Which downlights to use for a dark home office?

[ventodimare]

Hello,

my home office is very dark (no windows). It's a 20 sqm room and I'd like to have a very bright environment to work in.

I was looking up downlights and wondering which ones you would recommend?

Thank you   

[Akanksha]

Hello @ventodimare,

Many thanks for your question on how to light up your dark home office. Our resident D.I.Y. expert @EricL should be able to assist you when he's back on the site later today. 

Also tagging @CSParnell in case he has any recommendations.

Thanks

Akanksha 

[CSParnell]

Thanks for the tag @Akanksha, the following information is a guide @ventodimare when designing lights in any room.

Lux Level	General Guide	Specific Examples
less than 15	Low-level Lighting	Outdoor pathway, street or security lighting.
15 to 100	Basic Lighting	For basic indoor & outdoor lighting, corridors, stairwells, storage areas, carparks.
100 to 250	General Lighting	Dining areas, workshops, indoor / outdoor entertainment, cafes, etc.
250 to 600	Task Lighting	Kitchen countertop, office work desk, classrooms, factory work, retail shops.
over 600	Intense Lighting	Detailed desktop or assembly work

To work out average Lux Level it is Lumen of the individual downlight eg. 1000lm x Area of the room eg. 20m2, Divided by the amount of lights eg. 8

So 1000 x 20 / 8 = 400lm average

As for which ones that comes down to personal preference, what style do you like? A tri-colour gives you choice of the 3 white colours, 90mm or 70mm hole size, how many lumens per light? generally its the output watts x 10 for your lumens put it will say on the box. Or do you want to go for a full spectrum colour smart downlight? with that you will need a wifi in the house with 2.4ghz.

I had no problems selling the Arlec $9.90 9W 90mm Tri-colour downlights when I worked at Bunnings they sell by the 1000's with very little returns and the 70mm were the same. I have the 90 mm Luca Bella's Tri-colours in my house but I found out the dimming only goes down to 35% max before they tap out. They Arlec Grid Connect Smart 90mm RGB's app controlled dimming go down to 1% even on the RGB setting.

Hope that helps some

Carl

[MitchellMc]

Hi @ventodimare,

It's great to see @CSParnell offer some excellent advice.

It all really depends on what you consider "very bright". I suggest you consider at least four 9-13Watt downlights in that space to produce a brighter-than-average room.

Mitchell

[CSParnell]

@ventodimare how did you go with this room?

Any advancement?

[ventodimare]

Hello,

excellent! Thanks a mil. I have bought them!