12v Downlight Covers and Light Distribution

[Damon_11]

Hello Everyone,

I am about to put 12v 50W 60deg beam downlights through my new kitchen. Have purchased a pack of 10 at about $10ea, but do not think that I will use them all.

Q1 Should I get Downlight covers? I have the rotten blow in cool or cosy insulation. And if so, what type and where can I pick them up in Perth.

Is there a home made alternate I should consider in some type of insulating foil?

Q2 My kitchen area is 4500 mm x 3000mm and ceiling height 2040mm. How many downlights should I use to cover the area. We currently have a single 3ft fluro tube with no diffuser, so would want to have equivalent light.

Thanks in anticipation!! DC WC Eagles - Premiers 2006

[OBBob]

Hi There

I assume your ceiling height is 2400? Don't think you'd need 10 lights in that area but I'm not sure if there are any standards out there for that sort of spacing.

In a kitchen you want to make sure you have plenty over the work areas. The lights that go in the bottom of the wall cupboards to illuminate the bench are great.

Q1 was answered in another post I recall. Someone had used terracotta pots with the bases cut off to cover their downlights.

[Damon_11]

Thanks Bob, Yes found the thread that referred to the terracotta pots - will give it a go with steel flywire.

yes, the ceiling is 2400h, I was thinking of my kitchen cabinets that are 2040h.

Any other ingenious suggestions from anyone??

Cheers...DC

[ian]

Damon,
this is how I've done the calcs
your kitchen bench and table are about 1m off the floor, or 1.4 m from the ceiling.
a 60° down light will throw a circular patch of light which is about 1.6m across 1m above the floor
(the maths is 1.4 x tan(30&#176 = 0.8 = radius of the circle)

so if you put the lights in at 1.6m centres (which roughly translates to 2 rows of 4) you'd get roughly even light at navel height with pools of shadow in the corners.

I'd be inclined to space them over the work area so that the circles overlap by about 30% — implies about 1m centres about 0.6m from the wall, or 5 above a bench running all the way along one 4.5m long wall

for the rest of the room, it depends on where the work surfaces are


ian

ther

[workgoose]

Also have one (or two) lights between the wall and the sink, so that you don't cast a shadow over it when you do the washing up, this might sound silly, but believe me its very useful. Also some 12V lights have an opening around the bezel, which lets in insects, insulation, dust etc. - get the type that is tightfitting into the mounting ring.

[Damon_11]

Thanks Chaps for the advice. Think I will be going 1 to the left of the sink in the bulkhead and 4 x across 4.5m or there abouts. I'll do all of these things and then get my sparky out to wire them in.

Thanks Heaps for your replies ....DC

[ian]

Damon

I understand that normal practice is to mount the lights and their transformers in the ceiling cavity.
If you want and have the space, you could place the transformers out of site on top of a cupboard and run the 12v wiring to the lights yourself.
which would mean that your sparky only needs to wire to the transformers. and should a transformer play up you wnot need to get into the ceiling to replace it.

ian

[Redgy]

Get the sparky to put in surface sockets for each light. Then when a transformer fails you can unplug it, put the wires back on a new transformer exactly as they come off the old one & plug it back in. Also if a cb is tripping you can unplug a few at a time to determine the faulty one. When I wired my place I didn't use the transfomer ones, direct 240, all plug in..I don't like transformers in the ceiling.

Reg

[cross]

Another option for covering your lights is using some pvc pipe (the kind plumbers use for waste etc) cut to the correct size. We have used it before and it works well to keep the "spray in" insulation away from the lights.