spotlights in kitchen

drummer_666

Hello, me again...

My kitchen diner is 7.6m long by 2.2m wide in the longest bit and 1.8m wide in the shortest bit

The dining section is 2.8m long
The kitchen section is 4.8m long
The ceiling is 3.65m tall

I am having pendant/ceiling lights in the dining end and recessed spot lights for the kitchen end, I'm trying to work out how many spots I need

As the kitchen is long and narrow I could have one row down the middle (8 spots 600mm apart).

Or I could have two rows - 550mm in from the walls and 550mm in between rows BUT for the narrower end of the room they would only be 170mm in from the wall

http://victorianterracerefurb.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/kitchen2.png

I'm thinking of going with the low voltage bulbs, 20watts it doesn't say how many lumens

I'm more inclined to go with just one row
Do you think 8 spots would be bright enough?

spadoosh

60mm apart is pretty close in my head.

What type of spotlights are you going for?!

GU10, 5.4, ses, es. Unless your going for something with a tiny bulb i tihnk 6 cm will be too close together.

With energy saving its hard to work out how much light you would get from a particular 20 w bulb so v hard to say. I would imagine though 8 x 20w (of most bulbs) would be suitable.


Edit just looked at the picture.

Where the cooker is i would look at doing 4 in a square (equidistant from walls) and then oppposite ext door have 2 carrying on from the 2 near the cooker iyswim?!?

drummer_666

oops type, meant 600mm apart

I could run in two rows, but the kitchen is very narrow and over one side I have wall units and one side I don't

Plus the side that doesn't have wall units, the room steps in by approx 370mm half way down

and was looking at something like this http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=660088

WestonDave

If its any help we have 7 spots in a roughly 4m square kitchen. They are set as 2 rows of three which are the main lights, with a single one right in the centre which is switched seperately. (The single one was added so that the elderly lady who had the house before us could leave that on to make the house look occupied without using loads of electricity). For us the 6 alone is plenty as 50W 12V halogens. I've now got the central one as a phillips 10W LED which is getting close to being equivalent to the 50W ones but obviously only 20% of the electricity being used.

Its obviously a matter of choice but I'd reckon you could get away with less than 8, and I'd be looking to have them as 230V fittings as the choices of LED ones are now better which will save a lot of electricity in the long run. I think with the wall units etc you might be better with more central lights than two rows.

drummer_666

WestonDave wrote: »

If its any help we have 7 spots in a roughly 4m square kitchen. .

hmm, well the kitchen end of the room is roughly 9.5 sqm

so that would sound like I'd need more than 8

I could put two rows of 5, 940mm away from each other
rows 550mm from the walls and from each other

WestonDave

Sorry worded that wrong - its 4m by 4m so 16sqm. Our two rows are roughly 1m in from the sides with roughly 2m between them in the middle (which is where the single one is). With just 6 switched on the coverage and light intensity is perfectly good.

Jaynne

In 12sqm we have 6 lights - they're approx 1.5m apart from each other and are all 50W halogen bulbs. 600mm sounds awfully close to me you might get a touch of sunburn off that many lights.

tyllwyd

We've got recessed downlighters and they are the worst choice we ever made - the bulbs blow all the time and are expensive to replace. We'd get rid of them all if we could afford to.

drummer_666

thank you everyone for letting me know what your set up is, very helpful!!

I think if I have 5 spots in one row, that's approx 940mm in between each spot

Then down dining section, scrap the pendant idea (as table will usually be pushed up against wall) and get one big light shade, with a bright bulb and a dimmer switch

baldelectrician

I would suggest LED spots, you can get dimmable ones.

If you don't go for LED I would suggest wiring them so that every second light is on a different switch, this means you can put half of them on instad of all of them if it's a bit dull.

I gather you can't be in Scotland as your'e not allowed a WC that opens onto a kitchen, there has to be a hall or room between the kitchen and WC
Building reg stuff

southcoastrgi

IMO looking from an astestic view, i would stagger them in two rows, one straight line of lights will look naff.