kitchen lighting

tinner777

hi lads,

looking for a bit of advice. my kitchen approx 16 x 13 foot is very badly lighted. i have a bank of four spot lights in the middle, as advised by electrician when house built four years ago, which leaves most of the kitchen dark. now ok they look nice but i'm a bit fed up of having no light. what would you recommend?

Mr Magnolia

Under-press lighting. You can't have enough of it as far as I'm concerned.

Stoner

Recessed 13Watt downlighters also look nice, but as Mr Mag says the undercounter stuff is nice. One of the secrets of lighting design is to have different sources of light, so some downlights and undercounter lights can work well with eachother, I dont like those 4 spot light units, they drop the height of the ceiling IMO, they eat electricity.
One number decorative 38Watt 2D fittings would light the place better (but people dont really like the look of them, but if you are looking for a simple change over then they are a punchy light)

tinner777

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Under-press lighting. You can't have enough of it as far as I'm concerned.

what type, got a few of those spot lights that you stick on which are rubbish, any links?

"One number decorative 38Watt 2D fittings would light the place better (but people dont really like the look of them, but if you are looking for a simple change over then they are a punchy light)"

are they easy to install? any links?

northdublin

a relation of mine had a similar complaint and i got him a 28watt 2d circular fitting, a standard white one. they are very plain but you can get ones with chrome or brass rings and some have coloured uplighting built into them which projects coloured light up onto the ceiling while it downlights the rest of the area its in. heres a link
http://www.asdlighting.com/morephotos.asp?id=42&catname=Office%20and%20Commercial&rangename=Harmony%20Halo

peter-pantslez

the flourescent under counter lights are a gift! the give you plenty of light around your work surfaces and look very well too. and just turned on on there own they give out plenty of light too (handy for parties:))

im suprised the electrician didnt advise about installing these when you built it. i always reccomend them!

Stoner

northdublin wrote: »

a relation of mine had a similar complaint and i got him a 28watt 2d circular fitting, a standard white one. they are very plain but you can get ones with chrome or brass rings and some have coloured uplighting built into them which projects coloured light up onto the ceiling while it downlights the rest of the area its in. heres a link
http://www.asdlighting.com/morephotos.asp?id=42&catname=Office%20and%20Commercial&rangename=Harmony%20Halo

thats about the best looking surface 2D fitting that you are going to get IMO, most of them are plain white ones, or else they'll cost you an arm and a leg, oh and if you do get one make sure it has the opal diffuser, the 2D lamp is not attractive and the tiny drop in lux level from the opal diffuser is worth it.

It would be very easy to replace what you have with one, the undercounter lights would be more difficult.

Loobz

Stoner wrote: »

thats about the best looking surface 2D fitting that you are going to get IMO, most of them are plain white ones, or else they'll cost you an arm and a leg, oh and if you do get one make sure it has the opal diffuser, the 2D lamp is not attractive and the tiny drop in lux level from the opal diffuser is worth it.

It would be very easy to replace what you have with one, the undercounter lights would be more difficult.

Hw much are they? Cant find a price from the link supplied?

Stoner

I'm sure that a PM to northdublin would point you in the right direction

northdublin

pm received and pointed in the right direction, just to let you know that if you go for the 28watt fitting and find it not bright enough you have other options while still using the same fitting. you can try differant bulbs,and by that i mean differant shades of white like cool white. also keeping the original fitting and changing out the gear inside, ie the ballast and capacitor you can go brighter with a higher wattage bulb.

secman

I am also looking at kitchen lighting options. Over 2 windows we have a drop level shelving, which we intend putting 3 20 watt halogen cabinet type down lighters in each shelf. If we use normal down lighters, you get the up light effect also, which is slightly coloured. We are using the triangular shape under press lights for the wall units, halogen, not LED ones (too white). The question is .... are the 3 20watt cabinet lights sufficient for light over sink and work tops ? They are really supplementing the banks of 6 downlighters in kitchen and 6 in the Dining room.

Thanks

Secman

Stoner

they should supplement the light alright but not enough to do a job on their own IMO, they dont provide an even/balanced light, but they do look well. Strip lighting with a warm lamp would be more efficient and even IMO, but some people just love downlights and dont like the alternatives. I see lidl have some strip light combos this week (I have not seen them and dont like this style of light anyway, but it might be worth a look, I have no opinion on their quality either way)
http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20080811.p.HalogenUnderCabinetLight

stmochtas

How easy is it for an electrician to do the wiring for this type of under counter lighting. Is the fact there are plugs nearby enough? I am envisonaging holes in walls etc.

Stoner

Well usually the neatest and quickest way is to come off a socket into a fused spur and into the undercounter light, sometimes a route from the back of the socket behind the tiles and into the press can be established with ease.

however the recommended way is to come off the ligthing circuit (once it has sufficient capacity). These are lights after all and need to be cabled with the same consideration that other lights in a house are.
This is the safe and correct approach, but it is more likely to be the messy way too, but you never know, it might work out well.

northdublin

stmochtas wrote: »

How easy is it for an electrician to do the wiring for this type of under counter lighting. Is the fact there are plugs nearby enough? I am envisonaging holes in walls etc.

it depends on the kitchen and how perticular you are, also on the electrician.
in certain circumstances ive seen the mains supply taken from the high level socket used for the extractor fan, this worked out much neater then taking from a lower level socket.
in relation to flouresent under cabinet lighting ied recomend the t5 interlinkable lights. they come in 6,8,10,16,20 and 30 watt. i replaced the lamps in some of these fittings in a kitchen recently and put in cool white instead of the warm white that was there. the cool white gave a crisper light and made the coloured tiles on the wall look much more effective.

tinner777

Loobz wrote: »

Hw much are they? Cant find a price from the link supplied?

hi, did you get them?

tinner777

hi,
i got onto ecl lighting bout the halo range they tell me that they are not suitable for a kitchen due to a low ip rating, what does that mean?

they recommend Concord Cassini, have any of you seen these?

Stoner

most 2D fittings should be fine for a kitchen, it's true that the IP (Ingress Protection) is low for a kitchen but about 95% of the light fittings in peoples kitchens are too low (not that this is an excuse) for example a pendant stye fitting with a light shade is too low. typically bathrooms are the main area in a house where people get sticky about IP ratings (and rightly so), kitchens are the next area in line.

Concord are nice fittings, last time i got one they were a little pricy.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ip-ingress-protection-d_452.html

tinner777

Stoner wrote: »

most 2D fittings should be fine for a kitchen, it's true that the IP (Ingress Protection) is low for a kitchen but about 95% of the light fittings in peoples kitchens are too low (not that this is an excuse) for example a pendant stye fitting with a light shade is too low. typically bathrooms are the main area in a house where people get sticky about IP ratings (and rightly so), kitchens are the next area in line.

Concord are nice fittings, last time i got one they were a little pricy.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ip-ingress-protection-d_452.html

pricey? €117!!!!! for the concord, does it fly