Hey friends,

When I put in the downlights in our bedroom I was asked whether I could explain how to do it in detail. It's a common project that would be lovely to be totally DIY-able but I'm in two minds over whether the wiring should be attempted by non experts. However I do think the first stage is worth doing yourself to locate the lights just as you want them and to reduce the cost if you do decide getting an electrician in is the way to go. So that's what today's newsletter is all about and hopefully it's a helpful one.

💡 Installing Downlights

To set the scene, this is our kitchen where I'm installing the downlights. The current light is one of those ugly fluorescent tube types that takes so long to come on, often I've finished what I'm doing in there before it flickers into life. You can can see it reflected in the cabinet above our antique microwave.

Long term, when the kitchen is moved to the back of the house my idea is to turn this into the hall with the front door where the window is now. This is relevant because I don't need to think too hard about the placement of the lights to illuminate work surfaces.

The room is roughly square and I think 4 downlights will suffice (we'll come back to this later). The ceiling joists run from front to back so my first task was seeing whether I could divide the width of 3.2m by 3 to get my locations (106.7cm from the left and right walls).

That was a non starter as measuring in 106.7cm from both sides (in the bedroom above) hit a joist. The bedroom's right and left walls are the same as for the kitchen so this was easy to figure out.

I decided that the lights would look better further apart than they would closer together so on the outside of each of the arrowed joists above I left a 50mm gap (good practice, though LED lights don't give off much heat so it's not a problem if you go closer) and then the width of the downlight. They're actually 75mm wide, not 90mm but no worries. This gave me the distance from the right and left wall of 93.75cm.

Next I needed to work out the distance from the top and bottom walls which should be easy as there are no joists to worry about. However, thinking ahead I want to add insulated plasterboard to the outer wall of the kitchen which reduces the 2.9m to 283cm (40mm insulation + 12.5mm plasterboard + ~17.5mm instastik foam/dot &dab = 7cm).

That meant measuring from the top wall in the diagram above and not from the bottom wall with the window. So 283/3 = 94 and 188cm-ish. I have my locations!

Fortunately there was no cabling or pipework in the way of where I wanted them. I then drilled a small pilot hole to make sure I hadn't messed things up and that the locations were correct, which they were.

Next I used a 76mm hole saw with arbor (drill bit thing) to cut the holes. As an optional extra, the rubbery dust bucket attaches to the drill first and catches all the debris. The ceiling has paper on it, no artex, but you can never be too careful so I kept the family well away and masked up as I drilled each hole.

Cutting through lathe and plaster was a little more difficult than plasterboard but the hole saw is multi-material and got through each one in about a minute. I just let it do the work rather than pushing too hard which could snap the lathes. Now I have some lovely circular holes.

After that I could push the downlights in, popped the bulbs in and the bezel simply twist locks in place.

Another reason I wasn't too exacting about the location and number of downlights in regards to the light given off is that you also have some flexibility in the type of GU10 bulbs you fit. You can do this step first if you wish.

The room will be 3.2m x 2.83m so about 9m2. The bulbs I bought are 400 lumens each. So 4 lights x 400 lumens = 1600 lumens. 1600/9m2 = 178 lux (lumens per m2).

This is probably a little low for a kitchen but will work well for when it's a hallway. Also, being blue eyed means I'm rather light sensitive (it's a thing) so I prefer less light than most. That light at the dentist is a killer! Anyway I can always bump it up to 222 lux with 500 lumen bulbs should I need to.

The other variable is beam angle. You'll want to make sure you aren't leaving shadows in the corners. To figure this out you need to do some trigonometry taking into account the height of your ceiling but hell, life's too short for that.

I just went for a very wide 120 degree bulbs and hoped for the best. Some, like these, are only 36 degrees and can end up with dark spots at worktop or head height.

Going for more downlights isn't a bad shout especially if you go with smart bulbs where you can turn some off or adjust the brightness. Again, long term I may go smart and even have a PIR sensor as a hallway is a room you just pass through. That will also avoid having to put another switch by the front door.

Of course, you can also get downlights that tilt so you have that adjustability too.

To finish off for today, this is how they looked from above before Steve came to finish the job, which we'll pick up next week 😊.

🚪 Garage Door

My tyre sensor had arrived and on the way to the garage I happened across this pile of windows and doors. I asked a chap piling them into a skip if they were up for grabs and he said sure but after some careful measuring, unfortunately nothing quite fit my garage nor were they what I want for the workshop. Worth a try though!

👋

In other news I've ordered everything for the new two-person desk so that project is a go and a heating engineer is coming to discuss the bathroom. Big thanks for all the recommendations!

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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P.p.s. You can find all previous newsletters here.