Brand choice

ebee:

Downlighters - I`ve never been a fan of downlighters housed in the ceiling - Yes they do look very pretty in comparison to pendants/bulkheads and some of the fancy stuff. It comes mainly from the way I`ve seen them installed , too near to joists/cables/pipework and the heat thingy with filament lamps (be it mains and 12V, even the ali reflectors), fluorescent not usually as bad and todays LED definately run cooler so I`m a bit of a Dinosaur, I admit, on downlights. Probably Aurora & JCC I view as the better ones but I especially seek other views on on downlighters.

Daughter has underfloor heating in her bathroom, just where you might step out of the bath. Seriously - the recessed lamp fitting with filament lamp warms the floorboard noticeably. There were several of these ghastly fittings, which shed very little light, as well as great big golf ball thingies with filament spot lamps.


Positioning downlighters does seem to be almost literally hit and miss!


To my mind, they are for hotels and domestic kitchens. If you have low ceilings, then fit wall lights and table lamps (on BS 546 2 A plugs if you wish).


Whilst I appreciate the benefit of being able to re-lamp GU50s, I don't think that they have an adequate output for most purposes. Careful planning is needed. (Who normally designs lighting for domestics?) IMHO a kitchen needs plenty of light and I think that we can do better than fluorescent tubes these days.


Back to quality: the most ghastly sockets that I have fitted are the little breadboards like these. At one point I couldn't get a decent R1 + R2 - it turned out that the screw in the CPC terminal simply wasn't gripping the conductors. £20+ for a bit of deal that has been CNC routed, stained, and had the cheapest possible innards fitted. Avoid!

ebee:

Downlighters - I`ve never been a fan of downlighters housed in the ceiling - Yes they do look very pretty in comparison to pendants/bulkheads and some of the fancy stuff. It comes mainly from the way I`ve seen them installed , too near to joists/cables/pipework and the heat thingy with filament lamps (be it mains and 12V, even the ali reflectors), fluorescent not usually as bad and todays LED definately run cooler so I`m a bit of a Dinosaur, I admit, on downlights. Probably Aurora & JCC I view as the better ones but I especially seek other views on on downlighters.

Daughter has underfloor heating in her bathroom, just where you might step out of the bath. Seriously - the recessed lamp fitting with filament lamp warms the floorboard noticeably. There were several of these ghastly fittings, which shed very little light, as well as great big golf ball thingies with filament spot lamps.


Positioning downlighters does seem to be almost literally hit and miss!


To my mind, they are for hotels and domestic kitchens. If you have low ceilings, then fit wall lights and table lamps (on BS 546 2 A plugs if you wish).


Whilst I appreciate the benefit of being able to re-lamp GU50s, I don't think that they have an adequate output for most purposes. Careful planning is needed. (Who normally designs lighting for domestics?) IMHO a kitchen needs plenty of light and I think that we can do better than fluorescent tubes these days.


Back to quality: the most ghastly sockets that I have fitted are the little breadboards like these. At one point I couldn't get a decent R1 + R2 - it turned out that the screw in the CPC terminal simply wasn't gripping the conductors. £20+ for a bit of deal that has been CNC routed, stained, and had the cheapest possible innards fitted. Avoid!