Downlight advice needed

[james7777777]

I have spent all day incorrectly fitting 15 downlights in my kitchen and I now really hate these bloody lights. they are inefficient, cheap, dangerous and dont even light very well and are a pain in the arse to install. Anyway as a result of me incorrectly fitting them many are now very close to joists. Im not moving them but am considering getting fire rated fittings and LED / low energy bulbs. However I havent used these before and would like some advice as to whether they will actually improve safety. I know fire rated fittings arent meant for this purpose but are they cooler to touch? Also do LED's or low energy bulbs run cooler?

Marc

 

[topquark]

LEDs will run cooler than low energy, but you'll need to decide whether the LEDs (or low energy) need to be dimmable or not before sourcing.

 

[Kiers1970]

you can't make Chicken soup out of chicken Sheet.

 

[james7777777]

any idea on the fire rated lights?

 

[Richard Burns]

James you have described downlighters in a nutshell.

LEDs vary a lot in their heat output, though all are cooler than halogens. It does depend on the lighting effect you want to achieve.
If you want dimmable then they are coming on the market fairly well but are not really mainstream yet.
If you do not want dimmable then you have a fairly wide range, Halers Evoleds are pretty good but do get hot, do not buy the cluster LEDs unles you want to accent light a particular feature close to the light.
The higher the wattage the hotter they get and they must be kept cool to extend life.
Even where they say they are equivalent to 35W or 50W expect them to be dimmer, but 15 in one room should be OK.
SMD leds give a wide (120 degre light) and are better for lighting a room but do have lower overall light intensity but hardly get hot at all. Single or triple LEDs give a focused beam more like halogens but do get hot, if you can use the 3/4W ones then they are not too bad, around the 9W level they are really like halogens.
Overall though you woudl save loads of electricity using LEDS.

 

[mogga]

HALERS Evolveled

 

[DurhamSparky]

get a decent fitting and pop an LED lamp in it!! if you have living area above the room you installed the lights in to you should have fitted fire rated fittings any way!!

stop been cheap and cheerful especially in your own home!

 

[Richard Burns]

Fire rated downlights just have a metal can over them and may not fit if they are close to beams, they should improve safety on stopping a fire propagating theough the ceiling but will not really help on preventing heat build up.

 

[telectrix]

you can't make Chicken soup out of chicken Sheet.

but you can make sheet out of chicken soup.

 

[Richard Burns]

but you can make sheet out of chicken soup.

You what?:crazy:

 

[Short Circuit]

Marc, If the Kitchen is downstairs and there are rooms above, you should've used fire rated lights in the first place. The best option and the most costly, is to take Mogga's suggestion and use Halers. Or, go and buy some Fire Rated lights and LED lamps. I would be going LED over energy efficient ones as the latter takes a while to warm up - so when you pop in the kitchen to raid the biscuits, you wont be able to see anything for the first few minutes! There was a post a couple of days ago about how close you can put the lights to the joists - might be worth having a look at that one too!
PS -Dont forget its notifiable works too

 

[cjp1]

You what?:crazy:

I think what telectrix means is if you eat your soup at some point after you will need a sheet :38:

 

[ezzzekiel]

Marc, If the Kitchen is downstairs and there are rooms above, you should've used fire rated lights in the first place.

not strictly correct, fire rated are only required when breaking a fire compartment, a house is classed as a single compartment unless it has an integral garage.