Downlights have quickly become a favourite within modern homes. Its simplistic and streamlined design sits flush with its surrounding environment, allowing it to blend in with its surroundings. Because of this, they have become extremely popular in new homes and modern renovations.
Using downlights, in conjunction with other lighting sources, creates an ambience and brightness to your space while saving energy, money and space. Downlights are available in various colours, tones, hues and brightness levels, allowing you to create whatever feel you wish within your space.
Downlights fulfil three key functions of interior lighting. These being to:
Enable localised tasks
Create ambience
Illuminate the space
However, understanding the best way to position and arrange downlights, as well as when and where to use them, is a critical step in creating your ideal space. If done incorrectly, your home can quickly feel like a display studio, or furniture store, taking the focus away from the beautiful space you have created and placing it on lights that are supposed to be invisible.
If you are considering implementing downlights in your space but are unsure of how to go about it, we’ll outline everything you need to know in this article.
As you may know, there are two common options available for downlights: LED or halogen lights. Understanding what these two types are and the different attributes and factors of each can help you make an informed decision on what best suits your project.
First, let’s look at halogens. Halogen bulbs are great for creating ambience within a space. They instantly create light, are dimmable and tend to emit a warm light that casts in all directions. Additionally, they accurately reveal the colour of furnishings, which may be an aspect that you may be looking for.
However, halogen bulbs emit a lot of heat, which not only can be quite uncomfortable to sit beneath but can also become a dangerous hazard. Halogen lights can burn if touched whilst on or become a fire hazard. Additionally, halogen bulbs require some form of shielding, as they can shatter in some instances. So, although halogen bulbs may have some aesthetic benefits, they pose a greater safety risk than LED bulbs.
LED bulbs are the safest and the most economical option of the two. With a lifespan of over 30,000 hours, which is ten times that of a halogen bulb, they are also incredibly energy-efficient, which means significant savings on electrical bills.
They are also a prime choice if you wish to avoid light damage to paintings, as they do not produce heat or UV radiation, making them safe to touch, even when switched on. Additionally, LEDs are relatively robust in compassion to halogens that are very sensitive and, thus, more likely to withstand necessary handling.
Traditionally, the brightness of a bulb has been measured in watts (W). This is because the brightness of an incandescent bulb was directly related to its power consumption. However, for downlights, this is not the case.
An appropriate and more accurate term to describe a bulb’s brightness is the lumen (lm). The quantity of lumens indicates the total amount of visible light emitted from a light source. Furthermore, another unit that is often used is lux (lx), which measures the concentration of the brightness, where one lux is equal to one lumen per square metre.
The lumens required to illuminate a space adequately are dependent on several different factors, including:
The size and shape of the room
The demands and needs of the room
The height of the ceiling
The colour of the walls, floors and furnishings
For example, a hallway that requires enough sufficient light to allow its inhabitants to see clearly and pass through easily would need approximately 300lm in total.
Understanding how to create the best layout for the downlights in your space is integral to achieving the best results to suit your ideal space. Downlights can be used singularly or in pairs to create a focal point and shed light on a specific spot within a room, or multiple downlights may be installed to illuminate an entire room. Knowing how many lights you’ll need and where to position them requires careful consideration to achieve your desired result.
A good rule of thumb is to allocate one downlight for every 1.2 m2 to achieve high lighting levels. To best understand how many downlights you require, you must first consider all aspects of the space, from the room’s décor and furniture to the desired aesthetic and intended usage of the lighting.
Here are some of the key points to consider.
Focal Points
First, you must determine what areas of the room require more light than others, and deal with these areas before anything else. If you are planning a lighting scheme for a kitchen, your starting point should be above the workspaces, such as the benches, stove and sink. Once the downlights for these areas have been arranged, the remaining downlights can be distributed around them.
Ceiling edges
The position of downlights on your ceiling is vital in creating a bright and inviting space. Placing downlights too close to a wall creates shadows around the edge of the ceiling, making the space appear small, crowded and a little gloomy. Avoid this by ensuring a gap of approximately 75cm between the downlights and the edge of your ceiling. This will allow light to spread and illuminate the entire room, creating a well light and spacious appearance.
Ceiling height
Light emits from a recessed downlight downwards in the shape of a cone. Ideally, these light cones should intersect approximately 75cm above the floor, thus meaning a higher ceiling does not require additional downlights to produce a suitable pool of light. However, the individual bulbs must be powerful enough to produce sufficient brightness to the floor.
A common method is to calculate the spacing between downlights by dividing the height of the ceiling by two and using the result as the separation distance. Your final decision will also take into account other factors such as the room’s shape, décor and the number and size of windows.
The room’s function
The intended function and use of the room is an essential factor when considering a light scheme. Its function dictates the position of any focal points and the overall level of brightness that the space requires. LEDs are perfect for this function as, unlike traditional lighting schemes, they can be strategically placed to create a lighting solution tailored specifically to the functions of the space.
Dimming
Installing dimmable downlights gives you added control over your lighting, allowing you to adjust your light levels to best suit your needs. Implementing dimmable downlights enables you to install downlights with high light levels that can be manually reduced as required, creating flexibility and ease of use rather than attempting to create a single ideal permanent light level. Select a trailing edge rather than a leading-edge dimmer to avoid buzzing and possible damage to the bulbs themselves.
The living area is the main communal space of a home. It’s where we sit down to unwind and entertain, whether by watching our favourite shows, relaxing with the family or spending time with friends. This room also tends to serve the purpose of displaying treasured ornaments, photographs and mementos.
That being said, the living room requires a lighting scheme that fulfils all of its needs and is flexible enough to accommodate its various activities.
How downlights are positioned can be used to bounce light off various surfaces, including walls, mirrors and architectural features, to give character to the living room. Strategically positioned downlights can create focal points and feature items within the space, such as art or photographs.
Utilising stylistic additions such as colour-variable bulbs enables you to change the atmosphere and ambience, and implementing dimmers helps create mood and accessibility within the room.
LED downlights are available with a range of beam angles, offering different light cones for different uses. Note that the wider the angle, the more floor space is illuminated. Ensure that you do not use widely spaced downlights with narrow cones; otherwise, you will create obvious and unattractive spots of light on the floor.
Furthermore, a narrow cone of light is ideal for task lighting, as it is focused on a point and will not encroach on other people in the room.
Downlights serve an essential purpose in the kitchen. Downlights have quickly become a popular choice in kitchen designs as general and task lighting due to their flexibility and functionality. As the purpose of the kitchen has changed over time, so have its lighting demands.
The kitchen is now a place to gather and socialise, alongside its traditional purpose of preparing and cooking meals. It has quickly become the beating heart of the modern home and thus requires adequate lighting to meet its demands.
Positioning your downlights correctly in the kitchen is very important. Meal preparation requires bright, well-lit conditions, so ensure that you illuminate the cooking spaces properly, rather than the central spaces, such as in between counters or cupboards.
We hope this guide on how to position and arrange downlights within your space has been helpful. If you require further assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us for personalised guidance and direction in your lighting project.
Are you wondering how to calculate downlight spacing in order to illuminate the rooms properly? Consult this guide!
Installing downlights is a system that has become very popular in the last few years.
Lighting design items like these are always very fashionable. Moreover, downlights allow to illuminate any kind of room in an elegant and functional way.
In order to get the perfect result and have proper lighting in every room of your house, you should calculate three important factors:
– the number of downlights
– the right distance between the light fixtures
– the distance between the downlights and the wall.
But no worries, it’ll be a piece of cake!
Before starting to calculate the number of downlights and the distance between them, you should keep in mind the parameters that determine whether your room is illuminated properly or not.
Although we’re used to think about lighting in terms of watts, there are two other units associated with light:
– the lumen, which is the measure of the quantity of light coming from the source (that is the light fixture)
– the lux, which is a unit relative to the area illuminated by the source.
Let’s start by examining how to operate in the various rooms of the house. You aren’t going to need the same amount of light in every room, but rather you are going to calculate the number of downlights and the distance between them depending on the needs and size of the rooms.
In general, in order to properly illuminate passageways such as the entryway and the hallway, 7 watts per square metre are sufficient, whereas for the living rooms and the bedrooms you are going to need up to 30 watts per square metre for a nice, bright result.
But that is not all. You also need to take into consideration the lumens produced by the light fixtures and the lux you wish to obtain.
In the living rooms and the bedrooms you are going to need a luminous intensity that ranges between 25 and 50 lux, up to 100 to 150 lux if you want a stronger light.
Considering that each LED downlight produces 100 to 400 lumens depending on its technical specifications, you can easily do the math.
By dividing the luminous intensity recommended for each room by the light produced by a single downlight (everything expressed in lux), you will obtain the number of elements necessary for illuminating your room properly.
Once you have established the number of downlights, the next thing you need to do is determine the right distance between the light fixtures, and between them and the wall.
Once you have established the number of downlights necessary for lighting the room properly, the first thing to do is draw a lighting system diagram. This way you can decide the lighting design of your downlights.
Once the diagram is ready, let’s start with the temporary arrangement of the downlights. Remember that you should always start by placing the downlights that are closer to the walls, as they will work as a guide to position the other downlights at the right distance.
A good rule is to place the downlights that are closer to the walls at least 1 metre away in order to prevent the formation of light cones on the perimeter walls.
Once you have arranged temporarily the four corner downlights, you can carry on and determine the distance of the other light fixtures.
Let’s suppose that you want to install downlights that emit a light beam at a 30 degree angle: the right distance between the light fixtures in order to prevent the formation of dark areas is about 1 metre.
This distance can vary depending on the light beam emitted by the downlights and the effect you wish to get.
Once you have established the optimal distances between the downlights, let’s have a closer look at how to get proper lighting in the various rooms of the house
The kitchen is a room that is very often not lit properly.
However, proper lighting is especially important in this portion of the house, above all over the worktop.
In order to calculate the distances between the downlights and between the downlights and the wall, you can follow the guidelines (at least 1 metre from the wall and at least 1 metre between them), but at the same time make sure you arrange proper lighting for the functional areas of the kitchen.
In particular, you will definitely need to plan a direct light that creates a sharp light beam on the worktop, whether you have suspended cabinets (in this case you can plan an LED strip underneath them) or a kitchen island (therefore the worktop will be entirely lit by the downlights in the ceiling).
In this case you can “play” with bigger-sized downlights in order to guarantee proper lighting for the worktop without altering the lighting design of the room.
Be careful not to leave the rest of the room behind, which, unlike the worktop, will be lit by a scattered, less direct light.
For the living room lighting, you can install a series of downlights in the ceiling and position them so that they create light effects on specific elements you wish to highlight.
For instance, if you wish to give prominence to specific architectural elements of a living room, a proper arrangement of the downlights will definitely create a scenographic effect.
As an alternative, you can use them to illuminate specific details of the underlying furniture.
What should I do when I need to calculate the distance between the downlights in a basement?
No worries, there aren’t major differences between the basement and the other rooms of the house. You should keep in mind that, since there is no natural light source, the ceiling lights will need to make the room bright and welcoming but without exaggerating. You should always avoid the glare effect, in a basement too.
The only thing that might be different from the other rooms is ceiling height, which is usually lower in the basement than in the above-ground rooms. Therefore you will need to be careful not to create, with the false ceiling, a room that is too stifling. But this can be avoided by using lights properly.
In this case, since ceiling height is lower, you need a greater distance between the light fixtures, and you must also check the right number of downlights to install and their power.