Fluorescent Lighting for Kitchen

[Aragorn84]

We moved into this house a few months back, and one thing thats annoyed me since we moved in was the kitchen lighting.

It was equipped with a pair of "bar" lights each with four adjustable GU10 spots. I dislike the spotlight effect and much prefer the more even illumination you get from a "proper" light fitting.

I did some quick calculations on light output, and in an attempt to stop the wife moaning about a "big ugly striplight" bought a somewhat decorative fluorescent fitting constructed from stainless steel. It looks quite smart, but it takes a pair of 39w T5HO's.

When it arrived i've realised these tubes are bright, but very short, and i've temporarily rigged it up in the middle of the ceiling to see what i thaught of it. Sure enough, it chucks out tonnes of light and is way brighter than the previous crap, however the kitchen is quite long (around 4.5m) compared to the fitting and each end seems a bit dark. The cooker is at one end, and compared with the middle of the kitchen i'm left feeling like theres not enough light there. I think with the length of the room it really needs another fitting to spread the light out evenly.

I could buy another fitting the same as i have, but having seen how much better the fluros are the wife seems to be softening to it a bit, and i was thinking i might be able to get away with a "normal" batten fitting which has a nice diffuser, and save some money over another expensive decorative fitting. I also suspect four 39w T5's would be a little overkill, and if i'm fitting two i could get away with less power.

Having looked around, I've found that Thorn have a "pop pack" fitting, which takes two 28w T5's. These are higher efficency than the HO ones i have just now, and also are 4ft rather than 3ft tubes which i recon would look a bit more in proportion. They also do a "Twinline" diffuser which looks pretty decent.

However getting to the point, i cant find these T5 PopPacks anywhere online. Quite a few places have the T8 ones listed, but having searched for hours last night i cant find the T5 ones anywhere. Barring one company listing them for collection only. The T8 ones seem to have horrible ugly square diffusers, whereas the T5's have a much nicer rounded diffuser, hence wanting the newer fitment (as well as it being more efficient!)

Anyone got any idea where i can get these? Also any general thaughts on my revised plan would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Taylortwocities]

A very similar, recent thread here //www.diynot.com/forums/electrics/fluorescent-lights-for-kitchen.387530/

May help?

 

[mfarrow]

The Fast Fix PopPack has rounded diffusers, either prismatic or opal. T8 High Frequency.

Look at Shop4Electrical's website and type in PPHF136 /58 /70 for 4'/5'/6' fittings and PPCxx or PPDxx (xx = wattage) for prismatic and opal diffusers respectively.

I have no connection with company just have their catalog open. Other suppliers may be cheaper blah blah blah ...

 

[aesmith]

Personally I wouldnt fit twin tube fittings, I'd rather go for two singles with longer tubes to spread the light more evenly. Two four foot might be about right, or T8 58W which is what I've just put in the workshop - fitted across the short axis of the room.

Edit - just measured the workshop as 17 feet by just over 10.

 

[Aragorn84]

Yeh i think this is part of the issue, they've replaced the old poppack with a new style, but companies are still advertising the poppack as the old style. What i dont know, is if these companies are actually selling the new ones, or if they've piles of the old crappy ones laying around and i'll end up with those.

The ones on shop4electrical are the right style, but are all T8. I wanted the T5 version due to the higher efficency, and slightly lower output.

As for not buying twins, i'm not really sure. The kitchen is similar in size to your workshop, at a guess its 14ft by 10ft. I planned a pair of 4ft twin lamp battens, running down the long length. I figured a pair of twins rather than a pair of singles, because at the moment i've got about 6000lm (two 39w t5's) and the middle of the room is perfect but the ends are too dark. Switching to two 4ft T8 or T5HE singles would give me roughly the same output as i have now from the single fitting, but spread it out more, resulting in a darker overall room, whereas i want the brightness that currently exists in the middle of the room, everywhere.

A pair of 4ft twin T8's would give around 13000lm in total, or just under 1000lux. A pair of the 4ft T5HE's would drop that to 10000lm or so, which around 750lux, which i recon is about the right level, and also save a small amount of power. I guess if it came down to it, i could deal with the T8 fittings though.

I might give shop4eletricals a call and see if they can get the T5 versions of those fittings.

Cheers

 

[Aragorn84]

Hmm, it also seems that modern T8's are actually very close to T5 efficiency levels anyway.

I guess originally the T5HE at 28w would have matched an old school T8 at 36w, but modern T8's have raised the bar, and are close to T5 levels of efficiency now, so the only real difference is the T8 fitting gives out a bit more light.

I guess the question is, is 1000lux too much? I guess its personal preference, i just dont want to buy them, and find its too much and have to put up with SWMBO's wrath for wasting money

 

[mfarrow]

Yes, with modern electronics the T8 vs T5 argument tends to lose a bit of ground. The lumen level should be high in my opinion as you'll be facing worktops with your back shadowing the light most of the time.

If you're still worried about efficacy of T8, have a look at the Philips MASTER TL-D Eco which claims to save 10% over standard T8 tubes.