On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 18:13:20 +0100,
wrote:


My conservatory installation seems to be turning into the installation
from hell. The current difficulty is with regard to the ridge lighting
(4 downlighters).

The electrician, who's supposed to be coming to fit them on Monday,
admits he's never fitted them into a conservatory before. The
conservatory supplier may also never have fitted them before, but I
can't get hold of anyone there. The lights are 50mm LV 20w halogen
eyeball spots, and the instructions specify 160mm void depth. How do
you fit spotlights into a conservatory ridge if they need that kind of
depth? The mains voltage variant of the same light specifies a smaller
void depth (140mm I believe), presumably because it doesn't need the
space for the transformer, rather than because they produce less heat.
(If I understand it right, 20w of heat is the same whether its LV or
240v?)

Does the heat dissipate through the aluminium? Is that a good idea?
What happens to the uPVC if it gets too hot?

I'd like to be armed with some knowledge about this when the guy from
the conservatory company calls me on Monday am to reassure me that
they know what they're doing with regard to this. Should they be
fitted outside the ridge, rather than cut out to fit into it, so that
the heat can dissipate into the air of the conservatory itself. How do
these usually work?

Thanks

Brian


For this application I wouldn't use halogen lights at all because
there are too few to do much useful and they are going to get hot.
The plastic may melt or discolour.

These small lights are quite effective near to a light coloured wall
and where the wall intersects the cone of light and produces a
parabola or part of a hyperbola on the wall.

How high are they? I guess at least 2.5m?

If you do want lights up in the apex, I think that they will need to
be more powerful ones to be useful - say 50W - and spaced off in some
way, or perhaps a different technology to halogen.

Another technique that I have used quite effectively is to have light
coloured blinds in the roof and to use upward pointing lights
reflecting from them


If you are not certain about this, I would delay the lighting
installation, especially anything cutting into the structure, until
you have put in the furniture that you will have and played around
with that and how you will use the room. You can easily experiment
with a cheap set of halogen lights temporarily fitted with tapes and
cords near the ridge just to try them out. You'll get roughly the
right lighting effect.

Then when you are sure, do something permanent.



..andy

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