Looking for low energy kitchen lights

lagi

I need some help on finding some nice lights for my kitchen. I am only thinking of the main ceiling lights at the moment. The kitchen is east and south facing with plenty of windows. It is 7m long and 2.6m wide and there is quite a big rsj that hangs down in about the centre of the room across the width.

Because the rsj hangs quite low i am going to put a pair up as one side would always look darker than the other.

I have found these which i quite like
but not so sure they are low energy and also because i plan on putting a table up one end i would really like these to be dimmable.

Both lights will work from one switch, preferably a dimmer, low energy but give good light.
If anybody has any suggestions as what to put up i could really do with some input as i am at a standstill until i find something.

27col

If they are 21 watt as per the link then they are low energy. If the room is 7mt long it is doubtful if 2 x21w fitting will provide enough light I would have thought. You might have to use 3 or even 4 at regular intervals. As to whether they are dimmable, you will have to ask the manufacturer. Even if you fitted 4 lights the total energy would only be 4x21= 84watts. This is still quite reasonable for a room of this size. You need to see one lit up to ascertain the sideways spread of the light output. They appear to be enclosed quite tightly by the casing and this could affect the sideways spread of the light output.

TimBuckTeeth

They are fluorescent tube fittings so are low energy.
They will not be dimmable. You would have to get special (expensive) types and a matching dimmer control (not a standard one).
The fitting you have linked to looks like it would restrict the sideways and upwards light so will not light up the ceiling making the room duller (like using spot lights). As mentioned above 21W is fairly low for a fluorescent tube and the light output would be insufficient with only 2 of them.

If dimming is essential then another option is to use dimmable compact fluorescent lamps in fittings that use standard lamp holders, these should work with a normal dimmer control.
eg. http://www.ryness.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=9458
http://www.megamanuk.com/products/product.php?sid=13

lagi

Thanks for the reviews. Dimmable is very much essential. Any suggestions?

Phil_L_2

Four single 49 Watt fittings fitted with polylux T5 tubes. Use 0-10 volt ballasts for dimming. They need to be ordered as a complete unit.

lagi

Sounds good Phil, but completely over my head. Suggestions, i meant any ideas for choices of low energy kitchen lights i could use. I thought i might be sitting here looking at pictures thinking what might look good.

Just done some more searching, T5's are flourescents. Also seen some good reviews for S.A.D tubes too... here

Do you think this is a good route to go down then with flourescents? As don't want downlighters and can't seem to find much else to choose from.

Phil_L_2

My first stop is usually Thorlux and then Luxonic who provide a lot of good information. Cooper, Dextra and Whitecroft are also on the list.

The SAD tubes are simply high colour temperature polylux tubes you will get the same effect from tubes marked as 965, which gives a colour render of 90 and a colour temperature of 6500K, but I would suggest trying one as they take some getting used to. Philips have recently tried some 17,000K tubes which were supposed to be well received but the pictures looked a little odd.

If you want to do some designs Dialux is a good programme and is free to use if a little daunting for the beginner.

TimBuckTeeth

The 0 -10 volt dimming ballasts mentioned by Phil_L are built into the fluorescent fittings and provide a suitable current for fluorescent tube and allow dimming.
They require a 0 to 10 volt control voltage to control the brightness which is provided by a special dimmer control which would need extra wiring.
These are the kind of fitting used in offices - many fittings can be controlled by one dimmer control as it does not pass the current for the fittings but only provides a control voltage.

lagi

Had a good look at all the sites, still very confusing though. Even more so if the wiring is different than a conventional system. Downloaded the dialux programme but unfortunately requires net framework 2 which is not permitted on this pc. The dimmable ballasts are pretty big too.

Very technical stuff, i may have to look for something else.

lagi

Could anybody please confim if this will work,

These are the flourescents, there would be 2 either end of the room

this

then this to make them dimmable

this
It says it can handle 2 x 18w, so if correct i would need to purchase 2 of these to handle both lights.

Phil_L_2

Yes that would work, however, I would advise you to buy the light fitting with the correct ballast already fitted. Changing ballasts is a bit of a pain when you know what you are doing. Look at the Dextra range since these are the most easily available.

I would also suggest T5 tubes rather than T8 since they are more energy efficient.