Hi,

In our new house we have solid concrete floors, and the ground floor
doesn't have a lot of headroom. Currently there are no ceiling lights -
just nasty 70s wall lighting.

I want to attach some battens and nail plasterboard to it to make a
more pleasant ceiling and to hide some of the pipes, but obviously I
don't want there to be much space between the concrete and the
plasterboard.

Ideally I would like to get rid of the wall lighting and put in some
low-profile ceiling lighting. I'm a bit concerned about putting in
halogen lighting as there won't be a lot of clearance and very little
airflow to get rid of heat.

Can anyone tell me if halogen lighting would be acceptable in this
installation. What's LED lighting like - will this knock out enough
light? Anyone know of any nice low-profile flourescent lighting?

Thanks,
Dave.

Bodgit wrote:
In our new house we have solid concrete floors, and the ground floor
doesn't have a lot of headroom. Currently there are no ceiling lights -
just nasty 70s wall lighting.

So are you saying the current ground floor ceiling is completely solid?

I want to attach some battens and nail plasterboard to it to make a
more pleasant ceiling and to hide some of the pipes, but obviously I
don't want there to be much space between the concrete and the
plasterboard.

Ideally I would like to get rid of the wall lighting and put in some
low-profile ceiling lighting. I'm a bit concerned about putting in
halogen lighting as there won't be a lot of clearance and very little
airflow to get rid of heat.

You probably need to lower the ceiling by about 4" to be able to fit
flush fitting halogen downlighters

Can anyone tell me if halogen lighting would be acceptable in this
installation. What's LED lighting like - will this knock out enough
light? Anyone know of any nice low-profile flourescent lighting?

From what I've read up, LED lighting isn't really up to it yet; just
too dim.

What about surface-mounted halogen spots, like http://tinyurl.com/75skt (or
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp?cId=101858&ts=81925)?

David

So are you saying the current ground floor ceiling is completely solid?
It's solid but it's got some horrid sort of 70s ceiling tiles glued to
it. They really need to come down!

What about surface-mounted halogen spots, like http://tinyurl.com/75skt (or
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp?cId=101858&ts=81925)?

Thanks. Are you suggesting I mount these on the wall? It will certainly
look better than what's there now, but not really what I'm after. The
ceiling is about 6'9" from the floor, so if I take a couple of inches
for the pipes + the thickness of the plasterboard that brings us to
6'7" - I'd certainly have to duck to walk under those lights. Do you
know of any recessed flourescent fittings ?

In article .com,
says...
So are you saying the current ground floor ceiling is completely solid?
It's solid but it's got some horrid sort of 70s ceiling tiles glued to
it. They really need to come down!

What about surface-mounted halogen spots, like http://tinyurl.com/75skt (or
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp?cId=101858&ts=81925)?

Thanks. Are you suggesting I mount these on the wall? It will certainly
look better than what's there now, but not really what I'm after. The
ceiling is about 6'9" from the floor, so if I take a couple of inches
for the pipes + the thickness of the plasterboard that brings us to
6'7" - I'd certainly have to duck to walk under those lights. Do you
know of any recessed flourescent fittings ?


Can't you just mount fluorescents above the plasterboard with some
translucent material flush with the ceiling to act as a diffuser? I'd
have thought a few circular tubes could be mounted direct to the
existing ceiling with spring-clips.

On 17 Nov 2005 06:47:39 -0800, "Bodgit" wrote:

So are you saying the current ground floor ceiling is completely solid?
It's solid but it's got some horrid sort of 70s ceiling tiles glued to
it. They really need to come down!

What about surface-mounted halogen spots, like http://tinyurl.com/75skt (or
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp?cId=101858&ts=81925)?

Thanks. Are you suggesting I mount these on the wall? It will certainly
look better than what's there now, but not really what I'm after. The
ceiling is about 6'9" from the floor, so if I take a couple of inches
for the pipes + the thickness of the plasterboard that brings us to
6'7" - I'd certainly have to duck to walk under those lights. Do you
know of any recessed flourescent fittings ?

Could you lower most of the ceiling by 2" you suggest but an area of
say 1' all around the perimiter by 4", then the downlighters will go
near the walls and shine on to them. Halo downlighters look really
effective shining off light coloured walls!

Bodgit wrote:

Hi,

In our new house we have solid concrete floors, and the ground floor
doesn't have a lot of headroom. Currently there are no ceiling lights -
just nasty 70s wall lighting.

I want to attach some battens and nail plasterboard to it to make a
more pleasant ceiling and to hide some of the pipes, but obviously I
don't want there to be much space between the concrete and the
plasterboard.

Ideally I would like to get rid of the wall lighting and put in some
low-profile ceiling lighting. I'm a bit concerned about putting in
halogen lighting as there won't be a lot of clearance and very little
airflow to get rid of heat.

Can anyone tell me if halogen lighting would be acceptable in this
installation. What's LED lighting like - will this knock out enough
light? Anyone know of any nice low-profile flourescent lighting?

Thanks,
Dave.

Various options:

trough lighting, this is done with long fully concealed fl tubes
running along the top corner. Important to use a dimmable electronic
ballast to avoid flicker, and good quality tubes. Some fl tubes look
awful, some so-so, and some are very good. 3500K is a good low cost
halophosphate tube, triphoshors in the 2700-3500K region are better but
more money. Avoid 4100K, 4500K tubes, or higher, and cool white, theyre
the horrid ones.

table lamps

floor standing uplighter

fl lights recessed into the ceiling

cfls downlighters: its poss to make these very low profile, with no
room for vent needed above.Separate bulb and ballast, and make your own
bulb enclosure, sitting the ballast next to it on the PB.

Forget LEDs, theyre all hype.


NT