How many led down lighters for living room

[Georgie73]

Hi

The living room is 10 ft wide by 18ft long. How many Led down lighters should I have?

Also is it a good idea to have them split over two switches? ie, if I was having say 8, I would have 4 turned on by 1 switch and the other 4 by another switch

Many thanks
George

 

[JohnW2]

Also is it a good idea to have them split over two switches? ie, if I was having say 8, I would have 4 turned on by 1 switch and the other 4 by another switch

Some people would probably suggest that you divide them unequally across two switches, thereby giving you three possible light levels - e.g. if you had 8 split 5/3, you could have 3, 5 or 8 on.

Kind Regards, John

 

[PBC_1966]

Others might suggest that you forget the whole idea and install "proper" lighting.

But if you must do it, splitting between multiple switches (or dimmers) would certainly be a good idea. Depending upon the layout and use of the room, you might want to arrange it so that each switch controls alternate fittings, allowing you to reduce the lighting but still keep it spread across the room as a whole (or as much as these type of fittings will allow you to). Or you might want to arrange it so that certain groups of fittings can be switched off leaving one part of the room light and another darker (for TV viewing etc.).

 

[aveatry]

I would say 12 --- thats right 12-maybe 9 and put them all on i dimmer.
The best way I have found with gu10 downlighters is little and often 35w or 20 w equivalents and get the wide 90 or more beam angle.
I have a room at 3 x4 m with 9 downlighters about 4w each on a dimmer, dim down for watching movies at night.
But the room has white walls an with 3 rows of 3 lights evenly spaced out its sort of 3 on each wall and 1 in the middle and the wider beam also hits the wall.
They are the older - now, type of led that do not have any fancy lenses on the front, just plain glass

 

[ericmark]

I light my living room with 10 x 3W candle bulbs in two groups about the same size as your room and it is ample. However my son has a kitchen with 6 x 50W quartz halogen and I could not read the display on the boiler without a torch. Point is that it's not the size of the lamps but how they are arranged that matters. Having 2 inch down lighters 1 foot from the white wall and aimed at the white wall may work well. But instead aim them at the centre of the room with a dark carpet and they would be useless.

Now swap those 2 inch down lighters for 12 inch down lighters and one is looking at a completely different situation they would likely work well. Go into any public building and see the 12 inch down lighters which have a CFL inside and you can see how well they work.

Also in a building with a 12 foot gap ceiling to floor the 2" down lighters will work far better then with the same floor area and a 7 foot gap ceiling to floor.

So you need around 3000 lumen give or take 800 lumen but that lumen has to be used and not directed at dark surfaces.