LED Downlighter install

[Alarm Engineer]

Hi,

I've just moved into a new build property which has a mix of existing LED downlighters and pendent fittings. I want to remove the pendents in the lounge, hallway & landing and replace with LED downlighters. I'm confident with the actual cabling work as i'm a security systems installer by trade. I plan to use the pendent feed to loop in & out of each downlight position.

Plan is:
Lounge - 4 or 6 lighters
Hallway - 2 lighters
Landing - 2 or 3 lighters

My questions are firstly whats the best way to measure out the position of each downlighter or is it simply a chalk line? Obviously a mesure up in loft too to avoid joists.

Whats the best type of light, mains driven units or seperate transformers and is any dimmer switch compatible? Any recommendations welcome.

Thank you.

 

[ericmark]

I would avoid any transformers they were for quartz lamps so the filament could be thicker today not required.

With LED there is very little heat so no need to be let into the ceiling you can get surface mount lamps which in turn means you don't need fire hoods and the like.

Do be aware size matters, for a 50 mm round unit over 3W LED and it will not distribute the light unless shining onto a light surface. Move from 50 mm (2 inches) to 5 inches and the light is distributed far better so you can use a 10W unit at that size.

We call them down lighters but really we don't want the light to just go down we want it to spread, with the up lighter on the wall we use the ceiling to spread the light, but in the main our floors are too dark to spread light.

Also to squeeze the LED chips and driver into the old MR16 package means there is a tendency to use very poor drivers which waste power, so a typical MR16 lamp is around 70 lumen per watt, the larger lamps however tend to use better drivers and get the full 100 lumen per watt output.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I agree with Eric, go for the 230v mains powered lights, if you must have downlights at all.
Why downlights though? It's replacing a single light that is quite adequate for lighting the area with multiple lights that are hopeless at lighting an area.
And it's so last century.
(Keep your head down for more agressive opinions on this!)./


comment on eric's post

means you don't need fire hoods

in a domestic house, you do not need them anyway, at all, unless the ceiling you are turning into swiss cheese by fitting downlights, is a fire-rated ceiling.

Layout is up to you. If you want just two pools of light in your landing, have two downlights. DO NOT FORGET TO MAKE ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR LIGHTING ON THE STAIRS.

If you have dimmers, then go for dimmerable lights. Make sure you get/have dimmers that are compatible with the lights themselves!

Go for integrated DoB lights such as the Aurora M10 or the Click Inceptor Micro. Much better than buying separate lamps and fittings and they come with a 7 year warranty.

Finally, your existing lights will probably be hanging on joists and/or noggins. Obviously you cannot have downlights in that location, so you will need to think about how/where you will make the junction for the (several) cables that already terminate at the pendant location. bearing in mind that screw terminations must remain accessible.....