Ideas for strip fluro light replacement in kitchen

Hi,
Has anyone got some *bright* ideas on what to replace an ugly stip fluro light with in a renovated kitchen?

It's currently like one of these:
http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/61301_24Jun11_5ft-single-fluorescent-fitting.jpg

ie, ugly as hell.

The place is a mid range rental and although the room is not too big this is the only light source. We don't want to spend $$ rewiring for downlights. We are looking at replacing it with a nicer looking single light.

Was thinking track lights, however, light shop people tell me fluro lights are best (and cheapest) for kitchen because of the amount of light they give off per watt. Light shop people said LED's would cost a fortune in comparison.

Has anyone tried fluro spotlights and can comment in terms of light suitability for a kitchen? At the moment I am considering:

- 4 fluro bar light (look nice but don't want dark spots)
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/trade/luminaires/spotlights/gu10-fluorescent-spotlights/p/products/blls60404-bar-light
- 4 fluros (ditto about dark spots, also want to make sure enough light in kitchen)
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/trade/luminaires/spotlights/gu10-fluorescent-spotlights/p/products/klsb20092-4-spotlight
- boring yet effective fluro oyster, something like
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/trade/luminaires/ceiling-lights/fluorescent-oysters/p/products/exls2304-40w-large-square-oyster

No one can tell me anything about lumens outputs of any of these and whether they are suitable strip fluro substitutes so if anyone here has advice I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
 

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Unless you want to repaint or touch up where the old fluro was sitting, you could go for something like this -

http://www.lightingdirect.com.au/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=7&products_id=106

But I hate fluro lights and even in rental situations, try to make the lighting attractive. If I hate sitting under a single bulb or a fluro tube, why would my tenant like it? All these little things make the house liveable and whilst a tenant will not leave because of the kitchen lighting, it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

If you plan on repainting anytime soon, you could go for something like this -

http://www.lightingdirect.com.au/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=7&products_id=108
 
LED does NOT have to cost a fortune, it only costs a fortune if you buy it through them!
Similarly, rewiring for downlights is NOT expensive.

I recently renovated the kitchen in our townhouse, which had a surface mount 4foot "batten" type fluoro light, just like you have, as the single light for the kitchen. Bloody ugly heap of crap.
I ripped it out, cut two new 90mm holes, and installed 2x 9W LED downlights from Jaycar - http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZD0355

The patching of the plaster and repainting was more laborious than fitting the new lights!!!

Remove fluoro - 10 minutes
Drill 2x 90mm holes for new downlights - 10 mins
Pull wiring from fluoro to one of the downlight holes, fit surface mount 3-pin socket, piggyback twin&earth wire over to 2nd downlight hole and fit 2nd surface mount 3-pin socket - 15 mins
Plug in Downlights and install - 2 minutes
TOTAL TIME = 37 minutes

If your sparky charges more than $150, he's ripping you a new one.


The far cheaper option is this:

- Buy Oyster light from Bunnings, $15
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products...&searchType=any&searchSubType=products&page=2

- Buy 10W LED globe from Jaycar, $30
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SL2215

- Pull off fluoro, replace with Oyster, *time*, or $$ with a sparky

- Repaint ceiling, $5 of paint and your time

If brightness is a concern, and you want to increase the brightness... then chose an oyster light that accepts two globes, like this one:
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products...=oyster&searchType=any&searchSubType=products
 
i am with wylie

i did a new galley kitchen last year and initially was having all kinds of pendants and god knows what. people kept making suggestions that i was too tired to be bothered with;)
i grew bored and tired of choosing stuff all around the place.... so simply went to the local large lighting place and picked out a fairly flat looking fluro light that actually is very inconspicuous .
gave it to the electrician and said ......that is it.:p

on a day to day basis it works just fine, blends in with the ceiling colour (which is what i wanted) and it gives good light.
has two tubes

i have some bar lights but i didnt want to use them as i figured that they would not be as clear as fluro.

i do like the diffuser one and would certainly consider that if i had my time over
 
Thanks for the reply everyone!
It's nice to know what everyone thinks - me I hate that fluro with a passion but didn't consider a newer one with diffuser. I will have another look at what you suggest wylie and ditzy.

Witzl - I appreciate your downlight idea and have never got LEDs from jaycar - will check them out. Hubby has electrical smarts but the wiring in this house is a bit powdery so he chickened out of piggybacking lights. We'll chat about it again with your comments in mind though as I'm the one who usually does plaster/painting anyway :p.

cheers again everyone! :D
 
LED does NOT have to cost a fortune, it only costs a fortune if you buy it through them!
Similarly, rewiring for downlights is NOT expensive.

I recently renovated the kitchen in our townhouse, which had a surface mount 4foot "batten" type fluoro light, just like you have, as the single light for the kitchen. Bloody ugly heap of crap.
I ripped it out, cut two new 90mm holes, and installed 2x 9W LED downlights from Jaycar - http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZD0355

The patching of the plaster and repainting was more laborious than fitting the new lights!!!

Remove fluoro - 10 minutes
Drill 2x 90mm holes for new downlights - 10 mins
Pull wiring from fluoro to one of the downlight holes, fit surface mount 3-pin socket, piggyback twin&earth wire over to 2nd downlight hole and fit 2nd surface mount 3-pin socket - 15 mins
Plug in Downlights and install - 2 minutes
TOTAL TIME = 37 minutes

If your sparky charges more than $150, he's ripping you a new one.


The far cheaper option is this:

- Buy Oyster light from Bunnings, $15
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products...&searchType=any&searchSubType=products&page=2

- Buy 10W LED globe from Jaycar, $30
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SL2215

- Pull off fluoro, replace with Oyster, *time*, or $$ with a sparky

- Repaint ceiling, $5 of paint and your time

If brightness is a concern, and you want to increase the brightness... then chose an oyster light that accepts two globes, like this one:
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products...=oyster&searchType=any&searchSubType=products

great post witlzl

im investigating doing LEDS for all my renos,
bear with me a while, as I failed the electronics in year 9 science,

I go for the ultra budget reno, what I do is I get the electrician to remove the old fluros and replace them with one for these for $40 from bunnings
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/...ent-spotlights/p/products/blls60404-bar-light
Brings an element of class and modernity to the room

this way it eliminates having to rewire multiple spots in the room, and it doesnt need a transformer, just merely pull the wires out, configure, drill them in, and paint the bald patch, in fact its so cost efficient, I get the sparky to do it to every room in the house, so a full day + $40each, Bang, $700 and the whole house is done,

your example of Ecolume-Lite 9W Downlight Kit, would need to put multiple in a room and drill through say 4-8 holes in the ceiling? that gets sparkies very excited in that they want to up your quote since they have to spend more time in the roof cavity, and drill holes everywhere, and we all know how precious sparkies can be :0

have you found a cost effective LED way yet, as I m yet to find one?
 
It depends what look you want. I have a similar flouro to what Wylie posted, double lights, recessed, frosted plastic and flush with the ceiling. I find it very bland but practical but I wouldn't choose to put one in. I have oyster lights in dining with flouro's. They get full of bugs, but again they are practical as I leave a light on every night and am home a lot. In my last house I had a light similar to your first example with 6 directional light. That was excellent for kitchen. My hubby bought cheap downlight globes that would make it really hot to work under and they kept blowing. My sparky friend picked up some expensive LED lights that were ex-display for about a third of price new. (paid about $4 ea instead of about $12 ea) They were excellent. Cool and no problems. I lived there for another year without any probs. they are suppose to last for years, so well worth paying more and having sparky friends. :)
 
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great post witlzl

im investigating doing LEDS for all my renos,
bear with me a while, as I failed the electronics in year 9 science,

I go for the ultra budget reno, what I do is I get the electrician to remove the old fluros and replace them with one for these for $40 from bunnings
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/...ent-spotlights/p/products/blls60404-bar-light
Brings an element of class and modernity to the room

this way it eliminates having to rewire multiple spots in the room, and it doesnt need a transformer, just merely pull the wires out, configure, drill them in, and paint the bald patch, in fact its so cost efficient, I get the sparky to do it to every room in the house, so a full day + $40each, Bang, $700 and the whole house is done,

your example of Ecolume-Lite 9W Downlight Kit, would need to put multiple in a room and drill through say 4-8 holes in the ceiling? that gets sparkies very excited in that they want to up your quote since they have to spend more time in the roof cavity, and drill holes everywhere, and we all know how precious sparkies can be :0

have you found a cost effective LED way yet, as I m yet to find one?

The CFLs in the fitting you linked to can be replaces with LEDs. My local bunnings recently had a 4 pack for $25. That's cost effective, yeah?
 
great post witlzl

im investigating doing LEDS for all my renos,
bear with me a while, as I failed the electronics in year 9 science,

I go for the ultra budget reno, what I do is I get the electrician to remove the old fluros and replace them with one for these for $40 from bunnings
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/...ent-spotlights/p/products/blls60404-bar-light
Brings an element of class and modernity to the room

this way it eliminates having to rewire multiple spots in the room, and it doesnt need a transformer, just merely pull the wires out, configure, drill them in, and paint the bald patch, in fact its so cost efficient, I get the sparky to do it to every room in the house, so a full day + $40each, Bang, $700 and the whole house is done,

your example of Ecolume-Lite 9W Downlight Kit, would need to put multiple in a room and drill through say 4-8 holes in the ceiling? that gets sparkies very excited in that they want to up your quote since they have to spend more time in the roof cavity, and drill holes everywhere, and we all know how precious sparkies can be :0

have you found a cost effective LED way yet, as I m yet to find one?


Yes drilling extra holes and running wiring around a room will cost more from the sparky... so yeah that does blow the cost out. I do all this stuff myself and im astounded just how much sparkies charge for what is brainless easy work - they just have this country scared of touching anything mains!


OK, in your situation, I have a solution.
I agree that the install cost is significantly lower for this type of spot light bar fitting, as there is no need to run new wiring - just remove fluoro, fit new light bar thing.
That Crompton 4-way spot light bar uses what is called a "GU10" downlight globe. Jaycar has LED replacements for GU10 globes.
So... get your sparky to fit that light bar as normal, but then fit it with some GU10 led globes - simple.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZD0545
Replacement globes use 4.5W each.


Me personally, i dont like those light bar things, except in kitchens (but would ultimately still use individual downlights if i could).
In bedrooms, oyster lights or other ceiling light fittings still work the best for me, but thats my preference.
 
The CFLs in the fitting you linked to can be replaces with LEDs. My local bunnings recently had a 4 pack for $25. That's cost effective, yeah?

Typically... those ebay/bunnings led globes that are really cheap like this, are cheap for a reason:
- lower light levels
- poor quality LED electronics
- fail prematurely
 
Yes drilling extra holes and running wiring around a room will cost more from the sparky... so yeah that does blow the cost out. I do all this stuff myself and im astounded just how much sparkies charge for what is brainless easy work - they just have this country scared of touching anything mains!

Agreed.

FWIW, NZ use the same standards for residential electrical wiring as Australia, but have no legal restrictions on DIY home electrical work.

(I may be wrong.)
 
Agreed.

FWIW, NZ use the same standards for residential electrical wiring as Australia, but have no legal restrictions on DIY home electrical work.

(I may be wrong.)

Almost.... the law there is that a homeowner can do their own basic work, such as replace switches and sockets and stuff, and they can wire up a new circuit, but they have to get a sparky to check it and sign off before connecting and making it live.

EDIT - it's also worth noting that even with these laws in NZ, their rates of electrocution are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than here in Australia.
 
The CFLs in the fitting you linked to can be replaces with LEDs. My local bunnings recently had a 4 pack for $25. That's cost effective, yeah?

really? so you remove the halogens and simply slot in leds?

a few people people have said the halogens look good but the tenants bills go up and up, so some tenants dont like them, I guess if its too bright you can remove 1 to reduce the bill
 
really? so you remove the halogens and simply slot in leds?

a few people people have said the halogens look good but the tenants bills go up and up, so some tenants dont like them, I guess if its too bright you can remove 1 to reduce the bill

Yeah, just buy the right fitting. Those are GU10s. Halogen GU10s cost about $1 each. LED GU10s cost $5-$20 each.
 
i dont have a problem with the single fluro every room in my house has one
and i whack the 6500k globes in them you cant get a better light
and with 10ft ceilings you dont see the lights unless you break your neck to loop up at them
dont know how much electricity they use though anyone know where i can find out/compare?
 
great post witlzl


I go for the ultra budget reno, what I do is I get the electrician to remove the old fluros and replace them with one for these for $40 from bunnings
http://www.crompton.com.au/catalog/...ent-spotlights/p/products/blls60404-bar-light
Brings an element of class and modernity to the room

Yeah I looked at those exact same 4 bar lights! I like them and think they would look good in this kitchen. But in the last place we renoed we used similar in a rumpus (with leds from beacon) and found it cast shadows. I thought they may not be bright enough in a kitchen as might cause dark spots or shadows (we need to live in this house 4 more months still too). Can anyone comment on whether these 4 bar lights would be bright enough for a kitchen which is 3.5 x 4m with high ceilings?
 
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I do something different in my kitchens. And it involves strip fluoros.

A fluoro sits above the cabinets. In the space between the top of the cabinets and the roof. They are about 1 inch off the top of the cabinet and wall mounted. Plain single tube. Don't need a diffuser. White ceilings bounce this light everywhere.
You can't see it, but floods the kitchen with light. Makes it look very open especially with light, neutral colours. Use a "cool white" tube.
Just make sure you're ceiling is "perfect" otherwise it will show up bad surfaces.

Maybe add the cheap spots or downlights over certain points (ie. sink) so that there is no light coming from behind across the shoulders to the workspace which usually gives a shadow.
The rangehood provides light for the stove or cooktop.
 
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