Recessed Downlights

[Sfrazi]

I am really struggling to figure out how many spotlights I will need for my living room.

I will be installing 240v mains downlights (50w)

Room size is 3.37m x 4.50m.
Height is low at 2.40m.

Does anyone know how many will be best and in what configuration?

 

[RF Lighting]

The rule of thumb is 600mm from each wall, and then spaced evenly with 800mm to 1200mm between each light.

You really should look at LED lamps instead of halogen. They use a tenth of the electricity compared to halogen lamps and will pay for them selves in next to no time.

 

[Sfrazi]

Does it matter that the ceilings are really low? Would that change the location/quantity of the downlights?

 

[ericmark]

The 50W spot lights is as the name says a spot light and to light a room needs a more general light. By aiming the spot lights at white walls and ceilings the reflected light can light a room well but much is dependent on the surface the light reflects off.

Down lighters pointing at a dark carpet make the room look like a planetarium as all one sees is the lights sources not general light where as angled pods shining against a light wall can work well.

At 50W that's 0.2A each and most lighting supplies have a maximum of 6A and with inrush as switched on 10 is really the maximum for any single switched array. It is common to split 1/3 and 2/3 so giving three levels of light 1/3, 2/3 and full. Also centre of the room often has no lamps as they need to be close enough to walls to be aimed at them to reflect the light.

Centre of room needs to be a lamp with a diffuser of some type to spread the light rather than a narrow beam.

With such a low ceiling not really sure down lighters are the best option may be better on pods so they can be aimed at wall or ceiling. Also the heat is a problem and with ceiling now being a fire barrier fitting the lamps is often limited including the position of beams there should unless manufacturer says otherwise be at least 0.5 meters from flammable surfaces and often there is less than 0.5 meters between ceiling and floor boards so it requires special lamps which are expensive.

Theory also includes LED lamps but in practice they are a lot cooler so although rules still say 0.5 meters we all know nothing like that is required.

But LED lamps to give same light as a 50W tungsten are expensive where buying 2W lamps and having more of them is cheaper so planning for a lower wattage lamp even if you still use tungsten will allow you to change latter to LED. Also using low voltage (230v) rather than extra low voltage (12v) will make it easier to change to LED or cold cathode lamps.

Some designers seem to have no brains my wife has just bought a lamp table with light wood that's good but black glass panels which clearly will reflect very little light if the glass was replaced with light coloured tiles it would work well reflecting the light up.

So it's not the amount of watts or lumen but the surface which will or will not reflect light which will have the biggest bearing to how many lamps are required so you have to look at that first.

 

[Sfrazi]

Can you get energy saving gu10 lights that light up immediately and not take ages to get to full brightness? I'm looking for ones that will power up to 50w

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I am really struggling to figure out how many spotlights I will need for my living room.

None.

Spotlights, as their name implies, are designed to produce a spot of light. Not only are they not designed to be good at lighting up rooms, worse - they are actually deliberately designed to be bad at it.

There are lots of sensible recessed lights available if that's what you want, but they are larger. Trying to do general whole-room illumination with an array of little recessed torches is a bad idea.