Anyone seen this symbol before?

[Marcus Vaughan]

Logo in the bottom right corner - looks like I shouldn’t be installing them in a home.

Also - 30 of them needed per lamp at 15w each - two lights (one already installed by customer) + other lights.
It’s right up close to maximum demand - even with diversity.....

Customer supplied lamps - time for a chat - but to put LED’s in will cost £££££

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

A lot of high capacity dimmers required a metal faceplate to assist with heat dissipation so don't take a dimmer off a metal plate and fit to a plastic one.

Thank you - interesting.

 

[naylorpd]

"false economy to use any other type of bulb in a chandelier that big IMO"

Well you can say that now with the benefit of the alternatives available in 2019. But in Azerbaijan we've had 20-lamp chandeliers for over 15 years and when first installed the only lights available were 40W incandescents, which is what the fittings were rated for. We have two 20-bulb lights plus another 3 with 6-8 bulbs each. Then the first round of economy lamps came in, which were about 20W but not very pretty, and finally LEDs at around 6-8W apiece. But there are still plenty of modern lights available that use halogen, you'd not need many of them to get up to half a kilowatt.

But IMO if you are going to use 15W incandescent bulbs to light what looks like a big room then you're going to need 30 of them anyway, if you don't want to sit in the dark. Also AFAIR not all LED lamps are dimmable. We typically wire a chandelier to two switches, so "dimming" means only one circuit on.

 

[Ian B]

One issue with crystal chandeliers is they are designed for point source lamps, to get the best internal reflections from the crystal elements.
There are now some LED lamps that attempt to replicate the point source, but in the early days of energy saving lamps (CFLs and LEDs) the only option was the frosted "ice cream cone base" type, that were completely wrong for crystal chandeliers, and just made the fitting look dull!
So, if you're going to fit LEDs please ensure you go for the point source type, with minimal white housing for the driver - ideally there would be ones with black driver housings so as not to draw attention to them.

 

[naylorpd]

Last time I bought a chandelier in the UK the "crystals" were plastic and didn't sparkle at all. Rapidly replaced with one hand-carried from Azerbaijan.

It's a real struggle to put chandeliers in UK homes as the ceilings are too low, only about 2.5m so you are limited to short designs on short chains. Here 3m is an absolute minimum even for apartment blocks, up to 4m in larger houses.

Frosted covers work OK and give a good overall light, though newer designs are more like the old clear glass incandescent bulbs.

But I really couldn't imagine 15W oven lamps being used as the main light source in a large room, even 30 of them.

 

[Ian B]

Sorry, I disagree. You should never fit frosted/pearl lamps of any variety in a crystal chandelier.

 

[Ian B]

I agree about ceiling heights, but the places I work in are generally 2 storey atrium's or 3.5-4m ceilings.

 

[naylorpd]

LED lamps with line sources and clear covers are another new-ish development - I installed my lights about 3 years ago and used what was available at the time. Being LED, I haven't needed to replace them yet, but if I did it would be around 60 bulbs so quite expensive, even here.

 

[Gary K]

How many times is that Varilight dimmer going to need replacing? I have found that when a bulb blows, the power surge seems to burn out the dimmer also even when using LED bulbs.
With that many bulbs waiting to fail, I foresee trouble.

 

[Ian B]

Yes, LEDs have come on a lot in recent years.
One that is good for chandeliers is
SALE Candle (CL 11000) | Civilight - https://civilight.nl/nl/producten/sale-led-retrofit-bulb-cl-11000-118/
with silver housing and a crystal element built in
(they used to be available in a gold finish as well, ideal for polished/laquered brass chandeliers, but they don't seem to list that now).

 

[dksanders]

Re:The customer insisting you fit them; you are the professional who knows the implications of doing so and what's right, they are not designed to be fitted into normal light fittings (manufacturers instructions take precedence) so I'd educate him of that fact or walk away. Drawing 450W per light (how many of these are there in total) and the other lights, is the cabling up to the job?

Re LED costs. If he wants to consider going to LEDs, that would save about 15% off his electricity bill and if you'd like to put him in touch with me, I can arrange for good quality ones to be supplied and fitted for free throughout the whole house (and no, it won't be me doing it or getting paid for fitting them, and if you'd like to PM me for more information, you could get paid up to £350 for the introduction).

 

[DPG]

Dksanders, you got some sort of pyramid selling scheme going on?!?!

 

[l4urence]

Agree - LED all the way with this job.

 

[dksanders]

Dksanders, you got some sort of pyramid selling scheme going on?!?!

Haha, Nope, totally legal, recommended by Which magazine and Moneywise magazine to name but a few. FTSE 250 company behind it.