GU10 CFL

[NamelessRob]

Hi,

sorry if this has been asked before, I've had a look but been unable to find an answer.

I've just fitted this 3-spotlight light fitting in my grandparents' 4m*4m breakfast room, but (un)surprisingly the three 35deg halogen lamps provided don't provide even lighting for the room.

I understand that CFL GU10 fittings give a wider beam, but I've been unable to find any data as to just how wide. Has anyone got any experience of using cfl lamps in such a fitting, & does it give a reasonably even light?

Thanks in advance

 

[geraint]

there is a genius on this site that knows all about down lighters... but that is all he knows.. hopefully he might be along soon to tell you.. hopefully, as it might save us all...

 

[ericmark]

Yes the spread is greater but a 11W not really going to light up the place any better. I have one in reading lamp and it is just about enough to read with when I am around 1 meter away from lamp.

They are great for lighting pictures on the wall or ornaments in glass fronted cabinets other wise you may as well use candles.

The lights you show would need to be quite high to be able to light a room and once that high would not produce enough light.

Only other way they can work is to be aimed at reflective surfaces so the surface can defuse and spread the light.

Just can't understand why anyone tries to light a room with spots that's not what they are designed for.

 

[Steve]

They produce about same heat as a candle as well and about as likely to cause a fire too.

Do explain this.

EDIT: for the benefit of everyone else eric edited his post after i quoted it.

CFLs give a better beam. The light output is good, in my opinion it looks better output because of the wider beam. Yes the lumen output is slightly less than they claim.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Namelessrob. Now you know why this fiting is described as a "spotlight".

It is living up to its description. It is lighting up a spot (well, 3 spots).

There are a lot of options for effectively lighting a room. You have probably removed an effective one and replaced it with a hopeless one.

Put the nasty thing in a skip and put the old one back.

 

[electronicsuk]

You can buy wide angle lamps, such as these 50 degree lamps - whether it will make enough of a difference is anyones guess, as 50 degrees * 3 is still not 360! However, it may be worth a punt if there's any possibility it could save the hassle of removing and returning the fitting.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

sorry if this has been asked before, I've had a look but been unable to find an answer.

When you looked did you find any posts saying that that type of lighting is not designed to provide general room illumination, and is very bad at it?

Fiddling with the type of lamps you put in will not fix the fundamental problem - they are spotlights, and you don't want spotlighting of a few small areas in the room, you want something to light all of it up.

 

[NamelessRob]

sorry if this has been asked before, I've had a look but been unable to find an answer.

When you looked did you find any posts saying that that type of lighting is not designed to provide general room illumination, and is very bad at it?

Not really; I found plenty about halogen spot lights in a Swiss-cheese ceiling (much of it written by your good self), but not much about that sort of directional fitting (at least it can be swapped out without a major re-plastering job!).

My original question was whether a cfl gu10 lamp was still classed as a spot lamp, or whether it gave a wide enough beam (>= 120deg) to give a reasonably even light when used in this type of fitting. There's a 4pk on offer at Maplins at the moment, I might try swapping for the sake of interest, but I won't get my hopes up that they'll be the magic solution.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not really; I found plenty about halogen spot lights in a Swiss-cheese ceiling (much of it written by your good self), but not much about that sort of directional fitting.

Same lamp type, same directional beam, same problems.

The only difference is the ease with which you can change the bits of the room that are lit and which are in shadow.