Opinions on kitchen downlight positions

[SolRobinson]

Hello, just looking for some opinions on these downlight positions... I've spent days playing around with these positions...

The 2 rows of 3, they are 700 centres from the walls and then 900 centres from each other, except the middle one is 805~ centres from the 2 rows.

I've spent countless hours googling to find that most people agree 500-700 from the wall but then most people say 1200-1600 from each other and also to avoid them being over tall units. As you can see the bottom right on is more or less over the tall unit and is roughly 100mm from centre of the downlight to the edge of the tall unit. Does anyone see any problems with this? I'm also unsure as to whether the distance from the wall is too much? I've seen people say you want the downlight over the worktops or over you, but not behind you, these are fairly over you when standing at the units.

I opted for a single downlight in the centre as we will be having task lighting under the wall units and the middle half height unit is an extractor with a light, so didn't feel like downlight was necessary... but does the single centre one look odd?

Any advice would be much appreciated

 

[sparkwright]

Looks all right.

Don't forget, the task lighting and the extractor lighting lighting never get used after the first two weeks anyway.

Considering leaving a continuous, uncut loop of cable in the ceiling in the two places you aren't putting spots - then you add them in the future if you change your mind.

 

[morqthana]

View attachment 355894

No noggins?

 

[SolRobinson]

No noggins?

It's original 1960's property... don't think they believed in noggings seems they didn't believe in 400/16" or 600/24" spacings either as none of these joists have the same spacing... The bathroom sits above the kitchen and we plan to renovate that next year and I'll be plying the joists to strengthen as whoever replaced the bathroom before we bought the property really did a number on drilling through them

 

[Taylortwocities]

@SolRobinson Congratulations on your planning.

You are one of the few people that have considered the positioning of ceiling joists, etc before just getting the 70mm holesaw out, making a swiss cheese of the ceiling and finding all sorts of suprises!

 

[SolRobinson]

@SolRobinson Congratulations on your planning.

You are one of the few people that have considered the positioning of ceiling joists, etc before just getting the 70mm holesaw out, making a swiss cheese of the ceiling and finding all sorts of suprises!

Fail to prepare...prepare to fail

 

[ericmark]

Old quartz halogen down lights had an angle published so you could work out where the 60º or 45º spread would light, they were called MR16 the MR stands for multifaceted reflector, modern LED units don't have a reflector so there is no sharp cut off point where they don't light.

My own kitchen has a unit like this so I can aim the lights where I want, it is not what I want, in the house when I bought it, and I have no access to ceiling space, so I am considering lighting track

so I can extend from existing lamps on the surface without it looking like an after thought, which of course it is. But it allows me to aim light where needed, and change how it is done at will.

But wall cupboards do allow one to fit lights under them, and

Don't forget, the task lighting and the extractor lighting lighting never get used after the first two weeks anyway.

is very true, mainly as it means switching them on/off independently. I have two under counter lamps with a cooker hood between them, actually the hood lights are used, but counter lights to left are smart and used, but to right has a switch local to lights and rarely used.

The big advantage of smart lights is one command turns off all, living room around 6 lamps which are used as 'hey google turn on/off living room lights' does them all, we don't really need a smart light switch for main light, but using voice commands helps, specially when hand covered in flour in kitchen.

The other this is when I ignore my wife, I can say I thought you were talking to google!

Your lay out seems good, but now is the time to consider any smart controls to integrate lighting, even if done latter.

 

[SolRobinson]

Your lay out seems good, but now is the time to consider any smart controls to integrate lighting, even if done latter.

Yep my first priority at the start of the renovation. Every light in the house has/will have a Shelly smart relay on it (I hate walking into someone’s house and having to turn a light on by shouting at Alexa/Google) so that allows me to hook into motion sensors and other smart devices/sensors in future, using HomeAssistant. If you like smart home stuff and don’t know what HomeAssistant is, defo have a look.

 

[Murdochcat]

Just don’t fit sealed units

 

[cdbe]

This is the design for my open plan extension - 3 zones, some 2 way and intermediate switching.

I've basically run miles of loose cable up and down the joists. Aiming for roughly 600mm from walls and 1200mm apart. Just hope I've measured accurately when I start drilling blind holes in the ceiling!

I'm using IKEA smart lights which I believe can be individually controlled, use with sensors etc so hopefully flexible enough, where we need pendant lights eg over dining table and breakfast bar these can be fitted in place of down lighters

Kitchen I've put a drop in for plinth lights, and wife has just seen LEDs on friends handleless rails!

You can change wattage of bulbs and fit angled down lighters etc if you get it wrong.

 

[blup]

Dont assume you need less light in the middle, down lights are more like spotlights. Under cabinet lighting is a must

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Dont assume you need less light in the middle, down lights are more like spotlights. Under cabinet lighting is a must

If 7 lights is not quite enough in a 4x3m room then that would be the point where I'm questioning if they're the right lights!

 

[ebee]

As a first approximation my aim was, with filament/fluorescent lighting of any type, would have been to divide the area to be illuminated so that the distance from the wall as 1 unit and distance between lights as two units in both planes length and breadth, tis would tend to even out the illumination according to beam angle and spread.
If, however a wall unit or a tall unit etc is in the way then some revision of such might be made.

Then ceiling construction timbers and pipework etc would have to be considered if you were having downlighters.

With LED lighting those same considerations would alter things a bit, probably quite a bit anyway.

Then you have one of two choices, wherever you decide is the optimum place for your lights regarding spacing and symmetry on the ceiling as viewed from the floor.
If the units can then be spaced exactly dimensionally then that might be considered best spacing if achievable.
If it is slightly out it can look bloody awful.
In that case you might decide to site them less symmetrical to give a little more randomness (slightly not OTT though) and that might be your best option.

In most cases it is inevitable you have to make some compromises.

I have seen some jobs where the view from the room can look pretty good but when you examine the timbers you find them hacked or charred and a right load of problems can result, especially with hot filament lamps of any type.
And that is before we even consider plastic ceilings.

You are probably going to use LED lighting so a lot of these problems might not actually apply though.