Lighting for HT

[bass007]

Hi,

I need some decent lights, was mainly thinking of re-cessed downlights, I'm not sure how many I need? my room is 5X4 meters, I will also need a remote dimmer a basic futronix perhaps I have a budget of a maximun 150.00 ay suggestion, oh and mains or low voltage?

[kevinwilson]

Hello bass007,

I've got a mixture of mains voltage and low voltage recessed lights in my house. I've found that the low voltage ones give a crisper, whiter light.

However, even though I've gone for quite good quality transformers, the low voltage ones to tend to fluctuate in brightness, especially when dimmed down low. I watch films with them down very low, not completely off, so this can be very distracting!

Personally I'd recommend mains voltage ones for a home cinema. I'd suggest nine 50W lights for a room that size. The cheapest supplier I've found is Ricam, whose customer service was also very good.

Hope that helps!

[bass007]

Hi, thanks for the advice I will look into on the weekend , just one more question how do you calculaten the number of lights required?

[kevinwilson]

I'm not sure if there's any scientific way of doing it, I just guessed!

When I moved into the house the lights in the lounge were already there. There were 9 50W lights (3 rows of 3) in a room about 16ft by 17ft, and it's more than bright enough. When I came to put them in the other rooms, I scaled this number up or down depending on the size of the room. The colour of the walls and your furnishings will probably have an effect on how much light bounces around, too.

[klr10]

Just a word on flickering low voltage lamps. I found out that it's really important to fully load the electronic transformers. If you are feeding a 25W lamp, you need to use a 25VA transformer (they're normally rated for a range eg 20-50VA). If you use a higher value transformer (eg 65VA) then the lamp will flicker, particularly at low dimmer settings. It's therefore probably best to use a separate transformer for each bulb if you intend to dim them.