Browse Forums Lighting + Lighting Design 1 May 05, 2015 1:24 pm Hey guys, just drawn up a quick plan of where I think down lights could go. I've decided not to do the small bedrooms for now. There's 32 all up with this design. I'm not sure if I've gone over the top with the kitchen/living/dining area but I've guessed 12 all up for that space? 31c ceilings with kitchen bulkhead. The total area is 10.7m long x 4.7m wide. Please let me know what you think! All suggestions welcome. Still tossing up between bright green and the wattsaver ones. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Help with down light plan 2May 05, 2015 3:24 pm My thoughts based on my own experiences from recently building; - I have 2 downlights in the master bedroom, above the bed head where your head will be. I use these two almost exclusively day to day, but there is an oyster in the middle of the room for when i need more light. If you don't like oysters or want to stick with downlights, put in two switches. One for the lights above the bed head, the other for the remaining lights, then put in a 2-way switch and have another light switch next to your bed so you can turn them off in bed Wouldn't recommend downlights in small bedrooms. They can become annoying in confined spaces and cast shadows. - I have 6 down lights in the kitchen. Three above the island and three close to the stove. My kitchen is big though. You have two in your design, you will probably be disappointed with the lack of light. Place the two that are there now closer to the pantry wall and put another two in over the island bench. Generally kitchens are better with clinical style lighting. Poorly lit kitchen's are annoying. - Distance between the downlight in the front of the house and the kitchen opening is too big to be serviced by the 2 downlights you have in there now. Move the downlight close to the hallway/kitchen down the hallway (towards front of house) more so you have three serving the hallway. Don't bother putting a light next to the kitchen (where there is one currently), you will find it to be a waste. - Your 6 downlights in the living/dining are fine, but might not be enough. Again consider two oysters and use downlights as feature items, such as next to the hallway so if coming from the garage you don't need to turn the whole house on to get a bit of light. Consider layout as well. Where will kitchen table go? Maybe some feature lights above the kitchen table?, so you can remove two of the downlights (or rather move them further up and squish the other lights). - Consider another downlight in the bathroom. One won't be enough, put one closer to the door/shower and the other closer to the benchtop (you want more light to check our your face in the mirror). If you plan to use the bath, add another above the bath. Consider going cool white in the toilets/bathroom/ensuite. - Ensuite toilet is missing a light unless you will leave that as a standard bulb. - Ensuite shower light will need to be water proof (look at IP rating on the downlights) - Possibly move the downlight in ensuite closer to the benchtop for more light on the person rather than behind the person where it does no good. Alfresco and home theatre are fine. Do you plan to dim your lights in the home theatre room? If so, look at low wattage LEDs (assuming you are going for LEDs). You won't be happy with 4x 12w LED bulbs in a home theatre. Even dimmed it will be way to bright. I put in 7W LED's (four of them), in banks of two (two switches). I only ever have one bank on (above my seat) and dimmed to the max. It's still a bit too bright for my liking. But if your going to just turn them off when in use, then it won't matter what you get. -edit- I installed the Brightgreen's. They work well. And i used 7W Osram GU10 style downlights in my master and theatre room. For 7W they are pretty bright. My Noosa 23 Build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72782 Re: Help with down light plan 3May 05, 2015 4:09 pm Ahhh I didn't even think of putting lower voltage ones in the theater and master - great idea! With regards to the kitchen were planning to have 3 pendants hanging over the island as well so don't want to overdo it with the lighting. With regards to the kitchen do you recommend stick with the same color as what's in the living/dining so it's not contrasting? People suggest cool for the kitchen but I think sticking to the same color for that room would work better? All your other recommendations are great! Thanks Re: Help with down light plan 4May 05, 2015 4:10 pm Did you get the cool or warm brightgreens? Could you post a pic or link me to a photo of yours..? Re: Help with down light plan 5May 05, 2015 5:50 pm If the pendants are on a different switch to the downlights, it wouldn't really matter would it? You'd then have the option for extra light if you needed it, but could always keep a switch off if you just wanted the pendants lit. Also agree with the light over the vanity in the bathroom tip. A second one just above the vanity will help a lot. Re: Help with down light plan 6May 05, 2015 5:54 pm Also, do you reckon to use the 11w or 14w through the entry hall and main living areas? Re: Help with down light plan 7May 05, 2015 5:55 pm I wanted to do the mini ones above the bathroom mirrors and above where TV will be in theater, you know the teeny tiny little ones in a row of 5 or 6 that some displays have Re: Help with down light plan 8May 05, 2015 9:32 pm I highly recommend to pop into beacon lighting (take your plans in, you might need to book beforehand). They were excellent and it is no charge for an hour or so consult. We decided not to use them in the end (as the builder could do it all for the same cost) but it was great to chat to someone who had that eye for detail. They ask you what type of flooring you are having as well as what colour furniture etc and I found their recommendations to be brilliant and spot on. We went with a warm white because we are having timber floors and will be using timber furniture in our home, but a cool white is recommend for homes where you have more whites through such as tiles and white modern furniture. They recommended about a 10W through living areas, theatre, bedrooms etc, and 15W in kitchen and bathrooms (still keeping with warm white). Our prestart girl also recommended the same as the the lady from beacon so it was great to have that expert advice.
Also fantastic in recommending positioning and how many to each room. Was a great thing to do for sure, time well spent! Re: Help with down light plan 9May 05, 2015 9:35 pm Our Honeywood Build I wanted to do the mini ones above the bathroom mirrors and above where TV will be in theater, you know the teeny tiny little ones in a row of 5 or 6 that some displays have We did starlights in all our bulkheads and over our bathroom mirrors, but an electrician recommended just to do the starlights in theatre etc and the usual downlights over bathroom vanity etc. We have still gone for the starlights over both the bathroom vanities because i think it looks better, but downlights over the vanities are much more practical if you don't have much natural light coming in. Just something to consider. Re: Help with down light plan 10May 05, 2015 10:03 pm Starlights! That's the ones I'm thinking off! Where did you get yours from? They look amazing over vanities and in theater rooms Re: Help with down light plan 11May 05, 2015 10:09 pm I read that if you do down lights in the bathrooms you should position them around the edge of the room so there's no bad shadows and if you can tilt the ones near the mirror directly towards the mirror so then the light is reflected out onto your face creating a better light for make up. Still tossing up about whether to do starlights across the vanity. I loveeee them and they look amazing is the displays but I recently saw this gorgeous concrete and wood hanging pendent that would be perfect for our bathroom so I'll need to think about that one. Re: Help with down light plan 12May 05, 2015 10:54 pm If I were you I'd avoid beacon. So mass produced and not much thought to actual designs in my experience. One place I used and found really good was Light Cube in Myaree. My advice would be white light in kitchen and maybe laundry. All down lights in a room rather than mix of downlight a and oysters if you want a modern look. Consider wall lighting for art work or downlight a with gimbles so you can direct them to certain walls. Good luck! Re: Help with down light plan 13May 05, 2015 11:09 pm Our Honeywood Build I read that if you do down lights in the bathrooms you should position them around the edge of the room so there's no bad shadows and if you can tilt the ones near the mirror directly towards the mirror so then the light is reflected out onto your face creating a better light for make up. Still tossing up about whether to do starlights across the vanity. I loveeee them and they look amazing is the displays but I recently saw this gorgeous concrete and wood hanging pendent that would be perfect for our bathroom so I'll need to think about that one. Starlights across a vanity are more of a feature, rather than provide good lighting, hence why we went with a 15W in our ensuite and bathroom. I think we did a 15W in our kitchen pantry too. That's good thinking about positioning them around the edges to reduce shadows, probably why the electrician I spoke to recommended downlights above the vanities also. Lighting is certainly overwhelming! I would recommend to get some advice about your plan, go home sit down have a good look and then tweak it again, it took us a few times to get ours right! We were very lucky to get such good help, I guess it just depends on who you get Our bathroom and ensuite are quite small too, so what might work in our bathrooms might not work in someone else's that are that bit bigger. Re: Help with down light plan 14May 05, 2015 11:56 pm Yeah been to beacon, they were okay. We ended up grabbing the contact details for their elec so might send him copy of plan for advice. He said we can supply our own or get him to supply and install. He recommended brightgreens D900 so might get them in the warm. Re: Help with down light plan 17May 08, 2015 3:02 pm Personally I'd scale back to 2 in the dining, 4 in the lounge, otherwise I think it looks fine. I would stick with the same colour temp throughout - preferably 3000k or there abouts, but whatever floats your boat, but I would advise against going with a colour temperature higher than 4000k - that is just my personal and professional opinion. Try and go for a downlight with about 700-1000 lumens of light output, good glare cut-off, and a wide-ish beam angle of around 45-60 degrees. Make sure you select a downlight that is suitable for wet areas for your bathrooms, showers etc. Something with a minimum IP44 rating. Otherwise steam and moisture will get into the electronic circuit board and cause the LED's to fail prematurely. I had a rep from this company come and see me today, they supply these for about $40 wholesale (so your electrician would probably charge you about $50-60ea after markup etc). For the price I think they are a very well designed down light with good warranty and very high colour rendering index to make sure all your colours look good. http://www.greenilluminate.com.au/produ ... /invis-16/ There are a million other options available. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Help with down light plan 18May 13, 2015 12:25 pm Our Honeywood Build Did you get the cool or warm brightgreens? Could you post a pic or link me to a photo of yours..? Warm white in all rooms except bathrooms, toilet and bedrooms (except master). I went with 14w brightgreen's and very happy with the results. Just the right amount of light. Above my benchtops in the bathroom: Kitchen, i have four not six. Sorry, forgot i changed that last minute. And electrical plans 90% of the time in my house the only lights that are on are the kitchen four. That is enough to light the living area for general use. In my media room i only ever have the two lights on over the chair, dimmed to maximum, and during movies i turn them off. I chose (after handover) to install 20W T5 oyster (round) fluoro's in all bedrooms. I wanted warm white, but they don't make warm white in 20w versions. To be honest, 20w is a bit too dull. I am considering other options, but low on the list at the moment as they do work, just wouldn't want to read a book under them. My Noosa 23 Build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72782 Re: Help with down light plan 19May 13, 2015 7:12 pm Hi Whizzz28 could you please post a pic of them on? I think I'll scale back to 4 in living + 2 in dining and 2 in kitchen as someone else mentioned. We've also got 3 pendants for the kitchen too so probably don't need 4 Re: Help with down light plan 20May 14, 2015 11:56 am There are two schools of thought about this, but personally in your kitchen I would probably recommend using 2 or 3 downlights (plus your pendants) and rather than positioning them in line with your living room downlights, I would install them over the work areas and cabinets - after all, you want the light in those areas, you don't need it to light up the floor... Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 This is a very tight fit, I'm not sure if you'll be able to achieve what you've described. Would you consider accessing the separate toilet from the laundry? 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