Mains Voltage Halogen Lighting

[Mikee]

Hello,

I'm redoing the lighting in my kitchen and 'er indorrs would like recessed halogen lighting. In itself this is not too much of a problem, but I could do with some advice.

Firstly, can normal recessed halogen lights be fitted in a kitchen?

Secondly, the kitchen ceiling is below a bedroom floor and as such only has a void of about 6" (15cm). Is this sufficient?

Thirdly, (sorry i do seem to be going on a bit!) I would like to have eight downlighters to fulfill the lighting quota. What is the best way to wire these so that they all come on from one switch?

Any advice or links to relavent pages is most welcome.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[breezer]

there is more of a variety with low voltage lamps, although it is only the lamp it self that is low voltage see this

as for wiring them the transformer feeds are wired in paralell. you may even get a set with 8 already done for you

 

[Mikee]

Is there not an issue with heat from low voltage units. I've read on a number of lighting sites that LV lights tend to project heat backwards thus giving a cool light effect. It it does this then will it cause problems with the floor above?

Mike

 

[breezer]

what you say about the heat is true, but 6 inches should be fine, but remember that you should remove any insulation i.e. fibreglass away from the lights

 

[Mikee]

If I go down the route of mains voltage then is there a simple way of wiring all 8 to one switch or is it best to run each pair of a junction box to avoid overloading any particular box? A 4 way junction box should allow for a feed in, feed out and two ligths.

 

[breezer]

low voltage or mains are both wired the same way since each low voltage light (or group of lights) has to have a transformer and all are wired in paralell