How many downlighters do I need to install, roughly, per m. sq. of
ceiling in living areas and hallways? Many thanks, Sarah

It really depends on the size of the room and the size of lamps you are
fitting, 6 x 60 W lamps will give you the same power out put as 9 x 40 W lamps.
Or you could install low voltage lamps through transformers and have lots of
spots without overloading your lighting circuit.

"Pandora" wrote in message
om...
How many downlighters do I need to install, roughly, per m. sq. of
ceiling in living areas and hallways? Many thanks, Sarah

Are you talking mains or low voltage? LV give a lot more useful light per
watt than mains - so that will affect the equation.

I have got 12 x 50watt LV lamps in my L-shaped lounge, whose floor area is
about 32 square metres - i.e. just under 20 watts per square metre. That
gives plenty of light - in fact we rarely have them all one, but usually
combine some of them (they are in 3 groups of 4) with the wall lights. With
hindsight, 35 watt lamps would probably have been sufficient - giving about
13 watts per square metre. [I think there are some official guidelines
somewhere - but I don't know where, off-hand].

Roger

On 26 Nov 2003 12:14:42 -0800, (Pandora) wrote:

How many downlighters do I need to install, roughly, per m. sq. of
ceiling in living areas and hallways? Many thanks, Sarah

A possible answer might be "how long is a piece of string?".

I know that's not what you are looking for, however it really depends
on the use they are being put to. If there were emergency lights then
you can get away with a fairly low light arrangement. But for normal
use you'd probably need to keep the light level high.

I must admit that I wouldn't want to consider halogen lighting for
normal office work - I fear it might be a bit too bright!

PoP