How do you design the lighting for apartment unit.
I notice sometimes ID use track lighting and point to the wall. For what reason?
Anyone knows why

Track lighting is flexible as user can point the light to area which he want to highlight, point to wall to highlight the wall, painting or to diffuse the light as usually, it is spotlight

Normally use track light is because of no plaster ceiling.

With plaster ceiling cannot do track lighting?

Some houses/units have low concrete ceiling. To maximize height, owners prefer to use track lighting. To install plaster ceiling will make the room height lower.

An electrician told me the track for track lights will tend to become loose over time if fixed onto a plaster ceiling, is that true?

I'm in process of planning the lighting layout for my new home as well. I'm planning to go with downlights since the ceiling in plastered but I'm not sure how many do I need

Depends on where and how you mount them.

If you have it mounted into the supporting brackets or frames for the plaster ceiling then it is unlikely it would become loose.

If it is mounted into the plaster boards, then as long as you don't adjust it too often it should not go loose, if it does it isn't a difficult fix. Ideally it should be mounted with a bolt washer and nut rather than a screw.

Thanks for the explanation. Any advice on whether to use track lights or eyeball lights in living room and direct it on paintings to create a different effect from downlights?

There are many ways you can design the lighting, if it is a high end place and you have the budget I'd suggest you hire a professional lighting consultant.

Why track lighting are used extensively these days?

Many places have 1 or 2 lighting points and it cost money to pull new points in addition to it being messy.

By having track lights you get to better distribute the light.

Why is it aimed towards the wall? White or light coloured surfaces will reflect the light and help better illuminate the place. Sometimes where it is pointing at might be a picture or a certain point of interest such as a shelve with some decorative item that needs to be illuminated, therefore a track lamp does a good job at that.

Track lamps are easy to mount and doesn't require plaster ceiling unlike downlights, these days there are some that you could use remote controls to switch them on independently of each other as well. Therefore it is fast becoming the go to choice especially as many new apartments come with minimum ceiling heights.

The installation cost for track light, will it be more expensive than normal ceiling downlight?

eyeball lights vs track lights ? Which is better?

assuming you have plaster ceiling

For me (personally) I separate lighting into task lighting and ambiance / mood lighting. Sharing my personal experience with you below, hope it helps.

I have a mixture of the following:

- LED downlights in all areas of my house which provides bright-enough lighting when needed.

- Most of the time, I defer to recessed / indirect lighting (cool/warm white) which promotes a soft glow throughout the area.

- Low-power edison bulbs in selected places for timer switches. Bulbs because they are easy to replace since lights on timer switches may be switched on throughout the night so they get more use and burn out faster.

- I have a couple of track lights installed and pointed towards a feature that I wish to highlight (for example, an accent wall, or a set of musical instruments).

- Spotlights near sleeping areas for reading, although they rarely get used as most of my reading is done on the phone. Overall not a good idea in hindsight as it may also disturb your partner, unless you can find one which produces an acceptably narrow beam.

- Low-powered spotlight centered above a painting - I find that having tracklights directly shining on it produced too much glare.

- 1' LED tubes under bedside furniture (mine is fixed so can install lighting) - serves as night lights and appreciated by relatives with small children staying over.

Having good lighting can transform the look of your interior & it ultimately boils down to personal taste.

This post has been edited by phoenixxx: May 31 2019, 11:34 PM

Depends, usually for the track lamp the track is 1 price per track and lights added to the track isn't charged. If I remember correctly it is around RM25 per light fixture these days.

For downlights, I believe the cost now is around RM15 if there is a wiring point and RM25 per unit if they have to splice any wiring.

Both have their pros and cons.

Some people hate the look of those tracks but they offer a lot of flexibility especially when the house is new and you have not completely figured out everything yet.

eyeball lamps on the other hand usually have better output but once it is fixed then that is it unless you want to rewire and patch up the ceiling board over and over again.

I have both and both uses the same MR16 LED bulbs. They look like those halogen bulbs of yesteryears.
If you have plaster ceiling, then just buy the eyeball. Installing tracks can be expensive as those technicians charge per foot run.
Lucky my friend installed for me. Mine is about 24 feet long and I have two of these (the other one shorter - about 15ft)
So imagine if they charge per foot run....becomes very expensive liao.

Thanks for the input.
Assuming the plaster ceiling that comes with the apartment, how do electrician get the wire from what is given(by default from developer) to the hole for the downlight/eyeball?
Something I forgot to notice when I was renovating my house a long time ago.

Anyone using tri-colour downlight?
Any comment on it? (i.e. spoilt easily? any reliable brand?)

ty

your plaster ceiling should have a hole to access to the inside of the ceiling for wiring and maintenance, electrician will drill a hole in your plaster ceiling and extend the wire then use a guiding wire to pull live wire to its destination

just like how they pull telephone/fiber cable without hacking the concrete floor

Thanks.

Hi, my house has completed and i started to browse for lighting.
My old house is using tube lights, and so i am used to tube light.

however, as i start to browse around and when i started to look into other peoples house, nearly everyone is using downlights.

I do not have plan to do plaster ceiling, so what is a normally preferred way for my case?
I am not quite used to the narrow beam of downlights, and they need quite a lot to light up a space, and without plaster ceiling, it is a problem.
And there are those big rounded light like 30cm in diameter, are those bright enough? or i should stick back with tube light neglecting the appearances?

thanks for input.

Purpose and temperature of the color (eg: Kitchen may need Day light setting (6500k), living Hall may need 4500k or lower 3500k for movie time)

Layout and angle (Under wall cabinet may cause shadow, Not to near the ceiling fan and at least 1.5 feet from wall)

Zone of the light (how many switch you need, you may not want to switch on all light when watch movie right?)

Heard that driver not that tahan

Always remember it is your house and just because others are doing something does not mean you should do it too for your house especially if it isn't something you like all that much.

If you don't have plaster ceiling your options are fairly limited in the sense that you may not have as many lighting points.

Track lamps are an option, single fixture multi bulbs are another and another option is to use LED strips or battens.

Big diameter LEDs do tend to give out a very harsh glare.

Tube lamps? You could get a tube lamp light box, guaranteed it won't look out of place.

Thanks for the advise and suggestions!! really appreciate it!!

you cant use downlight if you dont have plaster ceiling, instead of going for tube light or big dome light, you can go for LED track light or fixed spotlight that still allow you to rotate the position but not as flexible as track light

it is best if you can install 2 set of track lights with different switch, 1 switch to turn on the track for white lights and another switch to turn on the tracks for dimmer yellow lights when you need it

personally i used tube light and fixed spotlights at my living room, i find that 3 LED spotlights give better lightning compare to CFL tube, and i have to remove one of the LED to reduce the brightness, the rest of the LED point to the ceiling to diffuse the lights around my living room, even when i sleep on my sofa with lights on, it does not appear glaring to my eyes

another downside of using LED downlight is that if you place them directly above sofa, it's brightness might be glaring when you look up or taking a nap with lights on and you can adjust them like track lights

thanks for your advise!! will that that into my decision making.

Assuming using full eyeball and 8.5-9 ft ceiling height

1.) How far from wall does the eyeball lights need to be? 1 feet ? 2 feet?
2.) What is the spacing between eyeball ? 4 feet?

eyeball lights power?6W ,8w?

Power per unit sf?

Another question is , do the electrical first or do the plaster ceiling first?

of course wiring first so that plaster ceiling will conceal all the wiring

Hi

Do you have pictures of your place with the lights?
I want to figure out how many eyeball lights to put for the area.

Search tracklight and eyeball with my username.
Here is one
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4794362/+20

I once saw a house whereby with one switch it can change color. There are 3 colors, white, cool and warm. What is such a function called? When I Google I get those rainbow type of colors but I just want a simple one depending on the mood, not the rainbow disco type of colors.

Is this kind of bulb as durable as a single color bulb or less durable?
I assume the cost of the bulb will be higher but will there be much difference?
How about for the wiring? Big difference?

this kind of light usually doesn't last long, i would suggest you to avoid..

Those kind changes the color by turning off and on. Not very practical in my opinion.

thank you

tq...

I liked it because you can change the mood.. and needs..
sometimes you need it very bright when cleaning or looking for something..
sometimes just want it mellow... especially late at night..
any suggestion?

https://shopee.com.my/product/41010146/779196376?smtt=0.0.9

Or if you need a light bulb type then you will need smart bulbs that can change color temperature, can dim, and some got colors

This post has been edited by idoblu: Jul 18 2019, 10:12 PM

Thanks.

Hi sifu here, would like to get some feedback on my upcoming apartment DIY project:

800 SF, 3r 2b, ceiling height 8-9ft

For the three bedroom, I'm planning to get 24w cool white each, will it be sufficient? Especially for master bedroom.

For the two bathrooms, I'm planning to get 18w daylight, it's a small bathroom should be ok?

And is there any unwritten rules that daylight is for bathroom and cool white is for living space ? Any general preferences ?

Thanks.