"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Tim S writes:
So:

If starting from scratch, what *do* you choose?


Many 5W led downlighters in one ceiling have been suggested.

My own view is that using downlighters for general lighting is
a bad idea. Unless they're very wide beam, you are basically
using the floor as a reflector to light the room, and floors
generally make appalling reflectors. If you want a ceiling
covered in bright dots for some reason, use decorative lamps for
that purpose, and something else more suitable for the general
lighting. When I walk into a room with a ceiling covered in
downlighters, it just says "cheap" and "clueless" to me.

The odd downlighter used for task or accent lighting over
something that needs task lighting or accenting is fine -- indeed
that's exactly what they _are_ for.

So having answered with what not to do, thinking of an answer
of what to do instead is harder. I must say, I find the choice
of light fittings available in shops to be extremely disappointing.
Sometimes, I see a light fitting used commercially which I think is
good, but then you find you'll have to pay commercial prices for
it (i.e. £100 upwards). I end up making nearly all mine, often
starting with parts from bought ones, e.g. replacing the guts with
something economic to run, or using the glass pieces in different
way.

A technique which is very effective (particularly when you can't
find fittings you like) is to use indirect lighting with the
lights hidden from view. I always do this in kitchens, using
linear fluorescents on top of wall cupboards indirectly lighting
the room via a brilliant white painted ceiling, and under cupboards
for worktop task lighting. This can work in other rooms too, e.g.
uplighters in a living room, or even just table lamps dotted
around on furniture with open topped shades to make good use of
the light reflected off the ceiling, whilst shielding the light
bulb from direct view. If I was wiring up a living room, I would
include a number of socket outlets around the room switched from
the doorway (2A or 5A round pin, or klik lighting points). There's
one I added in the living room I'm currently in, but I didn't wire
up the whole room, and more would be better. I would still go for
a central ceiling light; it can be decorative rather than functional
of your main lighting comes from other places, but you still have
the option of a function light there too.

For my part, I'm trying to minimise the number of different lamp types I
have to stock as spares

That's something I certainly failed, but not something I strived
for. I have a cupboard in the garage with spare lamps, and it's
not really a big deal how many different ones it holds.

- and trying to use lamp bases where many different
types (eg wattage, colours, led replacements) are or might be available.

So far, of fittings I have already acquired:

2 sets of GU10 240V fittings: rationale are that (currently) there are
loads
of GU10 lamps in lots of ratings, colours and led types. The last fact
suggests *if* led lamp offerings become any good (and I mean lamps, not
lab
grade leds, of which I have several excellent ones) then GU10 seems to be
a
format they are likely to appear in.

I have some LED lights I am very pleased with, but I made them
myself. Commercial equivalents (not that there is anything quite
equivalent) would have been around £400, but the parts to make
mine probably cost me less than 1/10th of that.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

The best 10 quid i've spent was on a standard lamp, bunged in a 25W cfl and
it's great, pity the plasma pulls 300watts