Browse Forums Lighting + Lighting Design Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 121Dec 16, 2015 11:10 am Am not quite sure. Probably a flood light at front and laundry. Thats as far as I have got. If I were to reduce some of the down lights could you suggest which might be superfluous? How many circuits would you make in the living/dining space? Would 3 be sensible? In the rumpus which is also a study and thus a work space am I better to include some narrow beam lights? Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 122Dec 16, 2015 4:39 pm you could possibly lose the ones in the Dining room if you had to... I think your switching seems fairly sensible as it is 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 123Dec 20, 2015 10:13 am Hi guru We've bought most lights per your brand recs. Still to get tilt adjustable medium beams. A light shop has recommended "Martec" in a 45 or 60 beam. Haven't heard of this brand and am concerned the price is a little too good for the lights to be good! ($26 each with a 15% discount). The other lights we got are deco. Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 124Dec 20, 2015 7:17 pm You could try the Pierlite Starburst. They should be pretty reasonably priced. They look pretty much the same as the 12 volt halogen gimble downlights Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 125Dec 21, 2015 4:17 am Thanks I'll have a look. I've tried some of the other recommended brands but harder to find the narrower beam. I don't wanted spoil it by choosing crappy lights! Obviously we are building new al they don't need to be compatible with halogen cut outs just want that right type of more focussed light. There's also these which is the same brand as elsewhere in a 60degree tilt but is it worth spending the extra on them for the living room, Kitchen and lounge compared to say the starburst which are cheaper..want the light in those areas to be right though. https://www.golights.com.au/led-downlig ... s-lighting Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 126Dec 21, 2015 6:27 am Hi, loving this thread. Has given me a lot of good ideas and lighting knowledge I never had. We have actually found picking lighting layouts the hardest thing about our build so far. I think we are about set, we are locked in to HPM products unfortunately as we are building with Mirvac and their only decent down light is the dahlia series. But if we can we will get them to install power but leave the lights out. Worst case is we replace with the domus deepset later. 1960's could you please check the ground plan for me, really just the hall and main back room. The back room will have 6 switches, all dimmable. The room size 7.4m x 9.4m. We are not sure if he middle strip of 4 downlights are too much or not. Thanks in advance for any comments, appreciate the time of put in. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 127Dec 21, 2015 1:04 pm Wickets Hi, loving this thread. Has given me a lot of good ideas and lighting knowledge I never had. We have actually found picking lighting layouts the hardest thing about our build so far. I think we are about set, we are locked in to HPM products unfortunately as we are building with Mirvac and their only decent down light is the dahlia series. But if we can we will get them to install power but leave the lights out. Worst case is we replace with the domus deepset later. 1960's could you please check the ground plan for me, really just the hall and main back room. The back room will have 6 switches, all dimmable. The room size 7.4m x 9.4m. We are not sure if he middle strip of 4 downlights are too much or not. Thanks in advance for any comments, appreciate the time of put in. Looks good to me. You could probably get rid of the row of 4 pink downlights in the middle of your living area. I don't think they are necessary. I would also break up the switching, maybe so you have a switch bank on the left of the hall opening (near the kitchen) and one on the right (on the living room side). If you have 6 switches and 6 dimmers in one spot you'll end up with two 6 gang plates side by side, which will look a bit busy, and will probably be a bit annoying to use. I find that any more than 3 switches on one plate tends to be a bit much for most people - they end up standing there switching stuff on and off until they find the right one. Hope this helps 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 128Dec 21, 2015 1:07 pm Leksie5000 Thanks I'll have a look. I've tried some of the other recommended brands but harder to find the narrower beam. I don't wanted spoil it by choosing crappy lights! Obviously we are building new al they don't need to be compatible with halogen cut outs just want that right type of more focussed light. There's also these which is the same brand as elsewhere in a 60degree tilt but is it worth spending the extra on them for the living room, Kitchen and lounge compared to say the starburst which are cheaper..want the light in those areas to be right though. https://www.golights.com.au/led-downlig ... s-lighting Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 To be honest, the Pierlite starburst is probably going to be around that price anyway, so maybe just go with the Domus? I didn't even know they did it in a gimble tilt actually... Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 129Dec 21, 2015 1:11 pm 1960sModernistHome Leksie5000 Thanks I'll have a look. I've tried some of the other recommended brands but harder to find the narrower beam. I don't wanted spoil it by choosing crappy lights! Obviously we are building new al they don't need to be compatible with halogen cut outs just want that right type of more focussed light. There's also these which is the same brand as elsewhere in a 60degree tilt but is it worth spending the extra on them for the living room, Kitchen and lounge compared to say the starburst which are cheaper..want the light in those areas to be right though. https://www.golights.com.au/led-downlig ... s-lighting Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 To be honest, the Pierlite starburst is probably going to be around that price anyway, so maybe just go with the Domus? I didn't even know they did it in a gimble tilt actually... Ok thanks. Have found the pierlite in a 10pk for $490 so it's about $20 per light difference. Plus need to factor can't buy exact amount with the 10pk http://www.aussietradesupplies.com.au/c ... ts_10_pack Would be nice to have them all the same I guess. I'm pretty sure that link I posted is the right domus anyway. Thanks so much for your help merry Christmas. Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 130Dec 21, 2015 2:10 pm Leksie5000 1960sModernistHome Leksie5000 Thanks I'll have a look. I've tried some of the other recommended brands but harder to find the narrower beam. I don't wanted spoil it by choosing crappy lights! Obviously we are building new al they don't need to be compatible with halogen cut outs just want that right type of more focussed light. There's also these which is the same brand as elsewhere in a 60degree tilt but is it worth spending the extra on them for the living room, Kitchen and lounge compared to say the starburst which are cheaper..want the light in those areas to be right though. https://www.golights.com.au/led-downlig ... s-lighting Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 To be honest, the Pierlite starburst is probably going to be around that price anyway, so maybe just go with the Domus? I didn't even know they did it in a gimble tilt actually... Ok thanks. Have found the pierlite in a 10pk for $490 so it's about $20 per light difference. But need to factor can't buy exact amount with the 10pk http://www.aussietradesupplies.com.au/c ... ts_10_pack Would be nice to have them all the same I guess. I'm pretty sure that link I posted is the right domus anyway. Thanks so much for your help merry Christmas. Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 131Dec 21, 2015 4:48 pm 1960sModernistHome Wickets Hi, loving this thread. Has given me a lot of good ideas and lighting knowledge I never had. We have actually found picking lighting layouts the hardest thing about our build so far. I think we are about set, we are locked in to HPM products unfortunately as we are building with Mirvac and their only decent down light is the dahlia series. But if we can we will get them to install power but leave the lights out. Worst case is we replace with the domus deepset later. 1960's could you please check the ground plan for me, really just the hall and main back room. The back room will have 6 switches, all dimmable. The room size 7.4m x 9.4m. We are not sure if he middle strip of 4 downlights are too much or not. Thanks in advance for any comments, appreciate the time of put in. Looks good to me. You could probably get rid of the row of 4 pink downlights in the middle of your living area. I don't think they are necessary. I would also break up the switching, maybe so you have a switch bank on the left of the hall opening (near the kitchen) and one on the right (on the living room side). If you have 6 switches and 6 dimmers in one spot you'll end up with two 6 gang plates side by side, which will look a bit busy, and will probably be a bit annoying to use. I find that any more than 3 switches on one plate tends to be a bit much for most people - they end up standing there switching stuff on and off until they find the right one. Hope this helps Hi, Thanks for that, it's great to get a bit of comfort that someone who knows what they are doing thinks it's ok. I was leaning towards ditching the centre run. Agree regarding the dimmers, but we are hoping to use the below which should solve the issue as switch and dimmer are built in to one button. Have you seen this type of thing, any caveats that I should be aware of? http://www.hpm.com.au/Products.aspx?pid=15 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 132Dec 21, 2015 6:26 pm I have had problems in the past with several dimmers grouped together in a single plate, they kept on failing. We came to the conclusion that it was heat build up, spread the dimmers out over two plates and the problem went away. Even if you group them together on a single plate, you've still got 6 switches on one plate. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, just can be a bit confusing and hard to get used to that's all. 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 133Dec 22, 2015 2:45 pm 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. http://imgur.com/a/o8OyM Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 134Dec 23, 2015 9:49 am Leksie5000 Leksie5000 1960sModernistHome [quote="Leksie5000"]Thanks I'll have a look. I've tried some of the other recommended brands but harder to find the narrower beam. I don't wanted spoil it by choosing crappy lights! Obviously we are building new al they don't need to be compatible with halogen cut outs just want that right type of more focussed light. There's also these which is the same brand as elsewhere in a 60degree tilt but is it worth spending the extra on them for the living room, Kitchen and lounge compared to say the starburst which are cheaper..want the light in those areas to be right though. https://www.golights.com.au/led-downlig ... s-lighting Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 To be honest, the Pierlite starburst is probably going to be around that price anyway, so maybe just go with the Domus? I didn't even know they did it in a gimble tilt actually... Ok thanks. Have found the pierlite in a 10pk for $490 so it's about $20 per light difference. But need to factor can't buy exact amount with the 10pk http://www.aussietradesupplies.com.au/c ... ts_10_pack Would be nice to have them all the same I guess. I'm pretty sure that link I posted is the right domus anyway. Thanks so much for your help merry Christmas. Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271[/quote] We went for the domus. Any recs for exterior LEDs brands? Eg up/downs. Husband wants them really bright for some reason, clean, contemporary style etc. merry Christmas!! Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 135Dec 23, 2015 6:20 pm When it comes to exterior, because my work is all non-residential the exterior luminaires I'm familiar with are all in the several hundred or even thousands of dollars. However, I had a look on the Domus website and they have some nice looking exterior up/downs. I particularly like the "Block" range - they look quite contemporary and clean, with what appears to be a decent output. From what I can find they seem to retail around the $140-150 mark which seems reasonable. https://www.domuslighting.com.au/exteri ... ue%2319578 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 136Dec 27, 2015 12:30 pm 1960sModernistHome When it comes to exterior, because my work is all non-residential the exterior luminaires I'm familiar with are all in the several hundred or even thousands of dollars. However, I had a look on the Domus website and they have some nice looking exterior up/downs. I particularly like the "Block" range - they look quite contemporary and clean, with what appears to be a decent output. From what I can find they seem to retail around the $140-150 mark which seems reasonable. https://www.domuslighting.com.au/exteri ... ue%2319578 Thanks a lot and happy new year to you. Custom knockdown rebuild Newcastle NSW viewtopic.php?t=78271 Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 137Jan 03, 2016 12:10 pm Hi i am currently designing my landscaping lighting plan, can you please take a look at my lighting plan to see if it all makes sense. Also im worried about voltage drop 1.Are my light runs ok,what size cable would you recommend? 1.3mm or 3.3mm? or a combination. 2. would i need to loop back? 3. it is an issue if my LED watt usage is about 35W less than transformer, i have read that this can cause issues? Any advice appreciated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 138Jan 03, 2016 2:43 pm Looks impressive. Can't wait to see it all done. Just a few questions before I respond properly... 1. Are the lights 12 volts AC or DC? Or are they able to work with both AC or DC? 2. Are you sure they are all 12v wired in parallel? (Constant voltage)? Some LED landscape lights need to be wired in series and they are constant current (voltage varies depending on the load and voltage drop). Your lights are all very low power so I wouldn't be too concerned about voltage drop. On face value it doesn't look concerning. Wouldn't hurt to run a ring circuit around just to be on the safe side 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 139Jan 04, 2016 1:51 am Thanks for the reply, appreciate the help. Before i go on, just wanted to say that i wont be doing any of the 240V stuff myself, i know my limits, but i do need to plan it in as i want to pre-purchase all the components. Anyways to answer your questions, i'm pretty sure the lights are all DC but im not sure if any need to be wired in series? I have had to update the plan a i realised one of my lights was not 12V. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The following are the lights i plan to use: Wall up light to light up 1800 x 900 wall art: https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sh ... r16w-13460 Deck lights to light against wall/deck step: http://onlinelighting.com.au/316-stainl ... 2833w.html Spike lights to light up trees/frangipani plant: https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sh ... 477w-14694 LED strip lighting to be installed under benches: http://www.ledcentral.com.au/rgb-multi- ... -5-meters/ Transformers https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sh ... v9655-5062 https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sh ... v9653-5058 What cable will i need for the RGB+? can i just use 2 lots of the standard garden cable to make up for the 4-cores? Also, im not 100% sure if this LED controller will be compatible with my LED strip light and my LED drivers, how can i be sure? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18A-2CH-RGB- ... SwPe1UI7lA If i was to loop back, where would i loop from/to? Thanks again for the help. 1960sModernistHome Looks impressive. Can't wait to see it all done. Just a few questions before I respond properly... 1. Are the lights 12 volts AC or DC? Or are they able to work with both AC or DC? 2. Are you sure they are all 12v wired in parallel? (Constant voltage)? Some LED landscape lights need to be wired in series and they are constant current (voltage varies depending on the load and voltage drop). Your lights are all very low power so I wouldn't be too concerned about voltage drop. On face value it doesn't look concerning. Wouldn't hurt to run a ring circuit around just to be on the safe side Re: Ask a lighting design engineer - general Q&A 140Jan 04, 2016 8:12 am Glad you cleared that up about the 240v stuff. I'm happy to give out some advice about 12v stuff because there are no regulations on who can do it as far as I am aware, and also there is no real safety hazard from extra low voltage stuff as it is designed to be inherently safe. Ok so from what I can tell it looks like your lights will function on 12V DC. The 12V power supplies you have chosen will be fine, under-running them should not be an issue. One thing I would suggest though is if you buy a waterproof power supply, don't put it inside an enclosure. The aluminium casing of the power supply is its heat sink so it's best to be left open so that it can keep cool. Otherwise you run the risk of it over heating and failing. With your 12V cabling, you can use a combination of ring circuit, branch circuit and spurs off the circuit. Basically you can run the cables around however best suits your layout. It will help voltage drop if you are able to split the load up into numerous branch circuits and run them back to the power supply. Your end goal is to reduce the cable distance from the furthest light back to the power supply. With 12V LED i'd say if you can keep that distance less than 15-20mtrs you should be right. With a ring circuit, you run your cabling around to all the lights, looping in and out, and then from the last light on the circuit run back to the power supply. This means you feed voltage to the circuit from both ends, roughly halving voltage drop. I had to do this on a previous home where I had 12v 20w halogen lights around our pool - but these days with LED the load is around 80% less then halogen so it's become almost a non-issue to some extent. As for cable type, when I did my landscape lighting here I had an old 305 metre roll of cat5e data cable which I was not going to use for anything else (my house data points are all cat6). So I used that. cat5e has 8 separately insulated cores, so I just twisted 4 + 4 of them together to make it a 2 core cable. Ran everything in rigid PVC conduit in the ground. I got some 12V DC power supplies (they look just like a laptop charger) and all works well. I ran every light back to the power supply on its own cable so that I didn't have any joins in the ground to fail, plus the cat5e cable was free and plentiful... and even if you had to buy cat5e it's much cheaper than 12v garden light cable. The advantage of the garden light cable is that it usually has a thick, tough sheath, but I would ALWAYS install any landscape lighting cabling inside conduit anyway so the sheath is not as important if its in conduit. Make sure all of your cable joins are waterproof, especially if they are near, on or below ground level. You should be able to buy little resin join kits. But just be aware they aren't cheap. You might be able to make your joins inside each light, which is probably the go if you can. Just make sure the cable entry into the light fitting is thoroughly waterproofed afterwards. Your LED controller should work fine with any RGB LED strip. I have used one of these controllers in my ensuite for some RGB LED wall washers http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TM08U-Touch-Panel-Controller-Dimmer-Wall-Switch-For-RGB-LED-Strip-12-24V-12A-WH-/251681129077?hash=item3a995d4275:g:8x0AAOSwcu5UQIYo and it works well. You can select the colour you want from the colour wheel for statis display, or there are a whole bunch of programs that flash, fade, change colour etc. And you dim up/down with the slider bar. Again I just ran a 2 core wire from the 12V power supply to the controller, and then a cat5e from the controller to the LED strip, and then twisted together 4 of the pairs to make it a 4 core cable. If you really wanted to turn this into an interesting electronics project, you could look at a 12v solar panel, battery charger and a 12V battery. Run it "off grid"... I would like to do that with my landscape lighting at some point in the future. 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 14126 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 15538 |