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#1
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Light cove
I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living
room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC |
#2
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Light cove
MiamiCuse wrote:
My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. You might not need the glass if you attach the fixtures to the wall or put them on the shelf near the wall so you can't see the tubes from the other side of the room. If the top of the tube is 3" above the shelf and 2" from the wall, how wide must the shelf be to make the tube invisible to someone 6' tall and 28' away? This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Corner brackets above the shelves or blue screws in deep countersinks? Nick |
#3
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Light cove
On Jan 26, 9:34*pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. *I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. *I don't want to use any visible braces. *Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Use 1x6 attach 1x2 to the 1x6 with L brackets , screw the 1x2 into the wall, or just screw L braclets to the wall. Look at T-8 dimmable flourescent lights. |
#4
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Light cove
wrote in message ... MiamiCuse wrote: My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. You might not need the glass if you attach the fixtures to the wall or put them on the shelf near the wall so you can't see the tubes from the other side of the room. If the top of the tube is 3" above the shelf and 2" from the wall, how wide must the shelf be to make the tube invisible to someone 6' tall and 28' away? This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Corner brackets above the shelves or blue screws in deep countersinks? Nick I was thinking about that, but I think it is visible from some angle, also without the glass I think the light will be too "direct" instead of all bounced off the ceiling. As far as attachments, with your suggestions I have three options: 1 - use concrete anchor bolts, deep into the concrete, and drill holes on the 2x lumber on the side facing the walls to insert the other end of the concrete anchor. This probably is the strongest but may be tricky to align all the holes with all the anchors. 2 - tapcon with deep countersinks. 3- L brackets tapcon to concrete wall, wood screw on 2x. I wonder which one will be stronger 2 or 3? MC |
#5
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Light cove
"ransley" wrote in message ... On Jan 26, 9:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote: I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Use 1x6 attach 1x2 to the 1x6 with L brackets , screw the 1x2 into the wall, or just screw L braclets to the wall. Look at T-8 dimmable flourescent lights. Thanks. Will you use L brackets spaced every few inches (say 8 or 12) or will you get a continuous long L bracket? MC |
#6
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Light cove
"MiamiCuse" wrote in message ... I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Just talked to someone that makes me think I may need to change my design. He said that since a florescent light fixture box is say 48" long, and I need to chain them one after another to create this continuous light effect, the fixtures need to overlap about 4 inches. His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, so if I chain them together, the socket from the last one to the socket of the next one will create a six inch gap without lighting, therefore when I turn on these lights, I will see light for 42", then a six inch gap, then light for 42" again...and so on. That seems to make sense, so to solve this I need to overlap the fixtures, which means my "shelve" needs to be even wider? Or will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? MC |
#7
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Light cove
MiamiCuse wrote:
wrote in message You might not need the glass if you attach the fixtures to the wall or put them on the shelf near the wall so you can't see the tubes from the other side of the room. If the top of the tube is 3" above the shelf and 2" from the wall, how wide must the shelf be to make the tube invisible to someone 6' tall and 28' away? About 16". Or less, if the shelf tilts upwards. ... without the glass I think the light will be too "direct" instead of all bounced off the ceiling. Clear glass won't change the angles much. A linear parabolic reflector might focus the light onto the center of the ceiling... I'd vote for this: 3- L brackets tapcon to concrete wall, wood screw on 2x. Nick |
#8
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Light cove
MiamiCuse wrote:
... His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, The tube itself is about 47.75", including the pins. ... will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? I think so. Nick |
#9
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Light cove
On Jan 28, 1:55*am, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
"MiamiCuse" wrote in message ... I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. *I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. *I don't want to use any visible braces. *Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Just talked to someone that makes me think I may need to change my design. He said that since a florescent light fixture box is say 48" long, and I need to chain them one after another to create this continuous light effect, the fixtures need to overlap about 4 inches. *His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, so if I chain them together, the socket from the last one to the socket of the next one will create a six inch gap without lighting, therefore when I turn on these lights, I will see light for 42", then a six inch gap, then light for 42" again...and so on. That seems to make sense, so to solve this I need to overlap the fixtures, which means my "shelve" needs to be even wider? Or will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - You need to calculate Lumens, Using single T8 around a room will be plenty bright for a home, How big is the room. One double fixture T8 might be equal to 320 watts, for a 16x 16 room that is near equal to 5000 watts incandesant, or Daylight, and when you dimm them the color goes kinda red. |
#10
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Light cove
On Jan 28, 11:07 am, ransley wrote:
On Jan 28, 1:55 am, "MiamiCuse" wrote: "MiamiCuse" wrote in message . .. I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Just talked to someone that makes me think I may need to change my design. He said that since a florescent light fixture box is say 48" long, and I need to chain them one after another to create this continuous light effect, the fixtures need to overlap about 4 inches. His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, so if I chain them together, the socket from the last one to the socket of the next one will create a six inch gap without lighting, therefore when I turn on these lights, I will see light for 42", then a six inch gap, then light for 42" again...and so on. That seems to make sense, so to solve this I need to overlap the fixtures, which means my "shelve" needs to be even wider? Or will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - You need to calculate Lumens, Using single T8 around a room will be plenty bright for a home, How big is the room. One double fixture T8 might be equal to 320 watts, for a 16x 16 room that is near equal to 5000 watts incandesant, or Daylight, and when you dimm them the color goes kinda red. Ransley thanks again for your reply. The room is about 16'x32'. I plan to do this all around except at the fireplace which is about 6' wide. So the total perimeter that would be lit would be about 90 linear feet, or 22 fixtures of 48" in length. I was thinking either single T8 or T12...I thought the T8 is 32W so if I have 22 of that would equate to 704W? I am not sure I am doing this right. What is a decent total wattage, I don't think I need it to be bright daylight. I never seen florescent tubes dimmed, is this even possible? Thanks again, MC |
#11
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Light cove
On Jan 26, 10:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC So it seems using L brackets is the way to go. The drywall is down now and all I have is the bare concrete wall with 3/8" furring strips in place. Should I install drywall first, then install the cove/shelf on top of drywall? Or is it better to install the L bracket and cove/ shelf now, then drywall after (which will make more work for the drywall installer)? Thanks, MC |
#12
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Light cove
On Jan 28, 1:15*pm, wrote:
On Jan 28, 11:07 am, ransley wrote: On Jan 28, 1:55 am, "MiamiCuse" wrote: "MiamiCuse" wrote in message . .. I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. *I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. *I don't want to use any visible braces. *Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Just talked to someone that makes me think I may need to change my design. He said that since a florescent light fixture box is say 48" long, and I need to chain them one after another to create this continuous light effect, the fixtures need to overlap about 4 inches. *His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, so if I chain them together, the socket from the last one to the socket of the next one will create a six inch gap without lighting, therefore when I turn on these lights, I will see light for 42", then a six inch gap, then light for 42" again...and so on. That seems to make sense, so to solve this I need to overlap the fixtures, which means my "shelve" needs to be even wider? Or will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - You need to calculate Lumens, Using single T8 around a room will be plenty bright for a home, How big is the room. One double fixture T8 might be equal to 320 watts, for a 16x 16 room that is near equal to 5000 watts incandesant, or Daylight, and when you dimm them the color goes kinda red. Ransley thanks again for your reply. The room is about 16'x32'. *I plan to do this all around except at the fireplace which is about 6' wide. *So the total perimeter that would be lit would be about 90 linear feet, or 22 fixtures of 48" in length. *I was thinking either single T8 or T12...I thought the T8 is 32W so if I have 22 of that would equate to 704W? *I am not sure I am doing this right. *What is a decent total wattage, I don't think I need it to be bright daylight. I never seen florescent tubes dimmed, is this even possible? Thanks again, MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - 704 watt of T8 will be extremely bright, it might be uncomfortable. A 100 watt incandesant is 1400 lumen. A 32w soft white Philllips T8 is 2950 Lumens. 22 of them is 64900 Lumens! Or equal to 46, 100 watt incandesants or 4600 watts of incandesants. Dimmer ballasts are expensive maybe adding 600$, and they dont dim to Zero but maybe 20- 30% and there is the slight color change to red as you dim. A dimmer for that might be 40-50$ before spending 1000 on lights put every light you own in that room to see what 64900 lumen is like. But I have 46000 lumen in a kitchen, my T8 are in hollow beams shining up 12 of them and the halogens dim to zero. The kitchen is like daylight if I want it but the dimmed T8 gets a little red and im not that happy with that. It could work, get one with a dimmer and test the idea. research ballasts, new ones might get you to dim to 15% |
#13
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Light cove
On Jan 28, 2:56*pm, ransley wrote:
On Jan 28, 1:15*pm, wrote: On Jan 28, 11:07 am, ransley wrote: On Jan 28, 1:55 am, "MiamiCuse" wrote: "MiamiCuse" wrote in message . .. I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. *I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. *I don't want to use any visible braces. *Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, MC Just talked to someone that makes me think I may need to change my design. He said that since a florescent light fixture box is say 48" long, and I need to chain them one after another to create this continuous light effect, the fixtures need to overlap about 4 inches. *His reasoning is that the actual tube is not 48" long, may be 42" long with the sockets on both ends, so if I chain them together, the socket from the last one to the socket of the next one will create a six inch gap without lighting, therefore when I turn on these lights, I will see light for 42", then a six inch gap, then light for 42" again...and so on. That seems to make sense, so to solve this I need to overlap the fixtures, which means my "shelve" needs to be even wider? Or will the light "wash" into each other and still have the continuously lite effect? MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - You need to calculate Lumens, Using single T8 around a room will be plenty bright for a home, How big is the room. One double fixture T8 might be equal to 320 watts, for a 16x 16 room that is near equal to 5000 watts incandesant, or Daylight, and when you dimm them the color goes kinda red. Ransley thanks again for your reply. The room is about 16'x32'. *I plan to do this all around except at the fireplace which is about 6' wide. *So the total perimeter that would be lit would be about 90 linear feet, or 22 fixtures of 48" in length. *I was thinking either single T8 or T12...I thought the T8 is 32W so if I have 22 of that would equate to 704W? *I am not sure I am doing this right. *What is a decent total wattage, I don't think I need it to be bright daylight. I never seen florescent tubes dimmed, is this even possible? Thanks again, MC- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - 704 watt of T8 will be extremely bright, it might be uncomfortable. A 100 watt incandesant is 1400 lumen. A 32w soft white Philllips T8 is 2950 Lumens. 22 of them is 64900 Lumens! Or equal to 46, 100 watt incandesants or 4600 watts of incandesants. Dimmer ballasts are expensive maybe adding 600$, and they dont dim to Zero but maybe 20- 30% and there is the slight color change to red as you dim. A dimmer for that might be 40-50$ before spending 1000 on lights put every light you own in that room to see what 64900 lumen is like. But I have 46000 lumen in a kitchen, my T8 are in hollow beams shining up 12 of them and the halogens dim to zero. The kitchen is like daylight if I want it but the dimmed T8 gets a little red and im not that happy with that. It could work, get one with a dimmer and test the idea. research ballasts, new ones might get you to dim to 15%- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Thanks for the advise. Yes I need to do more homework to make sure the effect is what I want, thanks for the heads up again. |
#14
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Light cove
On Jan 26, 10:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? You're talking a lot of fluorescents, a lot of hum, a lot of bulbs to change, and a lot of installation time. You're also talking about a fair bit of wood and Is the lighting effect solely what is driving this urge to build and the lighting trough is necessary to conceal the 'guts'? Or is it more that you like the architecturalishness of the band running around the perimeter of the ceiling and while it's there you might as well throw in some lighting? Critical difference. If you're primarily interested in the lighting effect, and you want to save a bucket of cash, I'd definitely look into using some rope lighting, preferably LED. They kick out a nice amount of lighting efficiently, couldn't be easier to install, are easy to replace, have lifetimes measured in the many tens of thousands of hours and require very little space to install. Did I mention they're cheap? One solution would be to use two or three separate complete circuits of rope light around the perimeter and have each on it's own switch - that way you could vary the lighting level as desired. I'm not sure if the rope lights are dimmable, but if they are, then you'd be set. You really want the smallest open area acting as a shelf as possible - the less projection the less dust it will catch. Fluorescents will require a big box. Your friend is right about the need to address the dark spots if you butt the fluorescent fixtures end to end. You could use aluminum reflectors set inside the trough to bounce more of the light towards the dark areas between bulb ends. Since the rope light tubing is about 1/2" in diameter, two or three runs could easily be hidden in a very small space and would require only minimally projecting moldings. A single run of some deeper crown molding would hide it well. Another alternative would be to build up the cove out of 1x and trim to make it look like a frieze running around the room. The frieze and molding detail would complement whatever style of house you have. Compare the costs for fluorescent versus the rope lighting and the energy use both ways. And you should also take into account that cleaning cove lighting is a bitch - even with a glass cover (is the glass solely for cleaning purposes?). R |
#15
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Light cove
"RicodJour" wrote in message ... On Jan 26, 10:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote: I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? You're talking a lot of fluorescents, a lot of hum, a lot of bulbs to change, and a lot of installation time. You're also talking about a fair bit of wood and Is the lighting effect solely what is driving this urge to build and the lighting trough is necessary to conceal the 'guts'? Or is it more that you like the architecturalishness of the band running around the perimeter of the ceiling and while it's there you might as well throw in some lighting? Critical difference. If you're primarily interested in the lighting effect, and you want to save a bucket of cash, I'd definitely look into using some rope lighting, preferably LED. They kick out a nice amount of lighting efficiently, couldn't be easier to install, are easy to replace, have lifetimes measured in the many tens of thousands of hours and require very little space to install. Did I mention they're cheap? One solution would be to use two or three separate complete circuits of rope light around the perimeter and have each on it's own switch - that way you could vary the lighting level as desired. I'm not sure if the rope lights are dimmable, but if they are, then you'd be set. You really want the smallest open area acting as a shelf as possible - the less projection the less dust it will catch. Fluorescents will require a big box. Your friend is right about the need to address the dark spots if you butt the fluorescent fixtures end to end. You could use aluminum reflectors set inside the trough to bounce more of the light towards the dark areas between bulb ends. Since the rope light tubing is about 1/2" in diameter, two or three runs could easily be hidden in a very small space and would require only minimally projecting moldings. A single run of some deeper crown molding would hide it well. Another alternative would be to build up the cove out of 1x and trim to make it look like a frieze running around the room. The frieze and molding detail would complement whatever style of house you have. Compare the costs for fluorescent versus the rope lighting and the energy use both ways. And you should also take into account that cleaning cove lighting is a bitch - even with a glass cover (is the glass solely for cleaning purposes?). R For some reason I missed this reply. RicodJour, the purpose of the light cove is to lit this large room without hanging any lights in the middle or floor lamps. I would like the room to be as "open" as possible. I can't use recessed lights because the ceiling is too high and the space above it is practically inaccessible (cedar deck lined ceiling with insulation inside no space to run wire...). I could put a wall sconce spaced at a certain distance would be another option. Finally, before I tore things down, that room has a full perimeter light cove with fluorescent lights, only that 80% of the ballast were out and I was never able to see what it looks like fully lit before I demolished everything. Afterwards the more I think about it the more I realized why they did it the way they did it so I thought I would do the same. LED rope lighting? I never heard of it, I will check into it, I thought this is some disco light effect no? I am not looking for night club lighting lol. Thanks RicodJour, thanks for the advise, much appreciated. I will report back my findings. MC |
#16
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Light cove
On Feb 20, 9:23 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message ... On Jan 26, 10:34 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote: I am toying with the idea of building a light cove around the entire living room (about 28'x22') then use recessed lights and other lights towards the middle. My idea is to attach a 2x6 horizontally to the concrete block wall, which will make a "shelf" about 6" wide. I will route the top side on the outside to put a small notch in which I will insert a thin strip of frosted glass or fiber glass about 3 to 4" tall so this will form the "lip" of the shelf. Inside the shelf I will put 48" long florescent light fixture and chain them up all around. This seems simple to do I just need some suggestion on how I would secure the 2x6 sideways to the concrete block wall. I don't want to use any visible braces. Any thoughts? You're talking a lot of fluorescents, a lot of hum, a lot of bulbs to change, and a lot of installation time. You're also talking about a fair bit of wood and Is the lighting effect solely what is driving this urge to build and the lighting trough is necessary to conceal the 'guts'? Or is it more that you like the architecturalishness of the band running around the perimeter of the ceiling and while it's there you might as well throw in some lighting? Critical difference. If you're primarily interested in the lighting effect, and you want to save a bucket of cash, I'd definitely look into using some rope lighting, preferably LED. They kick out a nice amount of lighting efficiently, couldn't be easier to install, are easy to replace, have lifetimes measured in the many tens of thousands of hours and require very little space to install. Did I mention they're cheap? One solution would be to use two or three separate complete circuits of rope light around the perimeter and have each on it's own switch - that way you could vary the lighting level as desired. I'm not sure if the rope lights are dimmable, but if they are, then you'd be set. You really want the smallest open area acting as a shelf as possible - the less projection the less dust it will catch. Fluorescents will require a big box. Your friend is right about the need to address the dark spots if you butt the fluorescent fixtures end to end. You could use aluminum reflectors set inside the trough to bounce more of the light towards the dark areas between bulb ends. Since the rope light tubing is about 1/2" in diameter, two or three runs could easily be hidden in a very small space and would require only minimally projecting moldings. A single run of some deeper crown molding would hide it well. Another alternative would be to build up the cove out of 1x and trim to make it look like a frieze running around the room. The frieze and molding detail would complement whatever style of house you have. Compare the costs for fluorescent versus the rope lighting and the energy use both ways. And you should also take into account that cleaning cove lighting is a bitch - even with a glass cover (is the glass solely for cleaning purposes?). R For some reason I missed this reply. RicodJour, the purpose of the light cove is to lit this large room without hanging any lights in the middle or floor lamps. I would like the room to be as "open" as possible. I can't use recessed lights because the ceiling is too high and the space above it is practically inaccessible (cedar deck lined ceiling with insulation inside no space to run wire...). I could put a wall sconce spaced at a certain distance would be another option. Finally, before I tore things down, that room has a full perimeter light cove with fluorescent lights, only that 80% of the ballast were out and I was never able to see what it looks like fully lit before I demolished everything. Afterwards the more I think about it the more I realized why they did it the way they did it so I thought I would do the same. Don't. Things have advanced a lot since your house was built. Fluorescents and their ballasts kick out a fair amount of heat, and considering where you live, that's probably not a feature you need. LED rope lighting? I never heard of it, I will check into it, I thought this is some disco light effect no? I am not looking for night club lighting lol. They're recessed, you wouldn't ever see the light string, if you staggered the two or three runs there'd be no telltale localized brightness and the things use almost no energy and kick off almost no heat. It's truly a no-brainer for your situation. The initial cost is a bit higher than for cheap shop-light equivalent fluorescents, but the operating costs would be far lower and you'd never have to change a bulb. Thanks RicodJour, thanks for the advise, much appreciated. I will report back my findings. Damn well better! I know where you live... R |
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