Ceiling Lights

3Daughters

A few posts under my belt
Looking for competent electrician to fit recessed ceiling lights, fifteen in total to kitchen ceiling. Any suggestions?
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
By the sounds of it you're installing GU10 fittings.

May as well buy a box of 1000 as you'll be replacing a minimum of one per week.

If you want an advice on LED alternatives then give me a shout, it is the industry in which I work.
 

United57

Well-Known Forumite
By the sounds of it you're installing GU10 fittings.

May as well buy a box of 1000 as you'll be replacing a minimum of one per week.

If you want an advice on LED alternatives then give me a shout, it is the industry in which I work.

So many things go wrong with GU10's. It does not matter whether they are cheap or expensive. You will get through them. When I next re do my kitchen they are gone
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
When I moved into my place I had 21 50w GU10s downstairs alone, at over 1Kw just to see needless to say I ripped them all out!
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
A new 'energy-efficient' house near me had 10 x 50 watts in the kitchen alone - 500 watts just for one room - and you needed them on in the day-time as the windows were so small.

I'm not a fan of down-lighters in certain situations, as they leave the ceilings dark and can engender an air of gloominess.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
We had 8 (2x4), positioned in the corners so you needed all 4 bulbs too just to light the middle of the room!
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
It's not all bad for GU10s. I have an LED one from Lidl in a desk lamp here. It burns about two watts and is more than adequate in terms of light output - I rarely have to bother with the room light.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I did replace the kitchen ones with cheap 3w LEDs, but half of them blew within the year so didn't really save me a penny! TBH the wiring in my place is a bit on the crap side, need to sort that out before investing in expensive bulbs again.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've never lost an LED one, so far - but, then, I still have my first CFL bulb still working at 30 years old, though it is slow to start and warm up now...
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I have some of the Osram ones and they're excellent. Expensive, but at a snitch over 2w with a o.8 lagging power factor I'm sure they'll pay for themselves over time. Colour rendering is almost bang on - good enough for the kitchen anyway. Uniformity is better than GU10s are (you can get them with a range of diffusers).

Reliability is yet to be seen, although Osram don't turn out shit in my (growing to be quite a wealth of) experience.
 

3Daughters

A few posts under my belt
The job has been completed, having contacted three different people advertising, two never showed up, the third was ridiculously priced.
 

hop

Well-Known Forumite
Looking for competent electrician to fit recessed ceiling lights, fifteen in total to kitchen ceiling. Any suggestions?

Don't do it... A normal plasterboard ceiling is typically fire resistant for about 30 minutes. You are planning on cutting large holes in it which will render the normal fire resistance useless, not a good thing to do in a kitchen.
If you must go and fit such lights ensure that fire protection hoods are fitted around each and every fitting (around £10 per hood). Also remember that you can't put insulation around them.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
18 months ago we had a new kitchen fitted and had 33 downlights fitted.

Over Christmas 2 went so my Mr went to B&Q, focus, various other places but could not get replacements.

He eventually went to Lectri-call who said they have never seen them before. There is no markings on them to indicate make or even wattage.

We got in touch with the electrician who fitted them and he is coming in the week to replace those that have gone.

Turns out he imports them from China.

I have tried googling info about this but can't find anything.

The thing is.....are they safe?
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
We have bench tested many Chinese fittings and have yet to have any catch fire even when over-driven. They can be prone to failure, although it really is luck of the draw as although the manufacturer may take reasonable steps to maintain quality there is no telling whether his component suppliers (or should that be suppriers :P ) have similar quality control.

I would spend the extra and get some Osram (mine still work btw) or Sylvania (I recently bought a set of four ES50's) or another reputable brand (Philips, for example).

By the way.... the Sylvania ES50's are better than the Osrams I purchased previously, they are not cheap but tool station supply them for around £8 each and they are superb.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
The man In Lectri-call said the equivalent bulb was £16 and that you couldn't mix and match.

He said the whole lot would have to be replaced, so 33 bulbs would £528.

I will see what the electrician says tomorrow.
 
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