Track lights for beam, help badly needed.

[FarmerN]

Hi All

Posted very little on here but found forum a great help over the last couple of years, Thanks.

 

Coming to the final stage of a new build bungalow and need advice on track lights.

We have a large kitchen /dinner /family room, 7M x 6M with a vaulted ceiling and Oak Beam/ Truss across the middle .

I plan to put track lighting on both sides of the beam but am totally confused by what to use and what lights I can fit to track.

Power supply to one end of beam only.

Are many tracks now genuinely universal taking other makes of lights, or should I stick to one make?

How do I know which lights fit which track?

What I think I want is Black can spots, some with wide angle bulbs, warmlight (3000K? ) plenty of general light when at full power 3 meters from beam, rather than narrow glaring beams spots.

 All Dimmable, maybe 6 meter track with 6 lights, lights each side of beam.

Lights direct mounted on track , not pendants off track.

Any suggestions welcome.

 I am Old! No prior experience of modern lighting, and running out of time. I’m not particularly techie either. I’m making little progress with Google searches, so floundering.

Earlier Threads suggest Eutac for Track but can’t work out what make of lights  will fit on this.

[MikeSharp01]

It's a mine field, we have the same problem although our tracks will run above the beams in the vaulted ceiling and are really for lighting pictures rather than the space more generally. I have found no standard although I have to say its not been a long look as yet. I did find this https://www.thelightbulb.co.uk/resources/everything-you-need-to-know-about-track-lighting/ which gives a hint about different track styles and is generally very informative. I think the solution must lie in looking at commercial shop fitting lighting tracks as they seem to have all manner of things on them. Either way it will be interesting to see if anyone can identify a standard track which can accommodate lights of many different manufactures.

[SimonD]

I don't know about accommodation for many different manufacturers, but I do think that there is some standardisation out there regarding the tracks and fittings. I bought a load of tracks and lights from https://www.lighting-direct.co.uk merely as a test to decide on what kind of lighting we wanted. Personally I've junked them and gone for dimmable led strips as I can hide these more easily. The tracks take up a lot of space and are very visible. What I also found was that the GU10 fittings seemed to burn out the leds very quickly due to what seemed like heat buildup even with quality branded GU10s.

 

So, in conclusion, I found it difficult to get the lighting right with the tracks and found an old ikea 4 spot track light with smart bulbs I had lying around more convenient and effective!

 

[FarmerN]

Still floundering a little but had to make a decision, on track lighting.

Ordered 6 meters of  3 phase Eutrac tracking from SLV, for each side of the beam , I am told SLV/Eutrac is reasonably universal in accepting other makes of fittings. Aim is to have the 3 phases ( 3 separate circuits ) switched independently with dimmer switches, giving me plenty of options on  zoned lighting , it’s a big multi purpose room.

I have been told that there is far more choice of light fittings for 3 phase compared to single, I just hope the track is not too bulky and obtrusive.

Not ordered the light fittings yet but hope to have a couple of more powerful wide angle spots as well a number of smaller spots. No Pendants of track at this stage.

My main worry is that there will be too much glare as they are spot lights at about 3 meters high, and that I am just making the lighting far more complex than needed.