How do I calculate how many 50 watt Halogen Downlighters I need to fit in a kitchen to provide enough light?
Answers:
As was stated before there is a recommended minimum level of lighting called lumens that are needed in each room.However theres no need to get deep into that sort of technical stuff.A good rule would be 1 watt per square foot in a bedroom ,hallway,living room,and 2 watts per square foot for areas where tasks are being carried out like kitchens,home offices etc.
Other factors influence the number of lights as well like the colour of the floors and walls,the darker the floors and walls you may need to allow another 1 watt per square foot as a result.
Worktops and facings of kitchen units are also going to have an effect as are the heights of the ceiling.
Halogen downlighters throw their maximum effective light at a distance of about 6 feet from the ceiling.this in most houses means at or near counter top height.This gives you maximum light at the level youre working at but if you intsall too few it will leave dark or shadowy areas in the kitchen.
Low voltage downlighters are a more energy efficient way of lighting than mains ones once you make sure you fit reliable transformers and also make sure that you keep all insulation about 12inches or 300mm away from around the lamp and the transformers.Also they tend to pay for themselves over the course of 2 or 3 years.When low voltage lights give trouble normally its because the transformers have overheated and burned out.
Other answers:
Compare to showroom kitchen models or friends who have halogen downlighters? ask a friendly spark? take a guess, have 1 every 4 feet and have a dimmer switch if too bright.
Compare to showroom kitchen models or friends who have halogen downlighters? ask a friendly spark? take a guess, have 1 every 4 feet and have a dimmer switch if too bright.
assuming you will be using the proper mains powered 50W bulbs and not the cheap and waste of time low voltage stuff you will need one for every 2-3sqm of ceiling depending on how bright you want it. more is better as you can obviously have it bright if you want it bright and if you use mains spots you can fit a dimmer.
Assume room is 14x 10 feet (4.2x3.0) you will need 6x 50watt fittings
You might want to reconsider about the halogens. I had them in my kitchen and found them uncomfortably hot in the summer to stand and work under. They also cost a lot of money to run. I replaced them with higher lumen compact fluorescents and got more light with less heat and a lot less money.
Your real question is how many lumens you need to light the space. There are many webpages that will describe how to do that, based on the dimensions of your kitchen.
NEC Code considerations in most jurisdictions require that your kitchen and baths be lit with a certain number of lumens per square foot. This is really only possible with the use of fluorescent lighting. In California new title 24 restrictions have made it so that pretty much all the lighting in a kitchen has to be fluorescent. The reason is that they require 50% of the total wattage to be the high lumen rating. If you can use a 14watt fluorescent light to be the equivalent of a 60 watt light bulb that means that for every 60W of incandescent you have to have 4 fluorescent lights. This is of course the code and depending on inspections or the lack there of would determine what you can get away with. We used to use undercabinet lighting to accomplish this since it would be the first switch and inspectors would buy off on it. Dimmer requirements should also be considered so make sure that you don't go over a total of 600W. The dimmers that are over this amount get way more expensive.
Good luck
whatever you do, do not overload the existing circuit.
do a circuit survey to find everything on the circuit you plan to use.
then, turn on the fixtures/devices on that circuit.
take an amperage reading. then calculate the increased load as a result of the halogen lighting.
Most residential Lighting circuits are 15 anps @ 120 volts.
If your survey reveals an existing load of 12 or more amps, you can not legally add to that circuit.(1999NEC)
use dimmer switch and fit one every four feet