Having a flush ceiling finish is not the prime objective of lighting.
OK - I give in
- Thread starter ban-all-sheds
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Often the lighting is uneven with spots of light and dimness in between. Also you often need more watts to illuminate an area over that required with a single central light.
Do I sense BAS's ghost is being kept alive and well by others
I cant see many instances where a central light could give better light coverage than downlights.
In a work area like a kitchen, a centralmlight will mean uou are always in your own shadow.
Downlights can cause uneven lighting, but this can be minimised with correct spacing and consideration to beam angle and the use of adjustable downlights.
Downlights do have a major disadvantage, they dont use any light reflected off the ceiling. I can see more and more use of strip lighting which can light up ceilings and walls.
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But neither is the effectiveness of the lighting produced the only requirement of a lighting solution - there are, often, a mixture of requirements to meet, and some of them are just personal preference.
Yes, but that wasn't what Notch said.
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I have to agree, 2" down lighters don't work very well at lighting an area, great for highlighting a picture, but although the fluorescent batten may give a better light, one has to really aim some where between the two, although a suspended ceiling with 2' down lighters works better than with 2" neither look really good in the home.Nah, them downlighters is useless for general lighting, what yer need is an attractive fluroescent batten
I will put up with the fluorescent batten in the kitchen as in real terms it is a place of work, but not in the main in the living room, although I have seen where hidden around the edges of a room they have worked well even if it does look like an airport departure lounge.
What BAS said was not wrong, however he could have said it in a more polite way. And to be fair when it was shown he was wrong, he would accept it, I think he will be missed.
I agree, I should have elaborated: most people dont want an ugly batten or other surface mounted light, so downlights provide a flush solution, which in many cases is not the only room lighting.
Downlights dont provide lighting solutions on their own, but combined with other lighting they can be the best solution.
If BAS was using the argument that downlights are a poor option for general lighting because the light is a point source, then he is taking a narrow minded view. In my view domestic rooms dont actually benefit from an even intensity of light, what they need is bright sources of light for task areas and for lighting features -which downlights can do well.
Example: a kitchen, task areas such as the sink, island, worktops need bright lighting. downlights achieve that (esp in combination with under cabinet worktop lighting). surface mounted ceiling lights, like fluoroescent or LED battens do not.
Visually, downlights provide a more attractive light than a central light.
As I so often have said to BAS, that is the view of people who still think that 'downlighters' are all 'spotlights', with beam angles of 25°, or maybe around 40°. Now that 2" LEDs with beam angles up to 110° and beyond are readily available, I think that the goalposts have moved quite lot.
Kind Regards, John
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Absolutely not, downlighters shine directly down - That means they're useless for task lighting. The kitchen is the worst place for downlighters as you are constantly working in your own shadow, hence the need for under cabinet lighting. Pendants and fluorescent tubes are generally much better as you get both direct and indirect lighting from the source and thus no heavy shadows but they tend to not fit in with modern interior decor.
If flush lighting is imperitive, you want the largest diffusion area possible, hence why much larger downlights are used in any commercial setting over 2" torches.
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The beam angle doesn't matter, you have almost a point source - all the beam angle does is widen the cone not deal with the fundamental issue.
A 6" downlight with 25° beam angle will give significantly more useful light than a 2" downlight with a 110° beam angle.
Wide beam lamps have always been available, even before LED's appeared. In my kitchen, I have wide beam LED downlighters, which are fine for most tasks - but I supplement them when needed, with local task lights and a 6 foot fluorescent. This latter is installed on top of a run of cupboards, completely hidden from view. When turned on it bounces it's light up onto the ceiling to give a shadow free light throughout the room.
Which is multiple downlighters are normally needed.
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Exactly, which then returns to the original point that they are not a good or efficient method for lighting a room. Compare a room lit by a single 7W LED GLS lamp to one lit by a single 7W GU10 or two 3.5W GU10's and the difference is clear. They look clean, but you need silly numbers to give even room illumination.
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