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What do you LOVE about the lighting in your house?


WWilts

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Or in somebody else's?
Trying to give sparky ideas that might depart a bit from the same old same old.


Airtightness is one consideration (2 storey new build with cold attic), but also 
How lighting can make life better


New tricks with new toys welcome if not huge cost difference from same old same old.

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We decided against any automation and let sparky guide us, he used mostly angled LED downlighters and 5A lamp sockets to great effect, we have a few feature up lighter & pendants also.

 

LED strips used tactically where downlight not feasible e.g. on bulkheads in room in roof, bathrooms and under bannisters (this worked quite well).

 

I made a 9 lamp pendent for our atrium using bits and bobs from Dowsing & Reynolds plus over 50m of braided cable (was definitely a measure twice cut once job). Nearly killed me installing it but looks great.

 

PIRs and LUX sensors can also provide a degree of automation for bathrooms, evening lights etc.

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Being able to switch things on and off from my phone or I-pad ? and from by the door

 

being able to switch off the landing light from beside my bed from a switch, a real life saver,

 

being able to pretend I am in when I am not by programming lights to similar to yesterday, auto porch light from dusk to 11:00 pm and if there is movement when it is dark 

 

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I just love the low energy of an all LED lit house.  LEss than 150W with every single light in the house on.  I can remember when just a kitchen easily used twice that amount.

 

Nothing fancy here, downlights in hall, utility kitchen and bathrooms, fancy light fittings in living room and dining room, and standard pendants and shades in bedrooms.

 

Warm roof here so ceiling penetrations for downlights not an issue (I might have mentioned a warm roof was one of or best design choices)  and with the advent of LED's my aversion to downlights has gone.

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Warm LED's only. We have a super bright 1450lm spotlight over the prep area in the kitchen which is excellent for cooking.

However it's very cold at 4000k. I plan to swap it for a 3000k unit. Maybe even brighter at 2000lm. 

 

Other than that it's single room pendants and a light switch by the door. Life is complicated enough without our lights going all Skynet and becoming self aware.  

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8 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I just love the low energy of an all LED lit house.

Good point; we've got loads of down lights with gu10 bulbs.  Having bulbs rather than fixed units let's you vary the colour temperature and brightness around the house quite easily, and change it if you're not happy.  Also, 3.5 years in and not had the replace a bulb yet.?

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The only LED failures I have had was several Philips LED Bayonet lights bulbs. considering they were a make I used to respect and were not cheap, very disappointing.

 

I do NOT like the current trend to downlighters having non replacable lamps, and glad all of ours are GU10 fire rated fittings with LED lamps.

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once we've built our house I'll let you know what we love about the lighting! but, we did employ a lighting designer to design an overall concept for the house and we love what she did. now it's down to us to put it in place. 

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The simplicity of a simple switch.  I understood how they worked when I was 3, and still understand how they work now.

 

Purely out of interest, how many people here have had cataracts?  Certainly made a difference on my view of lighting.

11 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

Dowsing & Reynolds

I have a vision of a wise sage looking for water, using only rear stays from a bicycle.

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16 hours ago, ProDave said:

I do NOT like the current trend to downlighters having non replacable lamps, and glad all of ours are GU10 fire rated fittings with LED lamps.

 

Same here.  Our sparks were very keen on the non-replaceable ones.  With your GU10s you can just swap out the lamp if you want it brighter / dimmable / new tech or higher efficiency.

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I agree with most comments. Downlighters are getting a bit old-hat except for task lighting situations. Avoid the higher colour temps unless you're nostalgic about arc-welding. Make use of any natural overhang, hidden ledge etc. to run led strip. Consider embedding linear strip with diffuser in ceilings, corners etc. Use strips with tuneable colour for extra atmo. Also check out the larger format LED panels(e.g. 600mm x 600mm) for utility, garage, or 'big statement' lighting in kitchen. Lastly (and I really should kick myself for saying this) don't shy away from Chinese smart bulbs and strips using Smart Life (Tuya) as they often out-perform big brands at a fraction of the price. The trick is to buy one, give it try and if you don't like it - bin it and try a different one until you're happy. They're generally that cheap.

 

❤️ Alexa (she lets me play around with her back-end)

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 06/12/2021 at 07:03, SteamyTea said:

The simplicity of a simple switch.  I understood how they worked when I was 3, and still understand how they work now.

 

Purely out of interest, how many people here have had cataracts?  Certainly made a difference on my view of lighting.

I have a vision of a wise sage looking for water, using only rear stays from a bicycle.

I haven't cataracts but I need variofocal glasses with a serious script. I love decent lighting, and really want to plan it into our build. Daughter got me a military grade torch for christmas. Love it!

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1 hour ago, CalvinHobbes said:

I haven't cataracts but I need variofocal glasses with a serious script

A really strong light will make your pupils like pinholes.  That gives your vision a greater depth of field.

It is really quite amazing that we can see in such low light levels, less than a W.m-2, and also in extremely bright light levels, greater than 1000 W.m2.  Imagine having a heart that could do that, pumps around a little blood at rest, then 1000 times more when we are running.

The human body should not work at all.

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