In article ,
Tim W writes:
Pete Verdon d
wibbled on Thursday 29 October 2009 19:59
My kitchen ceiling was damaged a while ago by various water leaks. I'm
going to fix it very soon, and thought I should take the opportunity to
sort out the lighting while I can still run the cables.
The current arrangement is a single 3-spot fitting in the centre of the
room. This forces you to work in your own shadow at every single
worktop, even the one that projects out into the middle.
Here's a picture of the room at present:
http://www.verdonet.org.uk/stuff/kitchen.jpg . It's taken from the
doorway; the worktop bottom right is the one that sticks into the middle
of the room, the brown line down the right edge of the picture is the
side of a cupboard that's above it, on the wall opposite the main run of
cupboards. The cooker is in the rightmost corner (not visible).
I'll be having the ceiling plastered smooth, and I'll be painting it
white. So I quite like the idea of having some fluorescent tubes on top
of the wall units in the picture, reflecting their light off the
ceiling. My concern is that the distance between cupboard top and
ceiling is not massive - is the light likely to spread properly across
the room, or just be lighting up the edge above the cupboards?
I'd also fit a downlighter above the sticking-out worktop, and above the
sink - the two main places where you're currently in your own shadow.
I'd like to do the same for the cooker, but it has a big stainless hood
above it and with someone stood in front I don't think there's anywhere
to aim the light in. The hood does have a small light in so it's not
vital. Finally, I'd put small strips under the cupboards to light up the
main run of worktop.
Does all this seem reasonable? I have no experience on which to judge
light levels - am I likely to be massively over- or under-lighting the
room?
You can never have too much light in a kitchen - especially as the under
cupboard strips can all be fluro strips so efficient.
I agree with your layout - it should work nicely.
Yes, exactly what I do too.
How would one typically wire cupboard-top fluoro tubes? An FCU on the
wall and then flex to the tube holder sitting on the cupboard?
That's one option. I'm going to joint the flex to the T+E above the ceiling
in my case - but that is in a loft void, so guaranteed accessible. Another
option is to stick a 5A socket (you know, the old round pin ones) just
under the ceiling and plug the whole linked strip in (socket is on the
lighting circuit of course). But an unfused FCU also on the lighting
circuit would be fine.
I suggest the use of Klik lighting plugs and sockets.
You want Klik S26 Architrave sockets mounted on the wall
just above and just below your cupboards.
What sort of tube power should I pick? And what sort of technology for
the downlighters?
One with a standard tube size like T5 (T4 can be weird), eg:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BRL0548.html
Choose lengths according to each cupboard or run (allowing space for the
connectors and the brightness should be fine.
They are old T5 technology (the 4, 6, 8, 13W short tubes).
If you have standard 60cm wide units, the new T5 tubes are
designed to exactly match these, i.e. they are multiples
of 60cm long (1x, 2x, and 3x 60cm), minus a fixed amount
(about 4cm) to allow for end-caps.
(There are some other lengths too -- actually they are all
designed to match modular ceiling panel sizes.)
For each size, there is a HO (high output) bright tube, and
a HE (high efficiency) less bright tube. I usually fit the
HO tubes on top of the cupboards, and always fit the HE tubes
under cupboards. Make sure all the colours match - colour
835 would be my choice for a well lit kitchen.
For 3 cupboard's width, the HO is an 80W tube, and the HE is
a 35W tube. For 1 cupboard's width, they're 24W and 14W
respectively.
I don't buy fittings -- they're hard to find and usually too
bulky. I just buy bare ballasts (they're all electronic) and
the G5 endcaps, and if you're using loose endcaps, you need
terry clips to hold the tubes. The HO tubes get very hot, so
space them away from the surface.
For the under cupboard lights, you want them as far forward
as possible so you aren't looking at the tube reflection in
the middle of the worktop. I fix them to the back of the
pelmet. For the over cupboard lighting, again you want them
near the front rather than at the back. If you don't have a
top pelmet, then push them back just far enough that the
tubes are out of direct sight.
Any other advice?
Cheers,
Pete
Although the lamps I linked to can be switched at each point, it may be
worth adding extra switches so you can bring the under-cupboard lights on
seperately.
Yes, I switch the general lighting (above cupboard) separately
from the task lighting (worktop and downlighters).
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]