On Sun, 12 Jun 2016 12:38:54 +0100 (GMT+01:00), jim k wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" Wrote in message:
In article ,
Tim+ wrote:
My mother who has macular degeneration desperately needs some better
lighting in her tenement flat kitchen.

At present she has some manly old spotlights with an assortment of CFL
bulbs instead of the intended 60W reflectors so as you can imagine it's a
bit crap.

I was thinking of replacing them all with something like this, a six spot
LED track.

http://www.beamled.com/six-light-12w...light-kit.html

Given that the ceiling is 3.2 metres high, would the lighting be
improved?

The best lighting in terms of being practical for seeing things is soft
light. In other words, the light source is as large and even as possible.
Think a bright overcast day.

Spotlights may look pretty and produce nice looking 'pools' of light. But
that isn't the same as giving decent working light. Unless lots of them
are bounced off say a white wall. To give that large even light area.


Does that still apply in this case?

I have to agree with SS who earlier in the post nominated flat panel
lights.

I used them for the opposite reason, a low ceiling where the
conventional pendant was a bloody nuicance, specially in the bathroom
where clothing removal or armpit scrubbing could involve whacking the
globe light around.

The flat panels came from Ebay, these were simple to fit involving
little more than a Stanley knife and some paint & filler for the odd
error.

I seem to recollect they were 18W and 24W.

The bathroom light was so effective, that I went on to do most of the
house with them, even to the point of using two 48W panels in a high
ceilinged corridor.

The 48W panels did need a bit of DIY work as they are designed to be
used as office downlights, but the light output is impressive in a
domestic environment and allowed a certain freedom in decor as it was
possible to use a darker theme without the corridor being the
slightest bit gloomy [Internal corridor with no external light
source].

Anyway the flat lights were simple to fit, very effective and easy to
add to in areas needing more intense lighting.

The only thing I was a little concerned about was the plastic cased
supply units. They had CE markings suggesting some kind of approval,
but in areas where they were mounted close to wood supports, I placed
the power units inside MK metal clad boxes [double with cover plates]