In message , Johny B Good
writes
On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 07:52:25 +0000 (UTC), Adrian
wrote:

On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 03:32:38 +0100, Johny B Good wrote:

Such "Downlighters" are the spawn of the Devil. Sometime in the past,
a **** of a "Lighting Designer" (no doubt calling himself a fashion
designer) in the employ of a lighting accessories manufacturer, decided
the mis appropriation of these lamps into a stylish table lamp in an
exercise of "Fashion over Function" would be a "Jolly good wheeze" and
set the ball rolling which eventually led to the concept of ceiling
downlighter luminaries we loathe today.

These spot lighting lamps did have a legitimate use to begin with
which was, essentially, to provide an unobtrusive source of spot
illumination in retail stores for such things as shop window and counter
displays of the "Goods on Show".

We should all go back to lovely flouro strip lights everywhere,
especially in the living room, eh?

I wasn't suggesting going to that extreme as you know full well,
although fluorescent tubes have been available in circular form for
just such "Not out of place in the Living Room" usage for the past 4
decades or so. Now we repeat the same exercise using small, highly
loaded spiral tubes, cunningly disguised as incandescent bulbs.

My message was simply, "For sanity's sake, _don't_ fit ceiling
downlighters _anywhere_ in a domestic property!"

I wouldn't quite go along with that.

As with most things, they are fine used in the right location. True they
aren't on the whole good for providing general illumination in a room.

But I have used them quite successfully in a bathroom - the room was
small, it can provide nice lighting for a bathroom - I think because of
all the light and reflective surfaces, and it can highlight areas of the
room. 4 downlighters, + a couple of small lights each side of a mirror
to light the face provided good lighting for the room.

Also, than can be used for task lighting in kitchens, our friend have
them over an island unit in their kitchen and they work well there.
--
Chris French