ᐅ Recessed LED downlights with GX53 base/socket

Hello everyone,
I’m new to this forum and hope you’re all doing well.
My wife and I are currently building a house in Austria; we are constructing a timber frame house with cellulose insulation.

My question:
I plan to install large areas of LED spotlights on both the ground floor and the upper floor (see plan). Attached is a small layout showing my ideas. I intend to use spotlights from the company Ledando (I hope it’s okay to mention the name here), specifically the GX 53 base (due to the limited space in the ceiling) with 5.5 watts, 400 lm, a 120° beam angle, direct connection, and 230 V power supply. In the living room, I want to be able to dim the spotlights.
The points marked in purple are planned as recessed wall spotlights along the staircase.

Can anyone tell me if the number of spotlights I am planning is roughly appropriate, if there are any special points to watch out for, or if there are better alternatives for spotlights?

Many thanks and happy building!

300 lux (lumens/m2) for the bathroom and kitchen, otherwise at least 150 lux for all rooms. Ideally, divide the lighting into primary and secondary sources. In your case, the ceiling spots would be the primary lighting, right?

Marvinius schrieb:
300 lux (lumens/m²) for bathroom and kitchen, otherwise at least 150 lux for all other rooms. It’s best to divide the lighting into primary and secondary. In your case, the ceiling spots would then be the primary lighting, right?

For those who need a reminder:

Bathroom and kitchen lighting should reach 300 lux, where one lux equals lumens per square meter.

Unfortunately, product specifications often only list lumens, at least when shopping online. Calculating lux from that is only possible roughly for a layperson. If you google “calculate lux,” you will quickly find several guides. Here is a quote from one of them:

A GU10 LED with 350 lumens, a beam angle of 35°, and a distance of 2.40 meters (7 feet 10 inches) from the floor produces
an illuminated area with a diameter of 1.5 meters (5 feet),
an illuminated surface of 1.80 square meters (19 square feet),
a luminous intensity of 1203 candela, and
an illuminance of approximately 208 lux.

A corresponding calculator with input fields for these parameters is also available there.

It becomes a bit more complicated when installing multiple spots spaced 0.5m to 1m (1.5 to 3 feet) apart, where their light cones overlap.

After researching “calculate lux multiple spots” and reviewing several sources, I found statements saying that the lux values of two lamps can be added in the overlapping light cone areas.

For a workplace, an illuminance of at least 500 lux is recommended. For example, to optimally light a one-square-meter (10.8 square feet) desk using recessed spotlights, the total luminous flux of all lamps must be 500 lumens. Suitable options include five recessed lights with 100 lumens each or ten with 50 lumens each.

We see best when brightness is distributed evenly. Therefore, maintain equal spacing between recessed lights. If mounted in a row, this example suggests a distance of 25 centimeters (10 inches) between the higher-output spots, with less distance if using weaker lamps.

The guideline for workspaces doesn’t imply that the entire room requires this illuminance. A general lighting level of 100 lux suffices for workrooms, including kitchens. While 100 lumens per square meter (9.3 lumens per square foot) is enough for general kitchen lighting, focused spots should be installed over work surfaces and stoves, providing a total of 500 lumens per square meter (46.5 lumens per square foot).

For example, in our kitchen, we planned spots over the work surface spaced approximately 70 cm (27.5 inches) and 100 cm (39 inches).
I selected sample GU10 spots with a 36° beam angle and 245 lumens.
According to the calculator, at 2.4 m (7 feet 10 inches) height (i.e., floor level), the light cone diameter is 1.5 m (5 feet) with about 138 lux, and at 1.5 m (4 feet 11 inches) height (i.e., the kitchen countertop), the diameter is about 1 m (3 feet 3 inches) with approximately 345 lux.

Our spots should easily cover a 1-meter (3 feet 3 inches) area to reach 300 lux on the countertop.
The same spots are just sufficient for the living area with 2.4 m (7 feet 10 inches) ceiling height, considering some overlap of the light cones. Since we planned about 1.3 m (4 feet 3 inches) spacing between spots in the living area, it might be just enough. I will try to find a slightly stronger light source for that spot.

What I explained above is a rough understanding I gained through Google and self-learning. Could someone confirm this or possibly correct me if I’m mistaken?

First of all, thank you for your answers.
1) Yes, the recessed lights would be our primary lighting, and I would only add a pendant light above the dining table and possibly a floor lamp near the sofa.
2) @Kaspatoo why do you choose fixtures with such a narrow beam angle? Don’t you need a huge number of lights to achieve even illumination? Why not use fixtures with higher output and a wider beam angle?

When I asked Ledando, they recommended spacing the recessed lights I mentioned about 1.2 to 1.5 meters (4 to 5 feet) apart.

What do you think?

We have not chosen any spotlights yet; I simply selected the second-best spots I found through research.

A higher beam angle also means that, with the same lumen output, less light is available on the target area. In other words, the light source needs to be more powerful.
However, I haven’t found many light sources between 300 and 700 lumens so far.

Additionally, my calculations suggest that exactly the right amount of light is achieved.
Are my calculations incorrect?

For calculating whether the lighting is sufficient, I recommend the free software Dialux. It is quite professional and requires some time to learn, but it ensures you can be confident that the lighting is adequate.

In our rental apartment, my wife is mainly bothered by the usually poor lighting, so we pay close attention to it.