Which lights please

[joeandrews]

Untitled

• joeandrews
• 5 Jan 2011
• 1

I'm about to fit a new roof window in my internal bathroom.

I have to remove the central light fitting to make room for the new window.

I assume it is best to put spot lights around the room as per the drawing, or is there any better ideas for lighting the room?

Where is the best place to buy the lights please?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[flameport]

I assume it is best to put spot lights around the room as per the drawing

That is one option, but whether it is 'best' depends on the intended effect.
Small spotlights will certainly result in a significant increase in the amount of electricity used.

Other options include:
- two surface fixed lights either side of the window
- two larger sized recessed lights
- concealed fluorescent striplights around the edge of the window
- wall lights

and so on.

Just because DIY sheds and Argos are stuffed full of useless spotlights does not mean these are what you must buy.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have to remove the central light fitting to make room for the new window.

Is the room adequately lit by this light? If so keeping the lighting in that location seems a good option.

As flameport says, spotlights are pretty useless at lighting rooms - they have the name they do because they produce spots of light, not an even, widespread coverage, and you seem to know that because of the number you show in your drawing.

Also - "roof light" implies a flat roof, or roof space over the bathroom - if you try to fit recessed lights into the celling you will have horrendous problems trying to maintain insulation coverage and to seal the lights and holes to stop the warm moist air from the bathroom getting into the roof and rotting the timbers. With a flat roof that'll probably be horrendous to the point of insurmountable.

You might like to think about designing the opening so that you could fit cold-cathode lighting around it - you could have a square tube made.



Also, instead of a window have you thought about a Sunpipe type of thing? They are good because the multifaceted collector on the roof will bring light in when the sun is at all sorts of positions in the sky, which a plain window will not. Often you can have lights built into the pipe.

Re electrical work in the bathroom: //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:part-p

 

[joeandrews]

I thought I might be asking a bit of a daft question, but I'm glad I asked.

I'm definately not going for spots now.

Thanks for taking the time to give such useful information.

 

[rebelbuttmunch]

The LED Spots are very energy efficient

 

[sparkybird]

Think carefully about the areas you want to light.

I would consider a recessed light carefully positioned over the shower (avoiding lighting the top of the shower head!) as generally when you have a shower you want a bright 'wake up' light. And on it's own switch

I would also fit an illuminated mirror over the sink for shaving/makeup

The rest could probably be lit with some wall lights on a dimmer as you don't need loads of light to have a wee and you might want dimmed light for a relaxing bath.

A feature light (eg rope or LED strip) light around the skylight might be nice, but again I would have this switched separately.

If your sink is wall hung, then you could put an LED strip under the bottom on a switch - I have this and it's useful to switch on when I get up in the middle of the night for a wee (old age) and don't want to be blinded by the main lights.

Hope this helps

SB

 

[joeandrews]

I would like to install some lighting like ban-all-sheds shows, unfortunately too expensive. I'm thinking of going for 2 of these (one either side of the new window);

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQUA-Rated-..._1_8?s=lighting&ie=UTF8&qid=1294251507&sr=1-8

They might not be good to look at, but from a technical point of view are they correct?

Many thanks.

 

[sparkybird]

I think they'll be a bit rubbish as you wont get much light in the shower (see my post above) and as you walk in the door at least two of the bulbs will be pointing at you directly and they're pretty blinding....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

it's useful to switch on when I get up in the middle of the night for a wee (old age) and don't want to be blinded by the main lights.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Approach-Toilet-Dark-Light-Turns/dp/B000XC03SY

(or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Depend-Pant...8CRG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294253763&sr=8-2 )

 

[joeandrews]

We currently have the light fittting like the one shown on Amazon and it does the job, I'll have to go for 2 of these. Will the ones shown in the link be okay from a technical point of view?

Many thanks.

 

[RF Lighting]

It depends on where you re planning to site them in relation to your bath, and also how high your ceiling is as to whether they will be safe, but they will do a terrible job of lighting your bathroom.

 

[sparkybird]

Please OP - rethink those lights!

Ban - I think the second option is slightly more classy than the first...

 

[flameport]

More lights:
http://www.directlight.co.uk/contemporary_flush_ceiling_lights
http://www.houseoflights.co.uk/products/modern-ceiling-flush-lights-76/
http://www.lightingathome.co.uk/ceiling-lights-flush-c-273_799.html

 

[joeandrews]

So would 2 of these do the job?

http://www.lightingathome.co.uk/end...-11546.html?osCsid=dk4tnf7anj5s15bj5ov1l8bu66

 

[flameport]

Almost certainly, although I wouldn't get that one, as it uses G9 lamps which are short lived and expensive.