How to calculate centre of room for ceiling pendant

[chriseastlondon]

Hi. I need to mark the centre of the ceiling of one of my rooms so I can hang a pendant light. The room is an almost-square rectangle with a chimney breast and alcoves. I'm planning to use 2 lengths of string, from corner to corner and see where they cross.

Do I exclude the alcoves and base it on the usable footprint of the room (A)? Or anchor the string to the wall, right in the corner of each alcove (B)?

Google Gemini has given me conflicting answers and I can't find a source.

Thanks.

 

[matlob]

If the alcoves have shelves/stuff in them I'd go with A, if not I'd go in between the two. Just pin a plumbline up and see how it looks

 

[ETAF]

whatever you think will look the best in the room, also you may want to consider where a joist is to fix the pendant , unless you plan to but any noggins in

 

[jj4091]

B even with shelves. They alcoves would then have same light level as the other corners of the room.

 

[ebee]

The answer is, what do you consider would look best and in practice illuminate best and be the easiest (or not too difficult ) to be best , you might well get three conflictions and you might have to consider the best over all compromise .
The final choice is what suits you unless you favour suiting someone else.

If you wanted to decide how to measure how to determine the centre of the Country or the Nation or the UK there are several methods to do each one and each way might be valid but none is valid by all methods, just the same as saying which is the biggest Lake.

Remember that quiz where the quizmaster asked "Who won the Cup?" and someone says "Which Cup and Which Year?" and the Quizmaster replies "I`m sorry, I cant help you on that one!"

All of the answers youve got so far are valid!

 

[ericmark]

also you may want to consider where a joist is to fix the pendant , unless you plan to but any noggins in

This is the problem:-

Fixing of the luminaire
Adequate means to fix the luminaire shall be provided.
The fixing means may be mechanical accessories (e.g. hooks or screws), boxes or enclosures which are able to support luminaires or supporting devices for connecting a luminaire.
In places where the fixing means is intended to support a pendant luminaire. the fining means shall be capable of carrying a mass of not less than 5 kg. If the mass of the luminaire is greater than 5 kg, the installer shall ensure that the fixing means is capable of supporting the mass of the pendant luminaire.
The installation of the fixing means shall be in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
The weight of luminaires and their eventual accessories shall be compatible with the mechanical capability of the ceiling or suspended ceiling or supporting structure where installed.
Any cable or cord between the fixing means and the luminaire shall be installed so that any expected stresses in the conductors, terminals and terminations will not impair the safety of the installation.

I used discontinued now, but there are simular, my chandelier does not weigh 5 kg, but it is heavy, far too heavy for plaster board. I had no option due to the decoration, but I have to arrange furnature so a unit is below it as it hangs down below 6 foot, so tall people can hit it.

So you have to consider room height and furnature as well. I will assume orignally it has a 150 watt tungsten bulb, but it is no where near bright enough with a 15 watt LED, so whole idea of the chandelier was to increase light output, now 8 x 6 = 48 watt, but really the room should have had two lighting points.

So I fitted 5 Ikea Billy bookcases to one end of the room, and have display lights in the bookcases to both light displays and add more lighting to the room.

 

[mikehammer69]

I'd probably exclude the alcoves

Quickest way of getting centres is a length of wavin

 

[JohnW2]

If the alcoves have shelves/stuff in them I'd go with A, if not I'd go in between the two. Just pin a plumbline up and see how it looks

There's going to be so little difference that I'm rather surprised that the question is being asked! In any event, as you say, it's really what "looks best" that really matters,regardless of any measurements!

 

[ebee]

Indeed - the measurements give a guide to the "parish" that might might be your first guessthen the other considerations come in to play, then one or two more probably - such as whats in the alcoves, are there shelves and if so are the glass or solid and like wood and is possible to have wall lights there or LED strips etc.
and are the walls in the alcoves going to have very dark or very light decor etc etc then is somebody going to look up at the ceiling light or usually from angle x position x or angle y position y etc etc. If you use the nearest handy joist for fixing is it going to look far out or quite near to centre or one side and then does it matter a lot or not much anyway.

One thing about lighting, especially if doing more than one lighting point is , can we accomodate equi-spacing for looks and/or illumination and sometimes if you get something near correct but slightly out then sometimes it can look better to make them farther out if its difficult to get them nearer anyway. Someting not quite right but nerly right by alignment can be a lot more annoying than something that is far out! Especially with downlighters