A bit of creative thinking required

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Nad
    Automated Home Guru
    • Jul 2008
    • 145

    A bit of creative thinking required

    Hi all,

    I've got a bit of a dilemma at the moment where my original lighting design assumed that one single light in the middle of the room would be more than adequate for our lighting requirements but after everything has been built and decorated we are finding that one central light is just not enough. It's connected directly to Cortex via it's own dedicated lighting circuit (all star wired now) and still has the original lighting ring circuit there too but it not being used. My biggest problem now is that i have no way of running additional lighting circuits into the ceiling area nor have i got a way to get a CAT5 connection there to locally mount Idratek controllers.

    At the moment we have a unit that has 10 x 10W G4 bulbs which was way too dim so i've put the highest capacity LED equivalents which is about the same as 200W of halogen lighting but we are still finding that is not enough. I've been thinking about this for a while and still haven't found a suitable way of getting additional cortex controlled circuits into the ceiling area. The ceiling void is not filled with acoustic insulation and carpeting from above and I don't think my wife would be very pleased if i started to pull the carpet up ... lol

    My idea is to have a second suspended ceiling from the primary one and have some spot lights in there along with LED up-lighting to light up the ceiling around the build. Something a little like this ...
    0.jpg

    Ideally, i'd like to be able to control the brightness of the down-lighting and am not really too fusses about controlling the brightness of the up-lighting. Up-lighters being on or off should be adequate but the down lights need to be controlled via dimmer.

    If i could get a CAT5 connection to the location i'd have used a coule of SLDs and a QRI but that's not looking like an option. I've also thought about using X10 and more recently these http://www.easybulb.com/copy-of-easybulb-downlight-12w-white-light-1100-lumens/ but wanted to see if you guys could come up with any other ideas

    Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

    Thanks,
    Nad
  • Nad
    Automated Home Guru
    • Jul 2008
    • 145

    #3
    Hi Chris,

    I've not really considered Rako so i had a good look around and yes it looks like it may be able to solve my problem but at a considerable cost
    Thanks for the links though, some interesting reading to say the least.

    Thanks,
    Nad

    Comment

    • chris_j_hunter
      Automated Home Legend
      • Dec 2007
      • 1713

      #4
      then, how about leaving the central light/s as they are, and adding lights in more accessible locations around the room - wall & floor uplighters, table & floor lights, etc ...
      Our self-build - going further with HA...

      Comment

      Working...
      X