Lighting planning on the ground floor - Are there planning aids available?

2018-10-18 09:19:34

Hello everyone,

our construction contractor would like to have the information, among other things for statics, about which rooms we want ceiling lighting and possibly spotlights and where.

Despite being close to the subject, we find it somewhat difficult. How did you proceed? Is there a good planning aid? Unfortunately, there is almost nothing on this topic under "Search".

2018-10-18 09:56:37

Well, we faced the same problem. Some hire a lighting planner for this and pay thousands of euros. We then took a very pragmatic approach and first looked at 3 houses with spotlights from friends and talked to them a bit about it. Then I asked a buddy who is a master electrician. He gave me some guidelines. If I remember correctly, he said: About 80cm away from the wall and the distance between the spots between 90cm and a maximum of 130cm. I oriented myself on these values and then considered which rooms needed to be how bright (bathroom/kitchen e.g. brighter than a hallway). Accordingly, in bright rooms more spots and smaller distances, and in "darker" rooms greater distances and fewer spots. Then I first installed 3w LEDs everywhere with the option in mind that if somewhere there wasn't enough light I could still install 5w. I simply copied the beam angle from friends, who in my opinion had achieved the best result. We also considered where, for example, tall wardrobes would be placed. There we went further than the ~80cm from the wall. Result: We are extremely satisfied. I only swapped the 3w for 5w in the utility room. We also had to plan the ground floor completely on paper because the halogen pots were installed in the in-situ concrete ceiling. The structural engineer was satisfied with the information that we would install ceiling spots there. Where exactly did not interest him.

2018-10-18 10:08:19

Well, we faced the same problem. Some people hire a lighting planner for that and pay thousands of euros. We took a very pragmatic approach and first looked at 3 houses with spotlights from friends and talked a bit with them about it. Then I asked a buddy who is a master electrician. He gave me some guideline values. If I remember correctly, he said: About 80 cm away from the wall and the distance between the spots between 90 cm and a maximum of 130 cm.

I oriented myself on these values and then thought about which rooms need to be how bright (bathroom/kitchen, e.g., brighter than a hallway). Accordingly, brighter rooms got more spots and smaller distances, and "darker" rooms had a wider distance and fewer spots.

Then I initially installed 3w LEDs everywhere with the option in mind that if there is not enough light somewhere, I can always install 5w later. I simply adopted the beam angle from friends who, in my opinion, had achieved the best results.

Furthermore, we also considered where, for example, tall wardrobes will stand. There we went further away from the ~80 cm from the wall.

Result: We are extremely satisfied. I only exchanged the 3w for 5w in the utility room.

We also had to plan the ground floor completely on paper because the halogen pots were set into the cast-in-place concrete ceiling. The structural engineer was satisfied with the information that we would put ceiling spots in there. He wasn’t interested in the exact locations.

What beam angles did you use in the respective rooms?

I am currently considering mostly working with 110 degrees since the spots will only go in the hallway and utility rooms. Does it really spread the light that much wider?

The 30-40 degrees are more suitable for spot lighting, right?

I once found a formula online on how to "supposedly" calculate that (brightness in the room, room height, distance to walls).

However, I don’t know anyone to look over what I calculated.

We have an appointment with the electrician for that.

In our current apartment, we don’t have 110-degree spots; maybe I should buy one to test.

2018-10-18 10:20:50

I no longer have the beam angle memorized, sorry.

2018-10-18 11:47:10

Recessed spotlights in concrete ceilings are very expensive and actually no longer absolutely necessary! With halogen, where the lamp and reflector are very tall, a correspondingly deep hole had to be made in the ceiling. Ok, but who still installs halogen spotlights today?

In the LED era, it is sufficient to lay only a 24v wiring with enough outlets. Then 24v LED surface-mounted spots are placed there. The LED panels are only a few millimeters thick; to make it mountable with a plug, it is usually housed in a 1cm high housing, but no more height is needed. So "almost" like a recessed spotlight, although it is surface-mounted. This saves a lot of money compared to the classic spotlight installation. The 24v transformer can then be easily hidden somewhere in the adjacent technical room.

2018-10-18 12:22:40

We also faced the same many questions. I initially calculated using the formula frequently found on the internet, but in the end, contrary to the calculation (60-degree beam angle), I installed LED spots (230 volts, about 3.5 cm flat) with a 110-degree beam angle that are dimmable. In my opinion, the difference between a 40-degree and 110-degree beam angle is already significant. I also ordered several spots "to choose from" and decided on the best ones. Here, not only the beam angle plays a role, but also the color temperature (Kelvin number) and personal comfort. Otherwise, I recommend arranging the spots pleasingly to the eye (symmetry, mentioned distances). Then nothing should really go wrong. Best regards

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Lighting planning on the ground floor - Are there planning aids available?

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