Simple kitchen spotlight question

[pem1]

Hi
Im planning to install some spotlights in my kitchen. its dimensions are 2.1 x 3m.

Im using 250 lumen cool white GU10 4w lamps. (240v LED)
Im planning to space them in 2 rows of 4. with a 1m space between them 0.5m from the wall. ( if that makes sense)
The ceiling height is 2.6m

Is 8 too many or not enough, any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Surely the fact that you think you need 8 lights in a 2 x 3m room shows that the lights are no good at lighting up rooms?

 

[pem1]

What i think isnt really relevant the info is there, if anybody could shed some light on it.

 

[Gutterball]

the clue is in the name. spot lights are used to illuminate a certain area not go give an overall light. you would be better with a fluorescent.

 

[flameport]

Is 8 too many or not enough, any advice would be greatly appreciated

Grossly inadequate. 8 separate lights means shadow city, and the total output is only 2000 lumens.

A single 6ft fluorescent tube is about 6200 lumens - more than three times as much light, and one of those in a kitchen would only provide what most people would consider normal levels of illumination.

 

[RF Lighting]

Hi
Im planning to install some spotlights in my kitchen. its dimensions are 2.1 x 3m.

Im using 250 lumen cool white GU10 4w lamps. (240v LED)
Im planning to space them in 2 rows of 4. with a 1m space between them 0.5m from the wall. ( if that makes sense)
The ceiling height is 2.6m

Is 8 too many or not enough, any advice would be greatly appreciated

The spacings sound about right. I'd be wary of 4W lamps. They might not be bright enough for your kitchen. I'd be looking at between 5W to 9W lamps.

Also cool white LEDs can look really harsh. I would recommend you use warm white which is very similar light to what halogen lamps produce.

Have a look on toolststion. They have 9W LEDs for a tenner each including vat. Not tried them my self, but they look good.

Ignore the downlight haters above. You'll be brightly lighting your entire kitchen with only 40W of energy. That's pretty good going in my opinion.

I do loads of downlighter installations, and providing the lights are properly spaced, they do a brilliant job of lighting up a room, and shadows are not a problem. It's just an old wives tale.

 

[pem1]

Thanks for your reply RF lightling id almost lost hope with this forum, Flourescent tubes lol, that'll look good, ill look into those bulbs

Thanks

 

[riveralt]

One of the complaints - raised many times here - about spot lamps is just that - they are spots or pools of light dotted around the room - hence the need to have so many to replace the single lamp.

One way around this is to fit the downlighters with LED GU10 floods. As here:
http://www.allaboutelectrics.co.uk/vivedas-4w-gu10-led-flood.html
(they do them in 5w as but I find the 4w is more than adequate)
I have used these on a number of installations and found them to be very effective - even fitted them to my own kitchen.
They give a much wider beam angle up to 140degrees rather than the 40/60 on a normal spot.
The spread allows natural overlap which gives excellent lighting across the whole of the kitchen.

 

[skotl]

^^^^ Concur ^^^^

We just (2 weeks ago) had GU10 LEDs fitted in the new kitchen and they work extremely well. Not very narrow beams as I've seen with other people's downlights.

Interestingly, the electrician just wanted to fit 12V traditional downlights and I insisted on having dimmable GU10 LEDs, following advice from this forum.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I do loads of downlighter installations, and providing the lights are properly spaced, they do a brilliant job of lighting up a room, and shadows are not a problem. It's just an old wives tale.

What - you mean after you've masked the problem of them being sh*te at room illumination by using an offensively large number of them?

IT IS NOT AN OLD WIVES TALE - THEY ARE ACTUALLY DESIGNED TO NOT LIGHT UP ROOMS.

 

[skotl]

c'mon BAS. Have you installed and used (for example) 3-LED GU10s?

I have been in plenty kitchens where the downlighters look like a 50p torch pointed at the floor. What we've just installed are in a different league.

I did argue with both the architect and the builder, but the electrician was adamant that they would be fine.
And they are.

Sometimes you need to look beyond the spec sheet and the earlier incarnations - progress can be made!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

OK - how many have you got in what size room?

 

[skotl]

OK - how many have you got in what size room?

Excellent question, my dear chap

As it happens, eight in a portion of the room that is 2.4m by 3m (so similar to the OP).

Pic in all it's (unfinished) glory;

Untitled

• skotl
• 3 Aug 2013
• 1

 

[RF Lighting]

Sexy

Which fittings are they out of interest?

 

[flyingsparks]

At last RF Lighting has spoken some sense about downlights. People like BAS are always hating them where as I am one of those people too where in a properly designed area they can light a room well and do look good too. I'd love to know what alternatives those haters would suggest? (And no one, no matter how good they may be, will want to fit a 6ft fluorescents in there nice new kitchen will they? This is 2013 now not 1980.