How Many Led Lights For A Room To Be Bright Enough?

[ashleymay 0]

The thing about having to go DIY without a bao-ga-liao contractor, is having no luxury of advice. . But then there's renotalk!

Have decided to go with LED lights for the living room and master bedroom, but now am stuck with the question - how many LED lights

should I buy?

Some friends were telling me 4x3w LEDs are bright enough for a small living room about 4mx2.5m (I did say it was small =.="), but some say i should get the 5w or 6w ones?

Also, is it possible to estimate how big an area would 1x3w LED light will illuminate?

Just want to get some advice before going to the lightings shop (1 LED light is not cheap!) Thanks in advance!

[Batman 0]

Exactly.. LED down lights aren't cheap in the first place..

Some more if u get 4x3W, isn't it equivalent to a normal down light, in terms of watts??

[Robbie 0]

Generally if you are going to go with downlights for your master bedroom and living room what you are looking for are downlights

Next your decision is the size of it , 4" and 6" are the most common on the market proberly

and for wattage it will be 9w~12w as the most common.

The number of lights you need generally depends on the size of the room,type of light, and size/wattage of the LED downlight

for the Living room 4m*2.5m ( depending on your Interior deco and placement of lights) 6-8 will be sufficent

For the Master bedroom for a normal 3-4-5 room HDB flat 4-8 will be more then sufficentc.

It should also be noted that sometimes LED downlights tend to be too " Rough/Strong"

Some cove lighting can be considered for the hallway soften the ambience of the room

And typical rate of LED downlights proberly range from $55-$105(any more and unless its REALLY a ***** i'll say its Wayyy too expensive)

Hope this helps! cheers!

[ashleymay 0]

Batman - I was deciding between convention downlight vs LED downlight, in the end decided to go for LED cos from some of the things i read from the internet, LED provide better illumination compared a higher wattage required for normal downlight. e.g 3w normal downlight prob wouldn't be bright enough? Hope that's my correct interpretation?

Robbie - Thanks for the rough guide! I figure you have had some experience, do you also use LED lights for "task areas" e.g, kitchen?

I am looking at something which is about 3x1w, about 3.1inch across but am worried that it 3inch is going to be too small..but design is nice compared to some of the higher wattage ones, and the holder is directional, i.e i can swing/adjust my lights to a specific spot. Since my house is small, I am not planing to have any L box or cove lighting (sigh). Any body can share if they have problems with not having "general lighting" if only installed LED downlight?

[Robbie 0]

Hi! Good morning

Yea, i guess you could say that ( im in the lighting industry , though still some what of a newbie, but done a number of projects) I have a good idea of what you are looking at i think

Its more of LED spot lights (with a self pivoting fitting) Those are pretty bright if you are using Daylight colour actually, but the thing about this kind of light(more like a track light) is

1) You need to keep adjusting the lights

2) The Area that LED covers is actually smaller( For example, for downlights , From ceiling to floor is only about 120 degrees coverage, minus 30 degrees in a circle, that will give you a rough idea of how much coverage you have per Downlight) Of course it is dependent on wattage and type of bulb!

3) Unless you put about say 6 or so of those lights, you would not have sufficent lighting in my opinion, depending on type of unit and size of kitchen, some areas might be dimmer/darker.

4) Yes Downlights can be put in the kitchen , i actually recommend people to put downlights cause of the easier maintance( a cloth,water, and a wipe down every now and then will do) and power saving capability

5) for downlight its all about positioning!

And in response to your interpretation , LED is actually slightly Dimmer/Duller , but for the wattage, Yes LED provides much more light and longetivity as compared to a normal downlight of the same wattage( dont think you will find many normal bulbs at 3 watts though haha)

Hope this helps!

Edited July 9, 2012 by Robbie

[ashleymay 0]

Thanks robbie! Yes, it's so much clearer now! Now i have some better idea, haha~

[Robbie 0]

Yep , Agreed , LED up front is abit more expensive compared to other Traditional Lightings.

However , to be fair , LED lighting will save you quite abit on your electricity bill, i have come across cases where a family from a usual bill of $400+ dropped to about 250~300 in a month after installing LED lights. While that is just a rough estimate, considering other household products like aircon( the most imo) , fridge etc use power as well and usage could be different for that month. It is accurate to say that proberly $60-80 off the bill per month at least .

They installed a total of 10 led lights thats about $6 off per light per month. they bought at $60 including installation. they will break even in 10 months!

Short term saving but long term gains. thats the true worth of LED actually for people like me