w ceiling rose lighting in the kitchen and bathroom with 6 bright good quality spotlights in each room. Which transformers should I purchase and how do I wire lights in each room. Are there any tips for positioning ceiling downlighters? Can anyone advise me how to wire this up using the existing wiring in each room. I have some experience with electrics but don\\\'t want to guess.

Any help would be most appreciated (and could help me get my good lady wife off my back who\\\'s been asking for spot lights for ages & ages!)

Thanks

Matt

you need to get suitably rated / protected lights for your bathroom (read box before you buy them)

easiest way is to get a set of lights

wiring can be found in for refernce, and PLEASE note my signature (saves grief later)

You need IP44 rated lights suitable for Zone 1, got mine from Screwfix.
These (low voltage) lights are also easily affected by voltage drops which occur in the cables the longer they are i.e. they will go on and off as the voltage drops along a long cable. The point of this is that you could use a single transformer with a power rating sufficient to run your set of lights, but if the cable runs from a single TX get long, you will get a voltage drop and a nice disco effect. Therefore you may want to consider having individual smaller rated TXs, one for each light. Connections are straight forward, merely supply the mains to the TX's from the +/- that currently goes to your lamp and is switched from your pull cord, simple low voltage connection from your TXs to your lights (these connectors come with the lights/TXs).

Of course, not all of a bathroom is zone 1. Particulalry if your ceiling is high enough it may be zone 2 or more everywhere. Find a diagram of bathroom zones (may be on light boxes) and find out how they work.

Damocles said:

. Find a diagram of bathroom zones

Click to expand...

would you believe there is on in the for refernce section? (page 2)

Your bathroom lights as stated before would have to be rated for the zone they will be in the average house this will mean zone 1 which case the lights have to be IP44 min they can be 230v as long as you cannot reach them from a shower or bath but remember BS7671 (17th edition) requires them to be protected with an 30mA RCD
a lot of people think if they use low voltage (12v) lighting they can ignore the IP rating this is not the case they have to be IP44 if in zone 1

Jim - it's been 5 years since the OP asked his question - I expect he's done the job by now.