Recessed spotlight spacing

[Aruffell]

Hi all,

Buying a new build house and we're looking to put recessed spotlights in every room in the new house but am a bit baffled about how many we need.

All of the guides I've found on working it out says to take the square footage and times by 1.5 to get the total wattage and then to divide by the wattage of the bulbs.

Based on a 14x8 foot room that says we need 3. I've been in the room and 3 will not cut it.

Here are the rooms (in mm):



Here are some rough plans that I drew up:

Upstairs



Downstairs



Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[HardwareGeek]

Downlights are a pain tbh too many looks odd too few looks odd - cant always place them where they look best as they may be too close to joists etc spacing needs a lot of planning for the installer unless they just stick them in anywhere against regs/manufacturers instructions. Also check if fittings can be covered with insulation or not.

Also downlights are directional and give a narrow angle of light although you can buy bulbs with different spreads.

You can do either fewer brighter fittings vs. more dimmer fittings and get a different spread of light in a room.

Also in future the maintenance on downlights when they require pulling out of the ceiling can/will likely damage the ceiling and look horrible, can avoid this buy making sure the holes aren't cut too tight when installed so they are not skin tight around the fitting and fitting can be removed without pulling the edges of the plasterboard down. You can also now buy hole protector rings to protect the plasterboard.

One of the lighting free design software you can use to plan the room and it will calculate spread and lux etc
http://www.relux.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=217&Itemid=200&lang=en

 

[Maccapacca]

Don't space them in bathrooms and kitchen. Put them above where you need them so above sinks and worktops.

 

[Hobbsie]

i would say dont follow any guides on how to set your lighting up, do what you feel is right.
Some customers of mine like lots of them with high wattage lamps as they love a bright room.
Others only like a few with lower wattage as they like downlights but dont want to fill the ceiling up with lights.

Its a hard thing to plan, i agree with maccapacca in bathrooms and kitchen place them were is needed, theres not much point in having shadows over sink for the wife she will only nag ya

 

[Amp34]

Lighting is a great way to break up rooms. As macca says put them where you want the most light and have them set up so different areas have greater lighting, rather than just x equally spaced lights.

We put 12 spots in our downstairs room (approx 17x30 with an L shape and bar one one side). Three over the bar area, four in one part of the L and another 4 in the other, with one at the bottom of the stairs. Spacing was around 4-5' between each, although most ended up being 600 lumen 5" LED spots, which give a bit more angle than the typical 3" ones.

Another useful point is aim for more light than you think you'll usually need, then fit a dimmer. It's a pain to add more light after fitting but it's easy to lower the lights with a dimmer if it's too bright. You can also vary light output depending on what you are doing. You also don't want to have the spots more than 2-3' from each corner otherwise they will be quite dark.

May be worth thinking about putting individual spots over each bed side table area if you know where it's going to be. I'm going to retrofit out master bedroom with LED spots at some point (the current light is woeful) and at the moment am thinking 6 spots (as well as the main lamp), one above each table then four evenly spaced in a square round the room.

 

[Aruffell]

i would say dont follow any guides on how to set your lighting up, do what you feel is right.
Some customers of mine like lots of them with high wattage lamps as they love a bright room.
Others only like a few with lower wattage as they like downlights but dont want to fill the ceiling up with lights.

Its a hard thing to plan, i agree with maccapacca in bathrooms and kitchen place them were is needed, theres not much point in having shadows over sink for the wife she will only nag ya

Thanks for that. Is it bad that I'm a bit OCD when it comes to symmetry though? ha

The bathrooms are square so I'm thinking 4 should be perfect.

Lighting is a great way to break up rooms. As macca says put them where you want the most light and have them set up so different areas have greater lighting, rather than just x equally spaced lights.

We put 12 spots in our downstairs room (approx 17x30 with an L shape and bar one one side). Three over the bar area, four in one part of the L and another 4 in the other, with one at the bottom of the stairs. Spacing was around 4-5' between each, although most ended up being 600 lumen 5" LED spots, which give a bit more angle than the typical 3" ones.

Another useful point is aim for more light than you think you'll usually need, then fit a dimmer. It's a pain to add more light after fitting but it's easy to lower the lights with a dimmer if it's too bright. You can also vary light output depending on what you are doing. You also don't want to have the spots more than 2-3' from each corner otherwise they will be quite dark.

May be worth thinking about putting individual spots over each bed side table area if you know where it's going to be. I'm going to retrofit out master bedroom with LED spots at some point (the current light is woeful) and at the moment am thinking 6 spots (as well as the main lamp), one above each table then four evenly spaced in a square round the room.

We're making sure that we do the downstairs first before we need to put carpet in upstairs and can focus on the upstairs after and make sure we get the bedside tables etc...

We are going with LightwaveRF most likely so will all be dimmable so was thinking the same, adding more than needed and then dialing it down a little bit.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Amp34]

I have the dimmers connected to Zwave dimmers. Great fun when you can set scenes from your phone.

With your bathrooms I'd suggest not just going for a square (although it may end up being perfect for your rooms) - have at least one in the shower (not just outside), one (or more) so you can read in the bath. Lots of people also have them over the toilet and/or sink (depending on what you're doing with vanity light) as well.

It's really worth looking at houzz.com, there are lots of stunning homes and is great for design ideas. You will be able to see where others have put lights.

 

[-Ad-]

Thanks for that. Is it bad that I'm a bit OCD when it comes to symmetry though? ha

The bathrooms are square so I'm thinking 4 should be perfect.

Andy

Forget your OCD and symetrical spacing, that's what contractors do, just bung them up in a square/grid, that'll do.

Generally I was told 1.2m between spotlights, these are 7W integral units putting out 600+lumens.

In a kitchen you want them above the edge of the worktop (so 600mm from the wall), which will also include 300mm out from units etc. As wall mount kitchen units are normally 300mm deep, the 600mm rule works perfectly. Then say you have an oven unit or full floor-ceiling units, then place them at 900mm so you get the 300mm spacing so light can fire into the units/oven etc.

In lounges and other rooms, putting them 300mm off the wall will give a nice effect on the wall and ensure they work better than just plastering ever sq cm with light from above.

Think about where you're going to be sitting, doing things, is there artwork you want to highlight. Lighting can really enhance the look of a room and house, giving you accents of light across where it's needed. As said before, putting up a symmetrical grid just looks crap.

Have a look through some of these projects and the different types of lighting effects. Although these might be some serious houses, the same effect can be had anywhere. Pretty much all our lighting in our full house refurb has and is coming from them.

http://www.ecoledlight.co.uk/projects/

 

[bitslice]

It's really worth looking at houzz.com, there are lots of stunning homes and is great for design ideas. You will be able to see where others have put lights.

This really,
lighting is never watts/m2, it's more about what that room is used for - just as sitting beneath a spotlight in a cinema is annoying, it's the same for a lounge.

A book on lighting design would be handy to explain the issues and help use the different types of lights to solve them.

I've always liked using a mains light switch to turn on lampstands, just add a few round pin sockets fed from the lighting ring main, that then allows one switch to light up the room properly rather than using the (too bright) overhead light all the time.