# Forum Home Renovation Lighting  Down light recommendations

## Sandakan

Hi Guys
we are getting a electrician to put in led down lights in our living room and dining areas. We are just starting to do the research as to which ones so I thought I'd turn to the forum for some up to date advice and experience. We are looking at warm white that are dimmable and I'm a bit confused whether to go for a model which has all the components integrated or ones that have a separate driver. Any advice would be great to start us off in the right direction. cheers.

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## phild01

Early LED's were better performing with a separate driver, not sure about the newer smd types with driver built in.  
 Also take care with the dimmer you choose as many do not offer sufficient dimming.  I would be interested in any comment about the Dimpala and/or the Lumex dimmers.

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## Led

We just fitted a bunch of GU10 leds, 8 watt and they are comparable to a 50w halogen. Colour temp is slightly cooler even though they say they are 2700K.
Boxes are down at the place we are rennovating, will have a look and post the brand tomorrow.
GU10's will only improve with time as the technology gets better and the globe base trannys get smaller

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## METRIX

> Hi Guys
> we are getting a electrician to put in led down lights in our living room and dining areas. We are just starting to do the research as to which ones so I thought I'd turn to the forum for some up to date advice and experience. We are looking at warm white that are dimmable and I'm a bit confused whether to go for a model which has all the components integrated or ones that have a separate driver. Any advice would be great to start us off in the right direction. cheers.

  There are a few previous discussions on this subject, search for these they should still be fairly current. 
I go for the LedLux brand for any of my own jobs, I like these as they come with a 5 year warranty, they are not the brightest, but they are still very bright, reasonably priced and good warranty. 
11W will give you around 700 Lumens, at 150 deg spread.

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## Uncle Bob

Also, just to note, some dimmers emit terrible radio frequency radiation. Some are so bad they can play havoc on ADSL signals and can render AM radios unusable.

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## Sir Stinkalot

I guess a good recommendation would be something that you are willing to use yourself! - I am putting these in my own renovation: Kopa Global | KSL 
We specify these on a lot of residential and commercial projects at work and would consider they fit within the medium to high project value range. They are a good quality unit and should be trouble free for 10+ years - not 100% sure on the retail price but I would suspect $130-150 range - not cheap but once in you will not need to worry about them again. There are a few different variations depending on what style you are after. The units have separate drivers which is still considered to be a bonus as the drivers are one of the weak points and its handy if it can be replaced without the need to trash the rest of the light.   
They are a good build quality with a decent heat sink on the back .... quite interesting to compare these against the $30 Bunnings variety.  
Its an interesting comment by Matrix in relation to the output as it is no longer possible to just compare the wattage of the fitting, as the quality and quantities of the LED's used vary the output greatly.

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## phild01

> not 100% sure on the retail price but I would suspect $130-150 range - not cheap but once in you will not need to worry about them again. .... quite interesting to compare these against the $30 Bunnings variety.

  You could spend an awful lot of money on these considering that quite a few need to be placed on a large ceiling.  I would not want to do that if in 5 years the technology and quality surpasses these at much less cost.  I'd rather pay less now and get the best later on, being a simple socket connect replacement. 
Anyway, any comment on a decent dimmer that gives a proper range of dimming?

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## Sir Stinkalot

> You could spend an awful lot of money on these considering that quite a few need to be placed on a large ceiling.  I would not want to do that if in 5 years the technology and quality surpasses these at much less cost.  I'd rather pay less now and get the best later on, being a simple socket connect replacement.

  Certainly not the cheapest option ..... but a recommendation none the less  :Biggrin: . Depending on the space it may be possible to install less lights of a higher quality - helping reduce the upfront costs!  
I don't subscribe to the pay less now and get best later on approach - yes technology will improve and I'm sure the price of quality fixtures will drop, but I also cant see myself being too impressed having to replace everything in 5 years. Honestly I only envisage changing these lights out when a new major renovation is in order .... the quality of the light is unlikely to deteriorate to a noticeable level for 10 years so there will be no need to update. Sure technology may push power usage down, but at 7w already how much lower can you go?

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## phild01

It's just that $30 SMD's are putting out very good light, maybe a few watts more but I am happy with them so far.  Heat dissipation is important and still early days for LED lighting.

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## chalkyt

As indicated above, colour temperature on the package isn't always a good indicator of what the light looks like. Before selecting your fittings have a look at the light they emit and make sure it is what you want. I have found that "warm white" isn't necessarily warm white. I recently replaced some incandescent SBCs with supposedly 2700K LED SBC bulbs but they look more like 3000K. 
I understand that LEDs generally have a natural colour temperature of 4000K+ so they are quite blueish (there is a blue peak in the spectrum). The warmer colours are the result of coloured filters which can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. So, have a look before parting with $$$$.

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## SilentButDeadly

We've been using the Martec Shadowline series in our place for a while (in those places were changing out the downlight was impractical).  Dimmable. 3yr warranty. Not massively expensive.  Good local support.  Sparkie thought they were easy to wire up...

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## chalkyt

Interesting coincidence. Today TLE sent me their monthly "offering"...13W LED ultraslim downlights from MELEC (only 29mm clearance needed, i.e. they should fit where you only have a furring channel and gyprock covering a solid ceiling such as in an apartment). But, their "warm white" is 3000K which to me would be a bit white rather than pinky/yellow. I guess as suggested above, "warm white" is what the manufacturer thinks it is.

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## Led

Keep in mind too that the same globe will put out less lumens in warm white than it will in cool white.

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## METRIX

In out next place we will be opting for surface mount style in black, usually we had the square recessed black / silver but thought we would do something different next.

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## Smurf

> their "warm white" is 3000K which to me would be a bit white rather than pinky/yellow. I guess as suggested above, "warm white" is what the manufacturer thinks it is.

  Warm white has always been 3000K at least in Australia in the context of fluorescent tubes, LED's etc. 
2700K is often referred to as "incandescent" colour since that's what it replicates. 
4000K or thereabouts = "cool white" which is the most common lighting used in offices etc. 
5000K - 6500K = "daylight"

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## Led

We looked at a stack of led for the renno we are doing at the moment. If money was no object I would have gone for these: https://brightgreen.com/led-lights/d...urve-downlight
Bright Green are doing some nice stuff. Unfortunately money was an object....

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## Sandakan

Thanks for all the replys and advice. I narrowed it down to Vibe, Martec, Sunny, and Phillips. I'm thinking the Phillips is looking like it will suit our needs best and at $26.40 the price is pretty good for a well known brand. They are the Phillips Essential warm white 12w. Taking one home tomorrow to test it out before committing to the rest.
I did do a search on the forum before posting but with the rapid development of this tech I thought I would start a new thread to keep up to date. Cheers.

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## phild01

Are you just replacing GU10 globes?
If so I think you would be better off replacing the whole fitting with SMD type and separate driver.
Sunny is a good brand.

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## Sandakan

No. New fittings in old house. Do you think Sunny is a better brand than Phillips? The Phillips has a built in driver.

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## phild01

> No. New fittings in old house. Do you think Sunny is a better brand than Phillips? The Phillips has a built in driver.

  Bit tentative about Philips (they have been a good brand for many things though).  To my mind Sunny have been one of the pack leaders for quality lighting in the medium price range.

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## Sandakan

Just some feed back.
Down lights are in and we are very happy with the results. Electrician was also impressed. The lights have a 120 degree wide beam which means less lights needed ina particular area as well as no dark spots in the room. They also worked with our old dimmers and will apparently work with most.

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## phild01

What ones did you get?

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## Sandakan

The Phillips essential. The guy at Middiys said out of 100 sunny down lights they get back around 4 but they have not had any of the Phillips ones back.

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## AlexL

Hey guys, 
I have used Sunny LED Downlights in two places now:
SS9041WW 
SS9065WW  
I think I prefer the 9041 - they seem to have a slightly warmer colour temperature, both dim well. I've found the 9065 don't always to switch on immediately when dimmed to the lowers setting (with SAL dimmer). Either option is great value for money though. 
Cheers, 
Alex

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