Kitchen Lighting

[Skiffen]

Well, think my SAD is kicking in and yet again I feel depressed with having lots on for a large part of the day. I really want to sort out our interior lighting but have no experience/knowledge with this kind of thing. At the moment we have a 3 bulb circle thing in the kitchen,. with low energy bulbs which is awful, and just a main overhead single bulb in the diner end. We have no under cupboard or extractor fan lighting etc, so mainly use a floor lamp to make it less stark.

I want bright to compensate for dingy days, with the option of more muted for evenings. Would prefer nothing too expensive, and nothing that will hugely impact on electricity bills. What do you have and does it work for you? TIA.

[fossil97]

I've posted (boringly probably) on this before - it does depend on your room shape and layout though, and ceiling height.

I have a long room, not particularly well lit, kitchen one end, diner at the other. We have two Philips ecomoods lights that take a circular fluoro tube (nicely concealed) these at the normal ceiling points and three little ecomoods wall spotlights [[ carefully positioned to add a bit of light to the main work areas. The place is lit up like an operating theatre when everything's on. It's wired so we can have spotlights only which act as dim/ mood lighting but they are still quite bright - DH is currently cooking without the main lights on.

The fluorescent lamps give quite a diffuse, shadow free light and are not the poisonous flickery green light of oldfashioned ones. I would definitely recommend looking at the Ecomoods range, not the cheapest but not the most expensive either IYSWIM. We were positively trying to avoid peppering the ceiling with spotlights and this is the solution we came up with.

[Skiffen]

Thank you - I've not seen those before, would love to go and see them IRL. We have no spare wall in the kitchen so will definitely have to explore under cabinet or similar lighting too.

[fossil97]

Hi, possibly a lighting showroom might have some on display? They are very nicely made and finished lights, the electrician and builder were coo-ing over them.

[bureni]

Under cupboard LED lighting is very good and costs practically nothing to run. 60 LED lamps only consume 5 watts of energy yet give great light and no heat, they are also very easy to install and are very safe due to the low voltage.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Under-Cupboard-Strip-Lights-60-1M-LEDs-Cool-White-6W-Driver-Kitchen-Leds-/271100079491?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Night_Lights_Fairy_Lights&hash=item3f1ed2ed83

[Skiffen]

Thanks for that link bureni - at that price it's worth giving them a whirl!

Fossil - I have googled and there is a apparently a really large lighting showroom not too far from us so have already told DH we are going there !