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Downlights

Joined
11 Mar 2008
Messages
111
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6
Location
Yorkshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all,
I have a kitchen diner , 3.3 mtr x 4.3 mtr.

It's all open plan in here, is it right we would need 6 downlights to cover this area?

Obviously being a kitchen area we would need the dowlights to be bright and day white.

I'm gonna ask the spark to put a dimmer in but run all off 1 switch.


What led high wattage dimmable downlights will fullfill this?

Cheers
 
Thanks..

You any suggestions on downlights to maybe get 8, the electrician is leaving it to me to sort the bits and pieces , drilling holes etc to keep labour down.

Why not 6 on one?

Just curious as the way the dining kitchen is set out wouldn't be a problem having on 6 on aesthetically
 
Yes really, it's someone I know doing the electrical part.

Me, I'm boarding the ceiling etc, I'm also handy at plastering making things good .
 
8-10 according to this

I have used these in a couple of rooms and no problems
Paired with
Dimmed with (works very well with LEDs)

Cool white is pretty harsh. We have warm in our kitchen but lots of under cabinet lighting. Daylight may be ok. Not a fortune to swap out.

Depending on the layout you may be better splitting them or maybe some feature lighting over the table


Do you have or planning any task lighting? Led strips/tubes under the wall cabinets?
 
With downlights I have always found that little and often is best but I have recently fitted some big round flat LED surface mounted panel lights and they are much better than the spots I had for an even light and they are brighter so you may get away with 4.
 
Downlights look good, but practically - for being able to see what you are doing, they are not a patch on other types of ceiling mounted lighting. Downlights, focus pools of brightness, straight down, producing harsh shadows, especially so with low ceilings.
 
You can have what you want,
1717969927956.png
including lighting track so you can aim lights where needed, the limit is cost. The thing is in the main we use white surfaces to bounce light off so very few shadows, so a lighting bar
1717970104010.png
means you can aim the lights either on the job, or on a white surface, but in the ceiling often aimed at a dark floor, which is rather useless, select the places to drill the holes with care and you can have the great bear planetarium style, but idea is to light the room.
 
I've been using these at Mum's place.
Warm white 3K.

Screenshot_20240610-075743.png



I've also got some 10W lamps at home 1100 lm.
I can't find a dimmable version, not that you'd want dimmable in a kitchen.
 
I agree with
Downlights look good, but practically - for being able to see what you are doing, they are not a patch on other types of ceiling mounted lighting. Downlights, focus pools of brightness, straight down, producing harsh shadows, especially so with low ceilings.
except that I have never thought that they "look good".

In the "old days" I would have recommended "Fluorescent Tubes".
"Now A Days",
LED "panels" or
"circular LED downlights"
plus
under cupboard lighting, where required.

Many of the above can be "adjusted on installation", to produce lighting of from 2700 K to 6000 K.
Some can be adjusted "in use".

Frankly, as time goes by I am getting much more comfortable with 4000 K (and higher) lighting.
To me, 2700 K now looks to be "sickly yellow".
 
Yes I have one dimmable GU10 LED bulb, lamp-landing_1.jpg the centre bulb is a colour changing dimmable bulb, and the outer bulbs simple GU10 LED's and it has a smart relay so I can select centre or outer or both. It is because we want loads of light on the landing at times, but also a dim light so as not to wake people switching on light, and the colour changing does look nice, and one would have a problem getting them all to change together. 1718008316430.png But the dangling bits spread the light and over the stairs loads of room, this would not work in most kitchens. One needs a high ceiling for the light to spread out 102 Kitchen Bike.jpg my son used down lights, GU10 in the kitchen I seem to remember around 14 in that section, so it uses more power than the fluorescent it replaced, may look better, but then the bulbs started to fail, getting the steps in to reach them is not funny, I could reach the fluorescent with a step up, just two steps, as to why they failed not sure, he does not have surge protection in the consumer unit, but could also be a faulty batch.

I have a draw full of bulbs from the tungsten era, when every other week we changed a bulb, since moving into this house 5 years ago, average bulb failure is down to around one a year, I do have a SPD in fact two, as two consumer units. However the sizing of bulbs is not easy, last house we swapped the single 100 watt pendants in living room twice, once for three bulbs which was ample with 6 x 40 watt, but would often use 60 watt, then a five bulb version, and we went for Philips golf bulbs at 8 watt, compact fluorescent lamps, same in dinning room but three bulb version, they reminded me of toc H candles. Told would last years, but within the year most had been changed, to a different make, half the price and brighter, but I got some 1.8 watt LED candle bulbs from Lidi, this is 10 years ago, was to go in table lamp, but we had yet more E14 bulbs fail and went in living room, impressed then got 3 watt versions however rather misleading room looked bright, but not enough light to read with, maybe my age, so mothers house also two chandeliers but smaller room got the 3 watt and we went to 5 watt, so we had gone from 200 watt tungsten to 50 watt LED. Charts say 36 watt LED = 200 watt tungsten, but not found that to be true.

Living room in this house central chandelier 8 x 6 watt, but also cabinet lights 60 watt dimmable, and uplighters and spot light reading lamps as standard lamps.

And kitchen is the same, four GU10 lamps not nearly enough, as pods so can aim at where required, but counter lights I know one side is 22 watt dimmable and actually colour changing although don't really need that, as a strip light stapled to under the cupboard with cable cleats under the surround so not seen just the light.

But kitchen is a work room, so can't really have too much light.
 
In the "old days" I would have recommended "Fluorescent Tubes".
"Now A Days",
LED "panels" or
"circular LED downlights"
plus
under cupboard lighting, where required.

We have a very large kitchen/dinner, long, but still quite wide. Much of the kitchen workspace, is taken up by a large window, so not much room left for cupboard units above, so no possibility of under cabinet lighting - so good lighting from the ceiling is essential. I have just two LED dome lights, around 12w each they make the kitchen well lit. On the wall adjacent to the cooker, is the microwave, making a dark corner, I added a 8w florescent under that. Lacking wall space above the work surfaces, I added wall units along the back wall, just the wall units, nothing below them. They look rather unconventional, but they are very practical.

Frankly, as time goes by I am getting much more comfortable with 4000 K (and higher) lighting.
To me, 2700 K now looks to be "sickly yellow".

In the bedroom, I have a main ceiling centre light, rarely used. We used to have a pair of useless cabinet lights on bedside cabinets. The bed head is quite tall, so I found a pair of wall lights, which combine a conventional shaded lamp, with a reading spot lamp on a flexible arm, plus a USB charger outlet. I mistakenly fitted the shades with a pair of 5w LED lamps, they were far to bright. I toned them down considerably, by wrapping the lamps in a yellow, see through film, to produce a restful 'sickly yellow' colour in the room. The lighting units are fixed to the bed head.
 

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