Bathroom downlighting

[nod]

I have fifteen bathroom downlights 

I intend insulating the loft with 450 insulation My electrician friend has sugested that it isn’t a good idea to cover the downlights and to cut round them even though they are LED 

Leaving fifteen cold spots 

I think I can rember Dave perhaps suggesting covering with a plant pot 

Or is it safe to cover with insulation 

[Onoff]

Traditional downlighters are quite tall. They generally have minmum clearances to adhere to. There are though some coverable ones. 

 

This isn't bad to get a feel for what's what.

 

https://www.downlights.co.uk/faq-can-i-put-loft-insulation-over-downlights-.html

 

Why not consider slim fit ones.

 

[Onoff]

I assume you realise you need to factor in that your cabling will be rated at 50% of its current carrying capacity if surrounded by insulation for more than 500 mm of it's length?

[Dee J]

7 hours ago, Onoff said:

I assume you realise you need to factor in that your cabling will be rated at 50% of its current carrying capacity if surrounded by insulation for more than 500 mm of it's length?

Don't think that's a real concern. Especially with led lighting. Even with incandescent lighting you're far more likely to hit volt drop issues before current rating becomes an issue.

[nod]

I just wondered what you guys are doing

The bathroom rated lights I have are quite bulky 

 

[PeterW]

I’ve got something similar and have fibre that sits over the ceiling rafters so have a 95mm air gap. With LED I’m not really worrying about the heat ..!

 

Out of interest how big is the bathroom as that’s a lot of spots ..!

[Nickfromwales]

34 minutes ago, nod said:

I just wondered what you guys are doing

The bathroom rated lights I have are quite bulky 

I use These now as I hate the horrible, deep IP rated bathroom spots. The bulb is very high in them too so you get very little dispersion and a nasty shaft of light just pointing straight down. That means you need lots of them to adequately light even a small room . 

Those flat panel lights are fantastic. I used the 9w ones last and the light is just so much better compared to a downlight. Put them in the ridge of the boys attic room too, 5 of, and it completely fills the room with bright, crisp light.  

I wasn't so happy with the 6w, a very bluey light but maybe just that seller, so always buy a sample first and see if you like the type of light / colour before ordering all you need.  

[dpmiller]

^ agree with Nick. Ordered some 6W variants to appraise and they're stunningly good. Even, glare-free light. Dunno about anyone else but as they're alloy body and steel backplate I'm happy to accept them as fire-rated too.

[joe90]

Yes these are the type I fancy for our kitchen, my only worry after reading Jeremy’s stuff is Hong Kong electrics and radio noise?

[dpmiller]

Well my particular examples are absolutely silent, even with the driver sitting against the radio in the kitchen that is bothered by our current MR16s.

[Jeremy Harris]

I have the same ones as Nick suggested in our kitchen/dining room, a mix of 3 W and 6 W units, with those at the kitchen end being cool white and those at the dining end being warm white.  The warm white ones are slightly less bright, but are pretty close to incandescent light in terms of colour.  The cool white ones are close to the colour of daylight fluorescent tubes, but with a more diffuse light.

 

The light fittings themselves seem much of a muchness wherever you buy them, but one batch I bought had very electrically noisy AC DC constant current drivers.  These drivers had no screening and no form of interference suppression at all, and caused a great deal of noise on any radio when they were turned on, so were clearly non-compliant with the EMC Directive, despite being CE marked.  Other drivers have been fine, with no noise at all, but it seems complete pot luck as to what you will get.  I even had a noisy driver supplied by a reputable LED lighting company for some of our lights, but they were very good at sending me replacements, so good that I suspect I wasn't the first to complain about them.

[RandAbuild]

We've used these in our kitchen

Quite a square profile but a nice reliable light. 8w I think

 

[Gone West]

We fitted similar ones to these  https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTFRD12WW.html

They have interchangeable lenses and bezels so we could use them where ever we wanted downlighters. We also used plain downlight hoods also from TLC but they don't sell them any longer, only the intumescent type.