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For downlights make sure you use a warm white throughout the house to give it a homely feel. We aren't living in a factory. 3000k is perfect.
Cheaper ones will distort the colour of the light and not look as good, so ensure you get good quality ones.
People use their downlights so wrong these days....they are made to highlight walls and working spaces. Not to light the floor area....have them above kitchen benches, bathroom sinks and along wall edges for the most benefit out of them.
Agree with you but what do you use to light the floor and living areas?
For downlights make sure you use a warm white throughout the house to give it a homely feel. We aren't living in a factory. 3000k is perfect.
Cheaper ones will distort the colour of the light and not look as good, so ensure you get good quality ones.
People use their downlights so wrong these days....they are made to highlight walls and working spaces. Not to light the floor area....have them above kitchen benches, bathroom sinks and along wall edges for the most benefit out of them.
Agree with you but what do you use to light the floor and living areas?
The downlights create enough light reflecting off the walls. You can light a whole room just by lighting one wall so I'd you put a downlight on or 2 along each wall that room will be more than lit enough.
Most electricians know barely anything about lighting and say everyone uses cold white light. People regret it....I'm going to get the 3 way toggle switch ones to start with so I can compare.
All the above info is from my relative that has 30 years experience as a lighting and interior designer. She has quite the resume!
For downlights make sure you use a warm white throughout the house to give it a homely feel. We aren't living in a factory. 3000k is perfect.
Cheaper ones will distort the colour of the light and not look as good, so ensure you get good quality ones.
People use their downlights so wrong these days....they are made to highlight walls and working spaces. Not to light the floor area....have them above kitchen benches, bathroom sinks and along wall edges for the most benefit out of them.
Agree with you but what do you use to light the floor and living areas?
The downlights create enough light reflecting off the walls. You can light a whole room just by lighting one wall so I'd you put a downlight on or 2 along each wall that room will be more than lit enough.
Most electricians know barely anything about lighting and say everyone uses cold white light. People regret it....I'm going to get the 3 way toggle switch ones to start with so I can compare.
All the above info is from my relative that has 30 years experience as a lighting and interior designer. She has quite the resume!
In saying the above best to check with a qualified lighting person to confirm, I just had a brief phone call discussing my layout and what I took out of it.
Builders will use the cheapest downlights they can find so it might not be like that with their ones. You can use them to light up the floor if you want but the main point is have them over kitchen benches and stovetop runs, bathroom sinks and make sure you use a warm white. If you too are unsure then get the 3 way toggle downlights.
(I'm leaving the family room downlights where they were but kitchen I've re-arranged)
Well, for me, my entire house, I went with white daylight. The first thing that my project manager says during handover is , the daylight colour choice you picked is good. Makes the house looks modern unlike the usual warm white.
So my point is, it depends on what you like the colour to be.
I agree about lighting the work area especially having a light strip under the kitchen overhead cupboard as I can clearly see what I am working on.
I don't like dark looking homes so we between 4-6 downlights for the center of the room, under mounted lights inside the over head cabinets and featured downlights on the side of the walls for the artwork and TV lighting.
All bases covered.
Well, for me, my entire house, I went with white daylight. The first thing that my project manager says during handover is , the daylight colour choice you picked is good. Makes the house looks modern unlike the usual warm white.
So my point is, it depends on what you like the colour to be.
I agree about lighting the work area especially having a light strip under the kitchen overhead cupboard as I can clearly see what I am working on.
How long have you been in the house?
Majority of newer homes have white light but doesn't make it better long term.
Projector manager doesn't really have any qualifications regarding lighting so is just telling you what you want to hear. Majority of people building have no idea about colour and regret going a bright white then replacing to a warm white down the track.
Each to their own though.
Areas where warm white lighting is best suited:
Bedrooms
Living Areas
Dining Rooms
Outdoor Gardens
Weddings
Restaurants
Cafes
Entries & Hallways
Traditional Applications
Areas where cool white lighting is best suited:
Kitchens
Bathrooms
Toilets
Laundries
Garages
Studies
Commercial Applications
Ultra Modern Applications
Well, for me, my entire house, I went with white daylight. The first thing that my project manager says during handover is , the daylight colour choice you picked is good. Makes the house looks modern unlike the usual warm white.
So my point is, it depends on what you like the colour to be.
I agree about lighting the work area especially having a light strip under the kitchen overhead cupboard as I can clearly see what I am working on.
How long have you been in the house?
Majority of newer homes have white light but doesn't make it better long term.
Projector manager doesn't really have any qualifications regarding lighting so is just telling you what you want to hear. Majority of people building have no idea about colour and regret going a bright white then replacing to a warm white down the track.
Each to their own though.
Yeah, during our reno our builder tried to install cold white light as well and we had him replace it when we noticed. As I don't live in a hospital we'll definitely go with warm white again for our upcoming build (except for select areas perhaps).
Well, for me, my entire house, I went with white daylight. The first thing that my project manager says during handover is , the daylight colour choice you picked is good. Makes the house looks modern unlike the usual warm white.
So my point is, it depends on what you like the colour to be.
I agree about lighting the work area especially having a light strip under the kitchen overhead cupboard as I can clearly see what I am working on.
How long have you been in the house?
Majority of newer homes have white light but doesn't make it better long term.
Projector manager doesn't really have any qualifications regarding lighting so is just telling you what you want to hear. Majority of people building have no idea about colour and regret going a bright white then replacing to a warm white down the track.
Each to their own though.
Being living in the house for 1 year. Still loving the white light.
Although when I visit friend's house with warm light, it does looks more inviting and homely feel.
So far no regrets going with white light as it makes the house bright which I like the feel.
Although I know if down the road, i wanted warm light i can just pop up to the roof and switch the LED setting. The PM told me all my lighting are switchable lights - did not check though so will just take his words as it.
Well, for me, my entire house, I went with white daylight. The first thing that my project manager says during handover is , the daylight colour choice you picked is good. Makes the house looks modern unlike the usual warm white.
So my point is, it depends on what you like the colour to be.
I agree about lighting the work area especially having a light strip under the kitchen overhead cupboard as I can clearly see what I am working on.
How long have you been in the house?
Majority of newer homes have white light but doesn't make it better long term.
Projector manager doesn't really have any qualifications regarding lighting so is just telling you what you want to hear. Majority of people building have no idea about colour and regret going a bright white then replacing to a warm white down the track.
Each to their own though.
Being living in the house for 1 year. Still loving the white light.
Although when I visit friend's house with warm light, it does looks more inviting and homely feel.
So far no regrets going with white light as it makes the house bright which I like the feel.
Although I know if down the road, i wanted warm light i can just pop up to the roof and switch the LED setting. The PM told me all my lighting are switchable lights - did not check though so will just take his words as it.
You can pulldown a downlight and change setting (no need to go up into the roof)
Looking at display homes recently, pretty much all the downlights are warm white, even in the bathrooms.
Big fan of warm white here. 3000K is the sweet spot and it's where most warm white LED downlights sit. It's not too yellow and is reminiscent of classic halogen downlights.
I hate going into a home where it's a dreary cold white and feels about as comfortable as a parking garage or dirty warehouse. But I'm realizing that a big part of the problem is that cold white looks best when the lighting is bright and very even, like a Target/Big W store. Most homes with cold white don't have enough lights/brightness, and it results in all these shadows and darkened corners. It creates a much more gloomy effect than dim warm-white lighting.
If your builder uses clipsal its just a matter of pulling the unit out and switching it to cool, day or warm
I forgot to change the way the door to the garage swung... lucky my builder was happy to change it to singing into the hallway rather then swinging into the garage chewing up valuable parking space
hi everyone. I have built my first home over 6 years ago and me and my partner just made a decision to build another one. I have used this summary page with my first built and wanted to say thank you for keeping it going still with so much more information added on.
We're in the same boat. Built a house in 2014, and even though we've read this thread before building, we didn't think certain things would be as important to us as they turned out to be, so didn't do them at the time (and too expensive to fix now). So building a new house to correct all the mistakes
This time we're trying complete opposite of what we did with the current house. Before we just did a few changes to one of the standard builder plans and went with all the standard inclusions plus some minor upgrades (like electrical/data, higher ceilings, freestanding bath). Now we're trying to plan every single little detail. We've spent 3 months just drawing the house plan in floorplanner app, so we could give it to the draftsman and tell him to draw exactly that. I think we've so far spent more time looking at various colors/materials than total time we've spent on planning the whole construction for the current one (and we still haven't finalised our color selection).
Good thing that our land settlement is still few months away, so hopefully we'll pick something by then and can start building straight away.
Marked.
Great post.
Thanks.
I managed to get the builder to install plugs (sockets) on the rafters. If the LED burns out or I do not like the colour, then I do not have to call in the electrician. I can just crawl into the attic and change the LED myself.
Make sure your roof is engineered for solar panels, as apparently this is the cause of all builder faults, and gives them the right to refuse any rectification necessary and you void any structural warranty if you install after market
Make sure your roof is engineered for solar panels, as apparently this is the cause of all builder faults, and gives them the right to refuse any rectification necessary and you void any structural warranty if you install after market
Until this moment, I had no idea this was a thing
Hi Everyone,
Wow, so much has changed since we built our house in 2010.
If you read the thread from the beginning, you'll read the fiasco that happened with Westminster Homes & how they went out of business just as the frame of our house went up. It took 2 years to finally complete the house...anyway, thank god thats behind us now.
Re downlights, we have 68 of them in our house, I can tell you that we're so glad we didn't go with cool white, we went with warm white. Also at the time we got the electrician to wire them up individually, not in series which simply means should you want to change a single light it can easily be done.
My son built a house a year ago, decided on cool white ( as per his electrician ) only to replace the whole lot 6 months later as he felt it made the house look too clinical. If I were to build another house, I would definitely put down lights again, but take note of what's called " shading" & perhaps add ceiling lights ( as a feature perhaps ) as well.