On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:50:58 -0000, "Colin"
wrote:

Hi,

Would someone check my calculation please...

I have been considering fitting downlighters in my kitchen.


The kitchen is roughly 7m by 4m. Reading other posts on this BB it looks as
though I should go for around 15 downlighters + additional under cupboard
lights for effect...

My calculation is:

15 lights
50W per light
7p/Kw
Lights on 15 hours per day

15 * 50/1000 * 0.07 * 15 * 365 = approx £300 per year running cost. Any
additional under-cupboard lights are extra on top of this, as are
replacement bulbs, etc.

I assume that low voltage downlighters cost the same to run as mains
voltage(?)

Seems a bit steep to light just one room in the house!

[At the moment I have a 60w strip light and a 20W low voltage pendant which
gives adequate (but not sexy) lighting and only a tenth of the running
costs.]

Should I be considering something other than downligters? Is this the cost
of a modern-looking kitchen?

You probably need to start from functional requirements, which will
almost certainly lead to a mix of different lighting types. We have a
somewhat larger kitchen - about 32m^2 - roughly L-shaped, and our
lighting scheme consists of:

- three triple-spot clusters, one in the central part of the L and one
in each "leg" - these provide the general illumination throughout the
room
- striplights underneath wall units covering most of the food
preparation worktop areas
- lights built into the cooker hood
- two sets of two LV downlighters, one over the sink, one over the one
food prep area not covered by the under-unit strip lights

These are all separate switched (apart from the downlighters, each
pair of which is switched with the nearest spot cluster).

I reckon that's a total of 580W of lighting, although its rare for all
to be on at the same time, and there's no way that any will be on for
15hrs a day (the room has one N-facing window, two S-facing, and a
part-glazed exterior door on the S-facing side).

You really need to think about which areas of the room you need to
light and why, then work out an appropriate solution ... and, as other
posters have suggested, switch the damn lights off ;-)

HTH
Julian


--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk