kitchen downlighters below bathroom?

[very_pointy_ears]

Hi,

I want to put downlighters into the kitchen ceiling. The lights I've got are mains voltage ones with an 8 inch length of heat resistant (I presume) cable and a plug on one end to go to the bulb. On the other end is a fitting to put some T+E into.

Now it's just occurred to me that part of the kitchen is below the bathroom, specifically the end with the bath in it.

Are there any IP requirements in case the bath leaks from above? The bathroom floor is exterior grade (not marine) ply and doesn't have any holes other than what was required to lead the hot and cold 22mm pipes in (the waste is behind the bathroom units above floor level).

Some central heating pipework also shares the ceiling void above the kitchen. Are there any issues there with cable joints being nearby? These are soldered joints that have been there since 1977 and have thusfar not leaked.

 

[RF Lighting]

Nope, no specific regulations, apart from equipment installed must be suitable for its environment.


IMO there is no problem.

 

[DESL]

You'll get the added benefit of under floor heating in the bathroom as well

 

[Taylortwocities]

Even better, fill bath with cold water, turn on kitchen lights, bath ready in 20 minutes!

That'll please BAS

 

[very_pointy_ears]

RF - thanks for that - I have to admit my heart sank when I suddenly thought of that so thanks for clearing that up.

DESL - Underfloor heating - hehe I've seen that posted around here before

I'm putting 12 downlighters in but they're going to be on two separate dimmers - I'm wiring them alternately. That way, if we want to just come in to make a cup of tea we don't have to don the welding goggles before turning on the lights

I've got a 47mm deep double pattress and two 500w Richmond grid dimmers for the job and a 3 way faceplate. The third switch is going to be for some flourescent lights under the lower bezel of the wall units, shining down onto the work surfaces. I suspect we're going to end up using these quite a bit. I've got four FCUs for these, in which I was planning to fit 3A fuses and then run the load cables down the back of the wall units.

The whole kitchen light circuit has its own 1.5mm feed back to the CU to a B6 breaker.

This whole thing was in response to my wife complaining that the 4x50w halogen lights we currently leave the kitchen really dark ... it's surprising how dark it still is with 200w of lighting. It's not as if it's a particularly big kitchen.

 

[very_pointy_ears]

Even better, fill bath with cold water, turn on kitchen lights, bath ready in 20 minutes!

That'll please BAS

Tell you what, I could drill a hole in the floor and poke a cable up so that we can dangle a few in the water. That ought to heat it up even more quickly

 

[mdbalson]

Tell you what, I could drill a hole in the floor and poke a cable up so that we can dangle a few in the water. That ought to heat it up even more quickly

But make sure that there is not a RCD on the circuit which they are on

 

[very_pointy_ears]

I'll wire it straight into the main supply and bypass the main fuse for good measure.

 

[mdbalson]

I'll wire it straight into the main supply and bypass the main fuse for good measure.

 

[Steve]

This whole thing was in response to my wife complaining that the 4x50w halogen lights we currently leave the kitchen really dark ... it's surprising how dark it still is with 200w of lighting. It's not as if it's a particularly big kitchen.

An inherent problem with halogen downlighters that will never go away. They produce pools of light and dark spots.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

This whole thing was in response to my wife complaining that the 4x50w halogen lights we currently leave the kitchen really dark ... it's surprising how dark it still is with 200w of lighting. It's not as if it's a particularly big kitchen.

Try and imagine how bright it would be with 2 x traditional 100W lights hanging down (I know you wouldn't have that, and for good reasons, but try to imagine it).

Do the same with the equivalent number of 100W lights for the amount of downlighters you propose. How bright would the room be?

Now do you see the problem with these things? They may look flash, elegant, unobtrusive etc, but they are desperately inefficient in terms of the amount of useful illumination per watt of electricity consumed.

 

[very_pointy_ears]

Yes, they certainly seem to be. And I've no idea why that would be, unless the filaments are rated such that they run at a slightly lower temperature.

A friend has got some in his kitchen. When one blew he replaced it with a lower energy one that consumed about 35W instead of 50W, and actually looked a bit brighter too.