[copied to sci.engr.lighting, but scope is UK]

In article .com,
"John Stumbles" writes:
I need to get a new fluorescent fitting (or 3) for my mum's kitchen
since her ancient 8' or so fitting is on the blink (literally). I want
to get high frequency (electronic) fittings since one of my sisters is
inclined to complain about flicker (but let's all google 'fluorescent
flicker' for previous discussions on this subject rather than start a
new one here :-).

They are manufactured, but it seems no one stocks them; they
are ordered only as required for installations. If you go
into an electrical wholesaler and ask the price for just a
few off, make sure you are sitting down. ;-)
In my experience, it's cheaper to buy a regular fitting
and separate electronic control gear, and swap the guts over.
If you wanted 100 of them to refit an office, then the
economics probably turn around the other way and you can
buy direct from the manufacturers rather than wholesalers.
BTW, can anyone think of any use for a pile of unused
magnetic ballasts on the shelf in my garage? ;-)

More generally I'm looking for sources of decent-looking and effective
low energy lighting particularly for kitchens: I have to replace a duff
halogen track light system in a client's kitchen and don't want to
replace it with another energy-guzzling halogen unit if I can help it.
I'm also after something for my own kitchen which presently just has 3
CFs in pendants (but SWMBO thinks these are tacky).

I've done up a few kitchens, and I usually go for concealed
lighting. The one I did where lighting couldn't be concealed,
I converted the existing downlighters to compact fluorescent
ones. For the central lamp, I couldn't find anything energy
efficient which was even remotely style acceptable, so it
ended up with a fitting which takes 100W filament lamp (and
a compact fluorescent retrofit won't even fit in the fitting).

For rooms I've done since then, I've continued making my own
low energy lighting, being very disappointed with what's
[not] available commercially.

The kitchen downlighting conversion can be seen on the lower
half of page http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/diy/ and
it uses control gear recycled from dead compact fluorescents.
This is no longer necessary as the price and availability of
electronic control gear has improved considerably since I did
this. A more recent luminare conversion using commercial
control gear is http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/diy2/
(using a Philips "Matchbox" ballast in this case).

--
Andrew Gabriel