Carrerahill

Agree 100% with all of that. It's just if there was ever far too much thermal energy I would worry a bit! Maybe I line the area in fireboard and be done with it...

Why don't you just get a roof company to make you vaulted ceiling trusses? You get your roof made and they design it...

I am increasing my PV array next month and this will involve switching to a bigger inverter with dual MPPT, I need to tweak things and move things about a bit anyway so it's time to reconsider the location of the inverter. I really don't like the idea of them in my house. The fairly common place is for them to go in the loft, in my case south facing eaves, not ideal. I design PV system into buildings all the time, commercial inverters go anywhere from the north side of a lift shaft overrun to the plant room, in flatted developments it's fed into the landlord supply so the inverter can go anywhere from a ventilated riser cupboard to a roof void. So it's common enough, but I am still not 100% sold on them going inside, it is possibly an irrational fear, perhaps as a building services consultant I understand all to well the weakness of these systems and the point(s) of failure which can lead to fire. I have made an executive decision to, for example, remove all the MC4 connectors from within the house. I am going to replace the panel mount MC4 connectors on the inverter with a small cable gland and dress the DC cables directly into the inverter and terminate them directly into the screw terminals on the built-in DC isolator (I'll cross the bridge that is the warranty issue if it comes to it). That removes 12 points of failure (crimp on each side of the MC4 and the interface between the pins over 2 strings). However, it got me thinking, the inverter is IP65, it could go outside, I get mixed information when you do a search on this, some articles say, yes great idea, outside in the shade, could not be better, others comment about the inverters being exposed to the elements etc. I get that, but there is no reason why I couldn't protect the inverter further. I had considered a feeder pillar (yes like you see on the street), but I think that would look too commercial, so I considered a wall mounted enclosure, something like a 800x800x250mm enclosure I could mount low down on the outside, side of the house, I can get one with fans which I could run via a temperature sensor, but a bit pricey for all this. I also considered putting them in the garage, I could mount them low, so if a fire did occur the concrete floor and block walls are not going to combust, but I would then need to run the DC cables down the house, across the path somehow (no spare ducts) and into the garage, probably totalling about 30m runs, I considered making a double/triple fireboard lined plant area in the eaves and adding good insulation to stop solar gain via the roof and mechanically ventilate it on a temperature sensor. So, I think I am just looking for some collective input from the forum, some thoughts and ideas, some irrational fear counselling maybe...

Why don't you buy your lights from China, but invest in a decent quality power supply? I usually use Meanwell or EldoLED for things like this.

Do the maths on material and time difference, but we just increased the timber size for the frame, think we went 2x7 in the end for our kit. Meant everything was insulation and service void ready in 1 go and gave us nice chunky TF. It saved having to batten it all out, the material costs, nails, time etc. etc.

When we did it, I measured the opening in the TF and provided that to the manufacturer clearly, in bold, as actual measurements deductions to apply, they made deductions. When they arrived I slid them into the openings then added my 50x50mm treated timber around the openings and I was able to pull them in tight to the windows, they were faced with DPC then the block work was built up to and over the frame by about 1-5mm. I still used the proper brackets so to remove them you could just remove the internal linings and pull them out, but the fit was essentially tight.

What are you going to light with them? I know what you mean about cost, I bought 6, circa 40mm downlights with white bezels about 7 years ago for a plasterboard shelf detail I built down each side of a chimney breast and they were about £40 Ea. at the time.

Ah, didn't read the 1/3W was different models, I thought they were being typically Chinese about the spec of the chip at different voltages. Those are suggesting to be 95Lm per watt, so 285Lumen.

Should do. Do you have any old power supply that is output DC between 12-24V? Favourite of mine back in the day was a Hornby trainset supply. Used to use it for all sorts before I got my lab power supply.

Right, I have just looked at the transformer you bought, it is a half amp 24VDC power supply. How many of the little LED lights do you have? Are you overloading it? They state they are 1W/3W - LED's are funny, I would say at 24V they will be 3W as they are pulling more current as the forward voltage goes up, so do you have too many on it and thus are overloading it?

Maybe you have, but did you not say there was a minimum load?

Their is nothing to suggest they are CC. If they were a current would be listed somewhere. 12-24DC. Hook one up to your car cigarette lighter or any other 12-24DC power supply you have and it will work.

Having looked at the spec on AliExpress is says the input voltage is 12-24VDC - get a DC supply in that region capable of the wattage you need (add them all up for total wattage) and it will work.

No, they are incompatible, the driver behaves like that as it is ascertaining the characteristics of the LED, the fact it keeps going says they are not compatible.

Driver will be seeing that as open circuit and is pulsing the output "looking" for the load. Because of how drivers work, they need to work out what the drive voltage will be, so on startup they sort of ramp up until they detect the forward voltage of the LED (the point it starts to emit light) then they can drive it up will they get the rated current of the driver. Looking at those, I think those LED lights are just 12V because if they were say 100mA they would usually list the current not the voltage, 12V is also quite specific and few LED's will be a nice round, industry standard voltage like that.

Welcome, sorry to hear about your house. In your situation I would be tempted to contact a general builder/multi trade contractor as it will likely need a lot of programming of multiple trades to carry out the work, I would imagine, having not seen the damage, it will be a strip out, plaster/plasterboard from ceilings removed, flooring removed, depends on age of construction walls may or may not be OK, insulation could be soaked. Trying to manage that on your own if your not familiar with this stuff would be a bit of a nightmare for you and could cost time. We currently have a good crew of guys doing some work on a build for my parents that I was doing for them, but I became too busy with work, it started out as a bit of joinery and plumbing to get things moving on faster and a plasterer/tiler/painter who will also do other bits like finishing plasterboard etc., between the 3 of them they are doing everything we throw at them and taking it in their stride. A little team of guys like that and you would be sorted.

I realise a blinding error in my text above, I wrote, "so yes, I do believe they are structurally capable of large increased loads..." however, I should have said "so yes, I do not believe..." simply put I don't think things are build with all this spare capacity, you would be somewhat shocked at how close to the bone some things are. "Sweating the asset" is something we say a lot at work. I think, sadly, other things will overshadow the push for net zero, I cannot see this country remaining civil for much longer, too many things are now eroding the grounds on which global peacefulness was founded in the mid 40's and further bolstered in 1991 with domestic issues now becoming as big a threat of unrest with other nations. I hope I am so wrong, but I don't see the next decades of my life being as simple, trouble free and peaceful as those that preceded them. I am sure Ukraine had some national projects planned... I hear myself all too often buying bits and pieces and joking it's part of my apocalypse planning. I bought 12/24V solar charger controllers last week - this is my plan to be able to convert some of my PV system to totally off grid for little financial outlay, just in case.

Could you add some uplighting around the perimeter with good floor standing lamp with a good upward light component to flood the ceiling with light turning it into a huge reflector? Or do you have furniture or cabinets you could hide some fairly ugly, but functional uplight? Or mount some directional lighting (like retail lighting but nicer luminaires) to get light where you need it? https://professional.flos.com/en/global/subfamily/architectural-spotlights-find-me/

First of all, architects design no strength into any structure. Structural engineers do. As for the spare capacity, I think it would be fair to say most would be built to a Kg per meter squared loading based on car weights and percentages of car types on the road at a given time, they will always allow a safety factor and the chances are it will be absolutely fine, but, a bit like the unofficial loft conversion, it works, it seems to be fine, but its totally structurally unsound and everything is sitting near limits and it just takes one decent snow load and it could all be down, so yes, I do believe they are structurally capable of large increased loads, I am not saying they will all fall down, though, some might. For years I only designed enough electrical capacity into buildings for the building electrics, which in many cases were gas heated. No ASHP and no EVC's. If I try to add redundancy then or even today, the client will go with the cheaper option 9 in 10. The conversation in a design team meeting for a carpark would be like this: "As a very forward thinking structural engineer, and also as I have the ability to predict the future a bit, I think we should allow for most cars to weigh about 2200Kg in 20 years time" "What, no, what if we just allow for what we have on the roads today, I will be selling this carpark in 10 years to another operator, I want it designed to current expected loadings." "OK, we can save 50 tons of steel and 150 cubes of concrete" "Great, that will do nicely." Or me having a discussion with a guy building a carpark for an outdoor/community centre. "I have allowed for 100% of your parking bays to eventually be equipped with fast chargers." "How many do we need to comply?" "20% of bays with normal, 7kW chargers" "Just put in enough to run the 20%." "What about sizing the local transformer, main switchboard and sub-mains and putting in duct to all bays so you can at least just hook them up when you need to" "Nah, it will be years till we need all that shit, just put in the minimum to comply" I have had the above conversation in various guises about 20 times in the last 12 months.

Clogged with what? Has the ground level been raised around them and leaves and stuff is blowing into them? If so, that issue may need fixing first.

Can you not do a deal regarding the kitchen, power only run to pre-cored holes for downlights or something? I am not aware of your situation, are you self building and have a fixed price with agreements in place, built to plan and the builder will hit your with variations for any changes? You could always use tuneable colour if you want some cool light. 4000K light can be good for reading and study as it is closer to natural daylight, it is also a favoured in offices and generally the workplace as it is good for focus and alertness, this is due to more blue light from the light spectrum being available, blue light supresses melatonin production, a hormone which makes us sleepy and drives our circadian cycle, something that is heavily impacted by light, it would have been sunlight, however with all the artificial light we are exposed to now it stuffs things up a bit. So sitting in 4000K light at 2300hrs when your thinking of reading a bit and heading off to the land of nod is not conducive, however, when you need to read something and stay alert and focused or do some work, it may be, albeit you are artificially influencing it. This is why visual devices often have a night time setting to remove the coolness, the "blueness" from the screen to help reduce the influence on your body. When Scottish Power did their new HQ in Glasgow someone got wind of this, they opted for 6500K lighting in all the offices, it looks hideous from the outside and must be worse to work in, but they heard it would keep everyone alert and focused, then, across the road at the RoS, they were kind to their staff and installed circadian rhythm friendly lighting which tracks the colour temp of the daylight, so 2300K in the morning, peaking at I think 5500K in the afternoon for a while before heading back to 2300K.

https://jmoncrieff.co.uk/lighting https://www.creative-cables.co.uk/content/67-components https://www.creative-cables.co.uk/content/68-Indoor-lighting http://www.spatial-lighting.co.uk/shop Remember, you can go simple now, and change them as you learn to live with the space and funds become available again.

Yes, but it is also a science.

A lot, in fact, I did a BA in lighting design (and I had the opportunity to do a PhD) and specialised in it for about 15 years, although now I am a consulting building services engineer I still do a lot of lighting design as every project we do still needs lighting. Don't get too hung up on lux levels and uniformities and glare and what not for domestic lighting, even when I do domestic lighting I still just use my professional knowledge and best practise. The issue with domestic is that it is not used like typical commercial buildings, offices, it is an office, you light it like an office, or a warehouse, you light it like a warehouse. Houses are a different kettle of fish, you can put a single pendant kit into most rooms and that complies with what BC want to see. However, we all know we will add desk lights and table lights and floor lights. Kitchens are about one of the only rooms in a house that needs proper, as close to a "design" as you need for task lighting. If I am doing a kitchen in apartments etc. I usually go for about a 500-600lumen downlight, say 2.4m ceiling height, spaced at about 1000-1200mm in a row or array to suit along the counters - typically I will pull out a second row if there is a dining room table shown on the architects GA's. Bathrooms being about the only other room that needs dedicated properly "designed" lighting or else you are stuck with it. Corridors I would typically put the same in in about a 1200-1500mm spacing. I have my go to downlights for these applications and I know the optics will give me the right distribution to work in these spaces for me. Very occasionally I will fire up the lighting design software and do a quick check calc if I want to do something a bit different. "Design" when used in a domestic situation, to me and for many interior designers and even lighting designers is just picking nice lighting, and placing it in such a way to create some nice ambient and useable light. A well placed downlight to create a scallop of light down a tall wall above a stair, or a row of small (e.g. 35mm) down lights along an oak balustrade in a hall, or some recessed LED strip into shelfs. Dimmers are also your friend when it comes to domestic lighting as it lets you add all the light you want, but without the concern you might end up with your living room sitting a 600 lux!, however, make sure you pair your source and dimmer or you will have a hell of a time. I have often put in standalone DALI dimmers (Osram DALI MCU) with DALI driver luminaires to guarantee nice dimming and when done wisely, the over-cost is not that much. Houses, in my opinion should always be 2700-3000K light. I hate seeing 4000K (or worse) in domestic settings, however, that is my opinion, I think some people like the clinical look.

Yet to see it. Commercial projects that don't use cast ductile often use the terracotta stuff in basements and risers.