Another lighting question

elsien

At the moment I have an extremely ancient (as in no starter thingy) fluorescent tube light in my kitchen which is now dying a death. 

Looking to replace with a spotlight bar - this sort of thing.

https://www.manomano.co.uk/flush-ceiling-lights-4547?model_id=8445715

My kitchen is a typical terrace narrow galley kitchen, stairs at one end then opening out.  The usable bit where the cupboards and  work surfaces are and the tube light sits now is approx 7 1/2. foot wall to wall and 10 ft long. 
The current light was a double 5 foot one, but when the first side failed, just the one tube has been fine to see by. 

I am clueless about how much light the spotlights throw out, and whether to go for a 4 or 6 bar. Or something else entirely. 

Any thoughts welcome. 

casper_gutman

We had this kind of thing in our old kitchen.

When we moved in the bulbs in the fitting were quite narrow-beam spots, and this didn't work well because you would be standing in your own light whenever you tried to do anything on the work surfaces. Swapping to the widest angle bulbs we could find seemed to help, because the light bounced around and gave more indirect illumination.

We also added under cabinet LED strip lights - like these https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Ultra_Slim_KBU/index.html - which did much of the work of actually lighting the worktops.

Are there units/worktops on both sides of the kitchen? I would definitely go for a six light unit, not for more light (you can always use brighter bulbs to achieve this) but so the light is better distributed. With a four light bar you'd only have two lights for each side of the room.

grumbler

GU10 bulbs are available up to about 50-55W (equivalent to traditional incandescent). So 4 of them will give you about 200W equiv.

However, personally I don't like spotlights as, per their name,  they produce spots of light and don't light the ceiling at all (unless you direct them upwards).

elsien

casper_gutman said:

We had this kind of thing in our old kitchen.

When we moved in the bulbs in the fitting were quite narrow-beam spots, and this didn't work well because you would be standing in your own light whenever you tried to do anything on the work surfaces. Swapping to the widest angle bulbs we could find seemed to help, because the light bounced around and gave more indirect illumination.

We also added under cabinet LED strip lights - like these https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Ultra_Slim_KBU/index.html - which did much of the work of actually lighting the worktops.

Are there units/worktops on both sides of the kitchen? I would definitely go for a six light unit, not for more light (you can always use brighter bulbs to achieve this) but so the light is better distributed. With a four light bar you'd only have two lights for each side of the room.

Thanks. 

Kitchen sink on the window side, work surface at the end and down the other side.
Kitchen is going to be done properly at some stage, this is more of a temporary fix while I get organised with that.
I did think about getting another tube put in for now as the light does work well but a) thought I’d get something that looked a bit better and b) I couldn’t work out what I needed in the way of LED tubes as they all seem to be for offices. 

FreeBear

Watch out for the type of bulbs used - Halogen is banned (as of Sept 2021), and fluorescent is due to follow in Sept 2023. I would imagine that the spots the OP is looking at uses LED lamps (but the link leads to an error page). Niece has a similar type of fitting in her new house, and it doesn't provide even illumination (she is going to have to change it as it is halogen).

An LED strip light (batten) would be a direct replacement for the current fluorescent fitting. Depending on the ceiling, I'd personally consider fitting two or three downlights - These can throw out a fairly wide beam of light, so shadows shouldn't be a problem if sited properly. Got six in my 2.4m x 3.6m kitchen (not much bigger than the OP's, but I don't have any wall cabinets).

elsien

grumbler said:

GU10 bulbs are available up to about 50-55W (equivalent to traditional incandescent). So 4 of them will give you about 200W equiv.

However, personally I don't like spotlights as, per their name,  they produce spots of light and don't light the ceiling at all (unless you direct them upwards).

Thanks. Spotlight alternatives? 

jennifernil

elsien said:

At the moment I have an extremely ancient (as in no starter thingy) fluorescent tube light in my kitchen which is now dying a death. 

Looking to replace with a spotlight bar - this sort of thing.

https://www.manomano.co.uk/flush-ceiling-lights-4547?model_id=8445715

My kitchen is a typical terrace narrow galley kitchen, stairs at one end then opening out.  The usable bit where the cupboards and  work surfaces are and the tube light sits now is approx 7 1/2. foot wall to wall and 10 ft long. 
The current light was a double 5 foot one, but when the first side failed, just the one tube has been fine to see by. 

I am clueless about how much light the spotlights throw out, and whether to go for a 4 or 6 bar. Or something else entirely. 

Any thoughts welcome. 

For a long kitchen like that, you would be better to get a longer track, at least 2 metres,  even 3 metres, plus whatever number of fittings you reckon suitable and place them where you need them.   Use LED lamps in the fittings, each at least 5watts.  

An alternative  would be an LED  ceiling strip.

 Plus as already suggested, LED strips under the units to light the worktops directly.  They can be plugged into nearby sockets.  Several strips can be linked together and operated from one switch, up to the limit of the power supply unit.

grumbler

elsien said:

grumbler said:

GU10 bulbs are available up to about 50-55W (equivalent to traditional incandescent). So 4 of them will give you about 200W equiv.

However, personally I don't like spotlights as, per their name,  they produce spots of light and don't light the ceiling at all (unless you direct them upwards).

 Spotlight alternatives? 

Something flat round LED, e.g. (random results from google)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dimmable-Bathroom-Waterproof-Ultra-Thin-3000K-6500K/dp/B07TXZ5H4F/ref=dp_fod_2?pd_rd_i=B07TXZ5H4F&psc=1

https://uk.teckinhome.com/products/teckin-cl02-led-ceiling-light-24w-led-ceiling-lights?gclid=Cj0KCQiAieWOBhCYARIsANcOw0zEI6pQhhPe8kgPUW3bFn4Zro0J1_GD6JTvo4ZIzGgTHHs52pcNwDUaAldkEALw_wcB

elsien

Because of the kitchen shape once you add on the bit by the stairs, I wasn’t sure if a round one would work. 

elsien

Another question - how do I work out how many whatever the equivalent of watts is for the space? 

Rodders53

elsien said:

Another question - how do I work out how many whatever the equivalent of watts is for the space? 

You match the lumens the different lamp types give (totalling them if multiple) not the Watts.  I've seen some led tube specs that match the led wattage to tungsten lamp wattages... fluorescents are more efficient at lumens out to watts in than incandescent tungsten lamps!

You sure the fitting is starter less?  If so it's a relatively modern electronic ballast type so will (as I read/understand it) need rewiring to use plug in led replacement tubes.  Get replacement fluorescent tubes(s) while you can they are energy efficient (it is the mercury in them that means they are being phased out).

5 foot fluorescent lamp 58 Watts has 5400 lumens - so a twin batten = 10,800.  Importantly the colour rendering index is 85.

An equivalent physical size led tube is 27 Watts but only 2700 lumens and CRI is poorer at 80.  Two led tubes would consume 54W and give the same light output as a single fluorescent tube.

GU10 4.5 Watt spotlight are 345 lumen so you'd need around 15 to match the single tube (when the tube is new) around a dozen as the tube ages.  

But good lighting design is more complicated than just the lumens.