ᐅ Location of Combustion Appliances / LED Spotlights / LED Panels

Hello everyone,

we are building a single-family house, and the ceiling on the upper floor is currently being worked on. Now we need to decide on the exact positions of the light fixtures, i.e., spots or panels, as well as the cutouts, etc.

Here is the current plan: the bedroom is at the top left, with two children's rooms below. I’m also attaching a perspective image to give an idea of how the rooms look. Due to the 6-degree pitch of the roof, the room height is quite high, especially in the bathroom and hallway.

Currently, I have planned many smaller spots (6cm (2.4 inches) diameter) that can be tilted or rotated up to 30 degrees. In the bedroom, there is also an additional surface-mounted lamp (yellow circle), for example, a chandelier.

The ceiling will consist of a 30mm (1.2 inches) layer of boards with 12mm (0.5 inches) drywall panels on top, resulting in a total depth of only 42mm (1.7 inches).

Now we are unsure whether to proceed with many spots as planned or rather choose smaller or medium-sized LED panels that have a more modern look. I have shortlisted some panels from EVN in sizes 12cm (4.7 inches), 17.2cm (6.8 inches), 22.5cm (8.9 inches), and 28cm (11 inches) diameter, which provide good lighting. Dimmable lights are planned for all rooms. All rooms have been wired in a star topology with 5-core cables (from the distribution box), allowing either DALI control or the creation of up to three separate groups that can be switched independently. The entire lighting system will be operated via KNX.

We are looking for ideas and suggestions. We are considering completely changing the current plan and using panels instead of spots. For example, in the children’s rooms, we might install two 22.5cm (8.9 inches) or 28cm (11 inches) panels at the upper and lower parts of the rooms that can be separately switched and dimmed. One panel in the center would probably not be sufficient to provide good illumination.

We are also uncertain whether to make cutouts now for the panels or just install cable outlets to stay flexible and avoid committing to specific sizes or locations prematurely. The surface-mounted option is also worth considering, especially since the rooms have quite high ceilings.

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Remus

I have been using LED panels in my apartment for years, and we will use them again in the new house. We will also choose surface-mounted fixtures because we want to first see if the planning works out as expected. However, we are running several cable loops into the suspended ceiling on the ground floor and the upper floor so that we can add spotlights or extra panels later if needed.

Yes, that’s a good idea! Unfortunately, our ceiling is not suspended; it only consists of battens and drywall:

The electrician said that adding a few cable loops here wouldn’t help much because a junction box would need to be installed if the circuit is later separated, and there wouldn’t be enough room to accommodate it since the available height is only 30mm (1.2 inches), whereas about 50mm (2 inches) is needed. Otherwise, two 5-conductor cables would have to be run in and out to the fixture, which is hardly feasible. But I will ask if there might be another solution. The idea of being able to install any spotlights or panels later on is definitely good, especially since I wired everything with 5 conductors, allowing each light to be controlled via DALI if desired.

RemusLazar schrieb:

Yes, that’s a good idea! Unfortunately, in our case the ceiling is not suspended; it’s just the battens with drywall.

Hm, okay, that’s quite tight then. Since you’re apparently already quite far along, I assume adding a suspended ceiling afterwards is not an option?

sysrun80 schrieb:

Hmm, okay, that’s quite tight then. Since you’re apparently already quite far along, I assume retrofitting a suspended ceiling is not an option?

Actually, you could still add a second layer of battens (+30mm (1.2 inches)) and then attach the ceiling. That would give you 60mm (2.4 inches), which would be fine. But as usual with general contractors, they all just want to get things done “quickly, quickly”... In the bathroom, we will definitely use double battens, since no drywall has been installed there yet. In the other rooms, some ceilings are already installed, so I don’t think anyone will want to take those down again.

So, here is a brief "interim feedback": we also think we will go with surface-mounted lights. At this stage, you really don’t want to decide on the size, or whether to go round, square, or something completely different. Cable outlets are definitely more flexible; you can try out or vary 2–3 lights later on. Otherwise, you will be stuck with recessed spots or panels forever.

The bathroom might be an exception where recessed spots or panels could be used, but even there, surface-mounted lights could work.

We are also undecided about whether to install a beautiful chandelier in the bedroom and then add more light with an uplight or something similar. I wired all the outlets with 5-core cables so that each room can have two separate circuits, which can be switched on or off with light switches. This way, you can later add additional light sources flexibly.

Do you have any suggestions on where to position the light points in the bedroom?