Browse Forums Lighting + Lighting Design Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 141Jan 04, 2016 10:45 am Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hello, We are in the process of building our first home with Coral Homes, we are building the Avoca 26. We have our Clipsal appointment in a week or so and are feeling a little lost with electrical as all the display home obviously are show homes and have a lot of lights! We have allowed $4500 to spend with Clipsal and are hoping not to go over that budget. The photos I have included are - house plans - electrical layout - what's already included (pp, lights etc) - the legend for the electrical layout Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Just wondering if you could please offer any advice or give me an idea of what I need to put where. Thanks so much! Hayley Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 142Jan 06, 2016 10:20 pm Hi 1960MH! Thanks for your advice so far! We have brought these brightgreen LED, https://clearance.brightgreen.com/produ ... downlight/ The 55 degree beam ones with warm white, they are 16w. 1. Your suggestion so far is that they may be too bright? 2. Will they still be considered too bright if we have 2.7m ceiling height or does that only apply for 2.4m high ceilings? 3. In a 4x4.6m room we plan to only have 4 in it, is that enough? 4. Will they be suitable for a bedroom which is 3x3.8m? If not which lights will you recommend! TIA!!! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75739&p=1299716#p1299716 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 143Jan 07, 2016 9:37 am canbuild Hi , Thanks for this topic, I have learned quite a lot. Please see the below electrical plan for our double storey new build, appreciate your feedback please. Hi there, sorry, I missed your post. Here are my comments/suggestions after having a look over your plans: 1. You could probably lose the 4 downlights in the dining area, the pendant should be enough. 2. Personally I would use the same colour temperature throughout the whole house. Mixing warm white and cool white might look a bit funny. Personally I would use warm throughout, but if you prefer cool that is ok. Laundry/Garage could be cool white, no worries there. 3. I would use one or two 2x28w T5 fluorescent battens in the garage instead of downlights. I don't think the downlights will provide enough light. 4. I say this to everyone - consider using low glare downlights, particularly through living areas, kitchen etc. It is most likely that your 90 degree downlights have a flat opal diffuser. These are quite high glare. I have talked about glare and provided low glare downlight options in earlier pages of this thread if you wish to read through. 5. Maybe add a light over the sink. Other than that I'd say it's a rather good attempt. What I might suggest is re-doing it with some clean copies, and do three separate sets of plans: 1. Lighting (showing switch locations and switching lines as well) 2. Power 3. TV, audio visual, speaker cabling, phone and data, security alarm etc Putting everything on the one plan makes it a bit busy and doesn't leave much room for the electrician to mark up notes and measurements on the plans. It also helps workflow on site, usually if there are multiple electricians on site they will get one guy to do lights, one guy to do power, another guy or even a different subcontractor to do TV, data, security etc so separate plans help. Make sure you have printed A3 copies to hand over to your electrician as they will use your plans to work from when wiring the house. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 144Jan 07, 2016 10:02 am Hayleyyyy Hello, We are in the process of building our first home with Coral Homes, we are building the Avoca 26. We have our Clipsal appointment in a week or so and are feeling a little lost with electrical as all the display home obviously are show homes and have a lot of lights! We have allowed $4500 to spend with Clipsal and are hoping not to go over that budget. The photos I have included are - house plans - electrical layout - what's already included (pp, lights etc) - the legend for the electrical layout Just wondering if you could please offer any advice or give me an idea of what I need to put where. Thanks so much! Hayley Hi Are you able to explain a bit more about this Clipspec thing and how that works? I actually used to be an electrician and used to do Coral homes. Back in those days it worked as follows: - Coral give you standard allowance - Anything extra was negotiated directly between the owner and the electrician at the electrical pre-wire site meeting,at the electricians rates for power/light points etc Coral basically didn't want anything to do with extras. You could probably budget for about $100 per extra point (light point, power point, TV point, data point) plus the cost of the light fittings. So if you have an extras budget of $4500 you might get say 10-15 extra light points, 10-15 extra power points, a few external weatherproof power points, a few extra TV and data points, heat/fan/light units in the bathrooms and some money to put towards light fittings. I'd say that would be fairly typical. If I were you I'd try and get a price list for extras before your meeting. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 145Jan 07, 2016 11:53 am Thanks on the write up 1960MH, really appreciate the time you have taken to write a detailed response. Noted regarding power supply inside the enclosure, I think I will just go ahead and have a GPO install in the ceiling and install the transformers there. I don’t really have any other open area ideal to install the transformers outside without putting them in an enclosure to conceal them. I will mount my LED controller outside (in an enclosure though). How critical is it do you think to install the lighting cable in a conduit? I was hoping to save costs there as typically most advise not required, but if you think its worthwhile I will run them through conduit. In regards to joints, I see you recommend the resin joint kits, which I have used successfully in my front landscaping project, like these: http://shop.landwater.com.au/cable-join ... iners.html I have also see joints done by twiting all the wires around together and installing heat shrink around it which was stated a then being waterproof, what is your thoughts? Im not that convinced and through the cable joiner above (then wrapped in electrical tape would be the best way to go. 12v solar lighting would be a nice upgrade for a future project but I will start with mains power for now. LEDs should help keep the running costs low. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 146Jan 07, 2016 12:21 pm No worries. You can get resin filled heat shrink, which when shrunk creates a waterproof join. It only works with smooth cables through, so if you use two core garden cable it's not a smooth circle. You don't need to use conduit but I really do recommend it. Differential ground movement can break or damage the cable as small rocks rub the cable, termites are more likely to damage it, and human damage from shovels etc is more likely. It could be any sort of fairly rigid plastic tubing. Just something to give it a loose protective layer and a bit of room to move. You should be able to pick up 4 metre lengths of 20mm grey conduit for a few bucks and grab a handful of couplings and elbows. You could then save money by using 2 core TPS electrical cable instead of the expensive 12v garden lighting cable, and in my.opinion would be a better solution. You could perform your joints in a 20mm 3 way or 4 way junction box and then fill the junction box right up with silicone With 12v wiring you need to make sure the connections are made well. 12v does not like bad connections because the low voltage simply doesn't have the oomph to get through a "bottleneck". I always twist together and solder, or use a screw connector, terminal block, or splice connector. Twisting together really isn't sufficient in and of itself. Really need that extra pressure of a screw or splice terminal or solder. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 147Jan 07, 2016 6:17 pm 1960sModernistHome Hayleyyyy Hello, We are in the process of building our first home with Coral Homes, we are building the Avoca 26. We have our Clipsal appointment in a week or so and are feeling a little lost with electrical as all the display home obviously are show homes and have a lot of lights! We have allowed $4500 to spend with Clipsal and are hoping not to go over that budget. The photos I have included are - house plans - electrical layout - what's already included (pp, lights etc) - the legend for the electrical layout Just wondering if you could please offer any advice or give me an idea of what I need to put where. Thanks so much! Hayley Hi Are you able to explain a bit more about this Clipspec thing and how that works? I actually used to be an electrician and used to do Coral homes. Back in those days it worked as follows: - Coral give you standard allowance - Anything extra was negotiated directly between the owner and the electrician at the electrical pre-wire site meeting,at the electricians rates for power/light points etc Coral basically didn't want anything to do with extras. You could probably budget for about $100 per extra point (light point, power point, TV point, data point) plus the cost of the light fittings. So if you have an extras budget of $4500 you might get say 10-15 extra light points, 10-15 extra power points, a few external weatherproof power points, a few extra TV and data points, heat/fan/light units in the bathrooms and some money to put towards light fittings. I'd say that would be fairly typical. If I were you I'd try and get a price list for extras before your meeting. Hi! We're not really sure what really happens at Clipsal apart from we go through with a consultant putting in PP, lights fans etc They have told us that they send out a package a week before and our appointment in on the 21-1-16. We want to put fans in each bedroom & media room and possibly the lounge. My understanding is you buy the light fitting & electrical install and if you purchase any items yourself they install them for roughly $75 per item. How many down lights would you recommend for our size house? Thank you so much Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 148Jan 08, 2016 2:42 am Hello, I'm after some advice on the led downlight. I've chosen Metricon to be my builder. Their LED downlight is from a company call viewlight. I'm looking to install their 70mm cool white 10w led downlight. The technical data weblink is http://www.viewlight.com.au/Technical_D ... o6SKMkzHqA I was advice the spacing between downlight is 1.5 meter. Is this the standard? My typical bedroom size is 4m x 4m. Will 4 of these led downlight be too bright for the room? Thanks Sent from my SM-N910G Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 149Jan 08, 2016 1:31 pm 1960sModernistHome canbuild Thanks for this topic, I have learned quite a lot. Please see the below electrical plan for our double storey new build, appreciate your feedback please. 3. I would use one or two 2x28w T5 fluorescent battens in the garage instead of downlights. I don't think the downlights will provide enough light. +1 to that. a couple of those double T5's will make a big difference over downlights, and make the garage a place you can really work in. Owner Building at Jimboomba Woods in Logan City Qld. Blog : http://bandlnewhomebuild.blogspot.com H1 thread : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=68283 . Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 151Jan 08, 2016 11:07 pm 1960sModernistHome canbuild Hi , Thanks for this topic, I have learned quite a lot. Please see the below electrical plan for our double storey new build, appreciate your feedback please. Hi there, sorry, I missed your post. Here are my comments/suggestions after having a look over your plans: 1. You could probably lose the 4 downlights in the dining area, the pendant should be enough. 2. Personally I would use the same colour temperature throughout the whole house. Mixing warm white and cool white might look a bit funny. Personally I would use warm throughout, but if you prefer cool that is ok. Laundry/Garage could be cool white, no worries there. 3. I would use one or two 2x28w T5 fluorescent battens in the garage instead of downlights. I don't think the downlights will provide enough light. 4. I say this to everyone - consider using low glare downlights, particularly through living areas, kitchen etc. It is most likely that your 90 degree downlights have a flat opal diffuser. These are quite high glare. I have talked about glare and provided low glare downlight options in earlier pages of this thread if you wish to read through. 5. Maybe add a light over the sink. Other than that I'd say it's a rather good attempt. What I might suggest is re-doing it with some clean copies, and do three separate sets of plans: 1. Lighting (showing switch locations and switching lines as well) 2. Power 3. TV, audio visual, speaker cabling, phone and data, security alarm etc Putting everything on the one plan makes it a bit busy and doesn't leave much room for the electrician to mark up notes and measurements on the plans. It also helps workflow on site, usually if there are multiple electricians on site they will get one guy to do lights, one guy to do power, another guy or even a different subcontractor to do TV, data, security etc so separate plans help. Make sure you have printed A3 copies to hand over to your electrician as they will use your plans to work from when wiring the house. Thanks 1960sModernistHome , appreciated Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 152Jan 09, 2016 10:12 pm Hi 1960MH I have problem with my led downlighting interfering with my TV reception After I bought my cottage in Tas I replaced 12V halogen bulbs with 5 w LEDs . (Transformers remained) I put it down to a dimmer but since then we isolated it as well as one downlight close to TV but the problem remains. Any ideas? At the same time I bought from the same on line supplier 5 W led's to replace 240 V/ 50W halogens In my Melbourne home and there are no issues. Your expertise will be appreciated. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 153Jan 10, 2016 3:35 am The halogen downlight transformers were never designed to run LED. Get proper LEDs and Drivers. 240v LEDs don't have an issue because the correct transformer is built in into the LED. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 154Jan 10, 2016 7:42 am I think JB is probably on the money here. Your best bet is to put the halogens back in, or replace the whole downlight and transformer with a complete LED downlight kit. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 155Jan 10, 2016 7:50 am lazandjohn Hi....I quite like the look of the downlights in this display home. It's an upmarket home, no expense spared.... Just wondering if you can tell me what these light are, and what you think of them? thank you! Hi I like them. There are a fair few manufacturers of this type of downlight. Common industry name is a 1, 2 or 3 light slotter. Here are a couple of options: http://lumen-8.com.au/product_categories/downlights/ (there are a few options on this page) http://www.versalux.com.au/products/dow ... enice-box/ Keep in mind they're not cheap. You're probably looking at around $200-$300 each. It's possible that there are cheaper ones around that I don't know about, if you were to ask around at the lower quality mass market lighting stores like Beacon etc. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 156Jan 10, 2016 8:45 am 1960sMH - Thanks for that info. In your opinion (or any other lighting experts/electricians out here) do you think cheaper lights (say, a version of the 2 light slotter above) are of inferior quality to an expensive version? When I was putting counter top lights above benches in our old house I just bought a few from B&Q (Bunnings) and the electrician said they were fine, as good as a more expensive version. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 157Jan 10, 2016 9:21 am Put simply, you generally get what you pay for with lighting, as with most things. There are different grades of quality suitable for different purposes, i.e. residential grade, commercial grade, industrial grade, and a spectrum of quality within each grade. The price you pay also depends on where you purchase from. Typically retail stores are significantly more expensive than electrical wholesalers and some online sellers. It does pay to shop around, but just be careful if buying online to buy from a reputable seller and ensure that what you're buying has Australian approval certificates. With all due respect to electricians, in my experience not many of them know much about lighting principles and probably wouldn't know the difference between a cheap fitting and a good one, especially now with LED. To be fair, I used to be an electrician and at that time I wouldn't have known either. It's taken me nearly a decade in engineering and lighting design to learn. Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 158Jan 10, 2016 5:55 pm 1960sModernistHome I think JB is probably on the money here. Your best bet is to put the halogens back in, or replace the whole downlight and transformer with a complete LED downlight kit. Thank you JB1 and 1960MH for the responses. Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 159Jan 10, 2016 6:16 pm I have a question regarding your opinion of lighting on a street facing 6m long 600mm high sandstone looking (Concrete Blocks) retaining wall. What spacing should I be looking at? What height? And would down facing would work or up facing or facing both up and down. Low whattage LED is what I will look for in 12V for outside of course. Any suggested units? Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 160Jan 10, 2016 6:51 pm To allow me to best help you, can you give me an idea of your budget? I know exactly what I would use to do the job, but it may not work with your budget... Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 You should check your detail drawings, it may show downpipe within brick pier. 14 14121 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 15284 Ardo That is so funny! I wonder how many people know who Larry Haun is these days. I have a couple of young guys we call Mo 1 & Mo 2 who run a crew of 6 boys and… 9 15533 |