Downlights

[s1d972]

Hi,


Im looking for some professional advice with regard to downlight positioning. It has been a long time since i have installed downlights and they have advanced to the point of too much choice/option so i am going round in circles trying to position them to avoid coning/black spots/burning my retinas out!

I am having an extension built which consists of 3 areas i require lighting for. (i am looking at using the Robus Ultimum 5w 60 degreee lamps unless advised to use 7w)

room 1 - Study, 2420mm x 3923mm. With beam layout i was looking to install 6 spots as shown on the attached drawing, or would i get away with 4 moved in slightly?

Room 2 - Utility, 2900mm x 1506mm. as per drawing looking at 3 lights, 2 in walkway and one over counted/sink.

Room 3 (the issue) 5631mm x 4000mm wrapping around with offset roof lantern :-(. Within this room i was looking at 3 rows of 4, 600mm from edges which would give me a spacing of 1495 between lamps (ceiling height is 2.4m) with an additional 2 lights fitted at one end of the lantern.

The other issue with this room is I am going to install a 65" TV on the outside wall - 2000mm to the centre which would fall directly under a light. I am considering doing 3 rows of 5 which would give me a spacing of 1000mm and downlights positioned either side of the proposed TV location.

Any help, words of wisdom or feedback would be appreciated since i need to wire this soon before plastering etc.

 

[telectrix]

as a basis i generally allow 30" - 36" spacing of downlights, exact measurements depending on joist spacing. soory can't visualise centipedes. it's all foreign to me.

 

[brianmoooore]

Nothing wrong with having a light directly over the TV, as long as all the lights in a room aren't all on the same switch. I always try to 'group' lights together taking into account what activities might be going on in the room. Example: I a large 'passage' room, I might have a downlight near one door, a light near the other door, and maybe one in the middle, all on the same switch.
I also find it's best to avoid rigidly set patterns and spacings for the lights, since, however accurately you set them out, it will look from some angle like you've made a mistake, and if your positions are rigidly laid out, sooner or later you will encounter a joist, or other obstruction, in the way.

 

[Let me think]

Another thing to consider is if you want a 'clinical' feel, place evenly light up or prefer to have a more 'homely' feel, with fewer lights lights positioned closer to walls to create patterns/shadows/textures effect.

To echo brianmoooore if large room then would have them grouped on to at least two separate switches. To give you some more control. Remember to also consider blub colour temperature and maybe also dimmers to give you even more control of your downlights.

I know quite a few folks have went for the 'clinical' feel and have ended up further down the line very rarely using their downlights and have resorted to strategically positioned lamps around the room to get them back to the 'homely' feel.

To be honest, only place I would tend to recommend downlights are in the kitchen 'clinical' feel and where celling heights are low and/or if people are tall and likely to bang their heads against standard celling pendant lights fittings (with fancy shade attached).

Good luck for whatever you decide to go with.

 

[Zerax]

Personally... I always try to avoid downlights wherever possible. If a customer insists on them...that's up to them. There are far better ways to light a room...

Although... it can get complicated and need lots of thought to do something different. You need to consider how the rooms will be used, what is going in them and the various wall finishes etc. Think about background lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. So in your 'study' you'll probably have a desk ? I'd have lamp point(s) for that... probably single overhead led panel for occasional use when cleaning etc. Maybe a couple of led spots pointing to a wall ? Any pictures going up ? Display cabinet of memorabilia (with internal lighting) ? Any tv in there ? (for sky news or maybe cctv viewing ?). Now's the time to be thinking about all these things.