Your Guide to
Recessed & Surface Mounted Downlights.
Updating your lighting, whether it’s a large or small project, is serious business.
With a little research and advance planning, your lighting selections will add beauty and functionality to each room in your home!
Recessed Downlights.
Why use recessed downlights?
Recessed downlights are great to use for your general lighting in a space.
Think of them as a foundation or a canvas upon which to paint a distinctive lighting picture.
Use recessed downlights to provide an area with overall illumination – a comfortable level of brightness without glare - before adding your decorative lighting in.
Having a central source of general light in all rooms is fundamental to a good lighting plan; it’s the base upon which you add all other layers of lighting. Have your downlights switched separately from your decorative lighting, and perhaps add a dimmer to control the light levels and atmosphere of a space.
You can also use recessed downlights to provide task lighting, for example over a kitchen bench or work area.
By strategically placing downlights above countertops, slightly away from the cabinets to help shed light on high-task areas, you can create an effective task light.
To enhance visual clarity and prevent eyestrain, effective task lighting should be free of distracting glare and shadows. Look for low glare downlights.
Tiltable Recessed Downlights.
Where do you use tiltable recessed downlights?
If you have a sloped or vaulted ceiling, standard ‘fixed’ recessed downlights will create unwanted glare, as the light will be aimed at the same angle as the ceiling. This may not seem important, but when you are in the room it can feel like the sun is shining in your eyes.
Use an adjustable (tiltable) or angle-cut recessed downlight, as this has significantly less glare, as the beam of light shines down towards the floor rather than towards your eyes.
You can also use tiltable downlights to highlight architectural accents in a space or artwork. For this type of lighting, look for a tiltable downlight with a high tilting angle, to allow for flexible lighting control to highlight objects of interest.
Surface Mounted Downlights.
Achieve a minimalist architectural feel to any room, whether that is a living area, hallway, or kitchen.
Don’t have the ceiling height for pendant lights in a kitchen, hallway, or living area? Surface mounted downlights have a sleek, modern design adding a simple, decorative touch to a space, while still providing an effective light. Use surface mounted downlights to create a general lighting, or precise task lighting over a work area.
Surface mounted downlights are the perfect alternatives to recessed downlights, especially when there is no void above the ceiling to install a recessed light, or where recessing is not possible, for example concrete ceilings, or feature ceilings.
Needing more flexibility with your lighting? Tiltable surface mounted downlights are ideal when adjustment is needed to redirect light or to use as an accent light, as it can swivel around to light worktops, artwork, or architectural elements.
Retrofit Downlights.
Looking to update your existing recessed downlights?
Retrofitting LED Downlights in place of old incandescent and halogen recessed downlight fittings is a popular cost-effective and energy-efficient upgrade.
Retrofit Downlights upgrade your existing lights, while using your existing dimensions - perfectly fitting in the hole in the ceiling and cover paint marks left from the old recessed downlight.
Wanting to save on your electricity?
Most recessed downlights installed before mid-2012 allow draughts into the property, as they require gaps in the insulation around them to reduce the risk of fire.
This means heat and energy from your home leak out of the holes around the lights and out through the ceiling. As a result, your home is colder and your heating bills are higher.
LED downlights however are safe to insulate over, which means your insulation can do a better job of keeping you warm.
So if you are upgrading your ceiling insulation, its the perfect time to upgrade your downlights at the same time, as insulation can be installed over the top of most LED downlights.
Contact us today to discuss retrofitting your downlights!
Do you want help with refreshing your existing lighting?
Contact us about booking a consult to talk through a lighting options tailored to your requirements.