Spot lights

[Tan]

Hi

I want to have spotlights installed in a few rooms around the house, how do you calculate how many lights you need in each room?

Also, is it worth going for LED or Halogen? My thoughts were to go with a mains powered Halogen now and then change to LED in the future when the price of the bulbs comes down as they seam extortionately expensive at the moment or would the costs saving of LED's pay for themselves quite quickly?

Thanks

Tan

 

[V12]

I calculated that we would only need 2 years for the led bulbs to pay for themselves. I didnt factor in the cost of replacement halogens either. 3 years on and they are great, no hiccups, no blown bulbs to replace.

Make sure you get the warm white ones as the ice white are very blue and make a house feel cold.

 

[grumpyoldgit]

A difficult one to answer.
It obviously depends if you intend to use them as the main lighting source or as additional feature lights, the size of the room and how much light you want and if you want to be able to dim them, along with the type of fitting you are thinking of.

I installed some flush fitting ceiling ones many years ago in a living room 24' x 13' (approx) as additional feature lighting (keeping the two main ceiling lights) and was very pleased with the amount of light from them.
The room had three recesses along one long wall and I put one in each recess, the other long wall was just straight and I spaced four equally along that, all were fitted 12" from the walls.
I used low voltage (non dimable) halogen with 50w bulbs (20w also available) connected to two switches, one for each set and we very rarely used the main lights after installing the downlighters/spots as there was plenty of light from them, they also gave a certain ambiance to the room.

I know that the mains voltage equivalent are dimable but don't know if the LED's are. Hope that helps.

 

[V12]

Some LEDs are dimmable.
They usually cost a little more than the standard ones. The only room we have fitted one is in my little boy's room.

 

[Meldrew2]

If you fit GU10 light fittings, you will be able to fit mains halogen lamps, led lamps and depending on the particular fitting you may also be able to fit CFL lamps.

Be aware that halogen lamps pose a fire hazard.









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[Tan]

Thanks for the replies, are fire rated down lighters a legal requirement or a recommendation?

 

[V12]

This is where I read up on them before we jumped in :

Frequently Asked Questions

 

[74merc]

Don't bother with CFLs. We have them and they take ages to warm up. Apparently they also loose half of their output after six months.
I haven't found anything that is as good as MR16s. LEDs have always disappointed me in some form but I haven't tried a good 3000K LED. I have tried a 4000K one, whilst the output is good, the colour is just too cold.

 

[Tan]

Hi

Went with these for lounge, dining room and bedroom: Best Price Lighting & Electrical Saxby DLF302WG Shield MV Tilt 50w Fire Rated Downlight White Best Price Lighting & Electrical

and these for the bathroom:

Best Price Lighting & Electrical Saxby DLF805CG Shield 240 IP65 50w Fire Rated Downlight Chrome Best Price Lighting & Electrical

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[BTB 500]

We fitted LED spots (GU10) in the kitchen and hall a couple of months ago. Very pleased with them - massive improvement over the energy-savers we had there before (which took significant time to warm up and were dimmer even then). Originally had normal halogen bulbs in ... you can see a slightly darker patch on the ceiling above where each one was