Lighting Newbie

[first]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and want to understand some lighting basics.

I am in the process of buying a house and renovating it and need the following advice.

What is the difference between down lights and spot lights?

Do you normally get the light as a set, the actual holder, transformer, dimmer and the globe?

What type of globe is better, florocent or halogen.

If all this basics have been discussed before, then would appreciate if someone could guide me to the link

Thanks

[OBBob]

Hi there First

I think you may need to visit a lighting shop to get the best picture. Try having a look at http://www.beaconlighting.com.au/ that will give you an idea of what's what.

[mako]

gday. Spotlights are more of a one dirrectional light to highlight something like a painting etc. also spotlights are those big ugly things hangin off your wall outside. Downlights are as the name suggests lights that omit light down and have a certain width of light spread. if using low voltage ones you will get them as a package usually with the light fitting, transformer and globe. You will have to get a dimmer seperate. The differance between halagen and floresent... fluro gives much more even light with less shadows. softer light compared with halegen. Fluro light is great for places you really need to see such as kitchen, workshop etc but pretty ugly in lounge room. Hope this helps.

[chrisv]

Hi

I found some deatils in another forum with performance of lights by an extremely clever guy.

http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3660

Just to confuse things even more. I have recently installed some LED downlights in a commercial building.......very very poor light spread when comparing to Halogen downlights. And the cost for the light fitting was aprox $80 each plus transformer.

Manufacturer claims that you will save the initial outlay over the life cycle of the light (aprox good for 50,000 hrs???). Still hurts the hip pocket to start with:oo:. There are so many variables these days.........just speak with your nearest lighting specialist and they will lead you in the right direction.

Good luck:;