Kitchen lighting

[Chasmon]

Just wondering if anyone on here has any experience of low ebergy kitchen lighting.

I'm looking to light my kitchen in the near future because as bright as it is the 1000W site light has to go... (Long term renovation)

Does anyone on here have any first hand experience of low power down lighters. I have an area of about 26sqm to light I want to put in some down lighters for the main lighting but Halogens won't be much more efficient than my current setup!

I've got wall wash lamps, and in/under cabinet lights planned too so the down lighters will be just used for the main lighting when you want it nice and bright.

Some of the low energy ones seem to cost £££ so I don't want to buy without being sure first...

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[Hammy]

I have low energy downlighters in the kitchen - 7W flourescents...and they are not very good...   I have 8 of them plus a 18w LE centre fitting.    In total not nearly as bright as the 40W tube I took out, and they take a few minutes to get upto full brightness now they've been in for a year.

They look nice but the output is dissapointing and not upto that claimed.  

You can also get a 9w for the same fitting which might be better and I think there are now some 13w downlighters about -see screwfix site.

Don't forget there are "zones" in kitchens now and some LE fittings ( except maybe LED glowworms) may not be suitable over the sink area.

[Chasmon]

cheers for the advice hammy. I was concerned that this might be the case. The ceiling is 10ft plus above sink so i should be ok.

Anyone else had any good experiences?

[Darrell O'Neill]

Go for the downligher system, but steer cleer of the CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) such has Hammy has mentioned. You'll need dozens of them to get a decent light.

Ive fitted 100's (if not 1000's) of downlights and still find them the best system for a balanced light. Go for the 'low voltage' type downlights with seperate transformers (buy decent fittings and trans by the likes of JCC lighting or Osram, they'll last longer).

Instead of fitting 50w halogen lamps, use the new IRC (infa-red coated) lamps at 35w, they give the same light level as the 50w, just less running cost. They have a 5000 hour life span and do not change colour or dim with age.

Abit about them here.

QUOTE

Radium 12volt IRC Energy Saving Lamps 5000 hours

These lamps provide a low energy alternative for a low voltage system. Using an infrared coating and a mix of Halogen and Xenon this technology allows a 20watt lamp to give the same light output as a standard 35watt lamp thus creating an energy saving of 30%. Alternatively the 35watt version gives out the equivalent of a 50watt lamp and the 50watt version the equivalent of a 75watt lamp.

 

Diameter Wattage Equivalent Output  Beam Angles available Price

50mm 20watts 35watts 12° / 36° / 60° £2.95

50mm 35watts 50watts 12° / 36° / 60° £2.95

50mm 50watts 75watts 12° / 36° / 60° £2.95

Radium has developed the above range of long life energy-saving halogen lamps to significantly reduce the running costs of low voltage lighting. Lamps with IRC technology (Infra Red Coating) use much less electricity for the same amount of light and last twice as long as standard lamps.

The outstanding feature of the innovative ENERGY SAVER lamps is their increased luminous efficiency - i.e. the same amount of light is produced using less power, therefore saving energy. They also cut down on air conditioning costs, because the lower power consumption (for the same amount of light produced) generates less heat, and therefore reduces the cooling requirement.

That means cash in your pocket - without having to do without brilliant light. All IRC lamps provide an extremely high level of light intensity and colour constancy over their entire life of up to 5,000 hours!  

Ive used them and they are superb, in fact its all I'm going to use from now on.

Another option is LED, although quite abit more expense to install, they use a small fraction of the engery once fitted.

Don't bother with LED replacements for low voltage or mains voltage halogens. They have not quite cracked it yet with the light output and they are really only a direct comparrison to the normal (not IRC) 35w halogens.

Robus lighting have just brought out a 10w LED downlight, they really are the future and absolute comparrison to the 50w low voltage downlight. These would be a fifth running cost of the halogens.

Abit larger than the normal downlights, but ive fitted a few now and are brilliant.

Some details on the LED downlights here.

Hope you find this useful.

Darrell

[Darrell O'Neill]

Don't forget there are "zones" in kitchens now and some LE fittings ( except maybe LED glowworms) may not be suitable over the sink area.

Are there?....

Think you maybe getting confused with zones in bathrooms and rooms containing showers and baths..

[Gromit]

QUOTE

Don't forget there are "zones" in kitchens now and some LE fittings ( except maybe LED glowworms) may not be suitable over the sink area.

News to me too. Dont remember reading that anywhere in 17th Edition.

[carpetstu]

So if I want to save a few pounds on my GU10' 50w halogens that I have lots and lots of , some on dimmer switches. Am I best installing 35w halogens?

[RichP]

We're having our house rewired right now, and are putting 13W CFL downlights in the kitchen. It's true that they do take a little time to warm up but they're ok afterwards. We did look at 12V lights with transformers from which you'd get a more immediate light, but I struggled with the logic of fitting anything not low energy these days.

These are the lights:

Link

Take note though - the price is for the fitting only and does not include the SGU10 lamp which is quite expensive. The web price is RRP - a contractor buying from a wholesaler gets a much better deal.

[Gromit]

Cheaper alternative.

[Darrell O'Neill]

Just don't like the CFL fittings, a personal thing I guess, but just like the crispness of light from halogen and LED.

It wont be long before the retro fit LED lamps are sorted and they are as bright as the halogen. The 3w LED retro fit are good as a replacement for the 20w 0r 35w lamps but they just arent as bright as the 50w halogens or 10w LED.

[Darrell O'Neill]

These are the lights:

Link

Take note though - the price is for the fitting only and does not include the SGU10 lamp which is quite expensive. The web price is RRP - a contractor buying from a wholesaler gets a much better deal.

Aurora are quality fittings, in a kitchen where they will get alot of use, you need quality fittings.

A decent sparky should get 40-50% off those list prices..

[carpetstu]

But all of the fluorescent GU10 seem to be non dimmable?

No good for what I want

[Darrell O'Neill]

But all of the fluorescent GU10 seem to be non dimmable?

No good for what I want

very few CFL lamps are STu. Cant recall seeing any GU10 that are.

these are LED and are dimmable, but are longer than standard GU10 lamps

[Boxerman33]

Had a similar dilema when I re-fitted my kitchen, I got these LED's from City Electrical Factors, not cheap but the Cool White Light version (NOT warm light version) gives a fantasic bright white light and really low running costs. LED's

[RichP]

I'm sure you can get dimmable SGU10 lamps as we had that option when spec'ing our place.