Hello everyone,
I will soon be building a house with Bien-Zenker and would like your opinion on potential savings regarding the electrical fittings selection.
The house will be handed over to me "finished to specification," meaning the floor will have screed, and the walls and ceilings will be covered with drywall panels.
I want to use large-scale LED spotlights in the living/dining/kitchen area to ensure it is well lit from the start. A ceiling outlet for a spotlight costs me about €60 without the spotlight itself, meaning just the hole and cable. I find that a bit expensive for a hole and 2m (6.5 ft) of cable.
So my question is: Can I have only the "starter" spotlight installed to have the electrical circuit in place (one each for the kitchen, living, and dining areas) and then drill the openings and install the spots myself from there?
What should I watch out for if I do this?
Thanks a lot!
Chris
I will soon be building a house with Bien-Zenker and would like your opinion on potential savings regarding the electrical fittings selection.
The house will be handed over to me "finished to specification," meaning the floor will have screed, and the walls and ceilings will be covered with drywall panels.
I want to use large-scale LED spotlights in the living/dining/kitchen area to ensure it is well lit from the start. A ceiling outlet for a spotlight costs me about €60 without the spotlight itself, meaning just the hole and cable. I find that a bit expensive for a hole and 2m (6.5 ft) of cable.
So my question is: Can I have only the "starter" spotlight installed to have the electrical circuit in place (one each for the kitchen, living, and dining areas) and then drill the openings and install the spots myself from there?
What should I watch out for if I do this?
Thanks a lot!
Chris
P
Pinkiponk6 Jan 2021 08:35borderpuschl schrieb:
That won’t be possible. You can no longer thread the cables from hole to hole. The drywall panels are screwed onto metal studs. So, there is always a break in one direction. The cable for the recessed lights must already be installed during the installation of the substructure. That’s a shame, but thanks for the information. We wanted to do it ourselves as well. Do you have any idea why they charge so much for it? I don’t think it’s such a big deal.
H
hampshire6 Jan 2021 09:57Communication, planning, procurement, execution, documentation, billing... In a project-driven company, changes always involve more than just the execution itself. It is important not to lose sight of additional labor costs and overhead expenses.
The margin at €60 is reasonable; the price is acceptable.
The margin at €60 is reasonable; the price is acceptable.
Mycraft schrieb:
I completely agree with ypg. Spotlights are outdated. Nowadays, there are much better lighting solutions. You can achieve bright and pleasant lighting without drilling lots of holes in the ceiling.
I would recommend using modern lighting concepts. While spotlights can be useful for accent lighting in some areas, they shouldn’t be the main source of light in living-dining-kitchen spaces. Spots tend to create unattractive light cones on walls and furniture.
In hallways and similar spaces, they might still look okay.
Drilling a hole with wiring also involves planning, one or more electrical circuits, possibly a circuit breaker including wiring, junction boxes, connectors, and not least the labor time. I also don’t want point lighting. In my idea, they were dimmable elements with a wide beam angle.
What do you mean by “modern lighting concepts”?
Is there a good guide or thread about this here on the forum?
Regarding the planning work: That’s why I wanted to have the first fixture pre-installed, so I have the circuit and switching option. I can drill holes and lay 2m (6.5 ft) of cable myself, provided the ceiling structure allows it. The ceiling consists of 240mm (9.5 inches) ceiling joists and the substructure for the drywall. The substructure is probably perpendicular to the joists. The insulation is 50mm (2 inches) thick. I imagine I can run the cable through that, right? Does anyone have exact information about the structure of a Bien-Zenker ceiling?
Chris.D schrieb:
I don’t want point lighting either. In my idea, these were dimmable fixtures with a wide beam angle.
[...] Recessed lights with a wide beam angle can cause glare very easily. I believe I had 120mm (5 inch) fixtures in one spot that I had to replace with frosted glass lights to reduce glare. After that, the combination of recessed spotlights and a wide beam angle worked. However, I can only imagine this setup in functional rooms like a dressing room, for example.
Otherwise, in many rooms we also installed simple dimmable ceiling light outlets, which we then equipped with adjustable surface-mounted fixtures (inexpensive option: single-beam track lights from Ikea, expensive option: MaWa surface-mounted fixture Wittenberg 4.0). This provides a lot of flexibility for lighting and allows, for example, highlighting the side walls to create pleasant indirect lighting.
By the way, most of the bulbs are 3000K (warm white) with a color rendering index (CRI) above 90. All 80 CRI bulbs from GU have been removed again, as they were a waste of money.
H
hampshire6 Jan 2021 14:20We installed 3000K high CRI recessed downlights with VEFL (very wide flood) reflectors in 130mm (5 inches) diameter holes and 150mm (6 inches) depth in the entrance area, featuring the following characteristics:
We are very satisfied with these. The same type of luminaire with a different 2700K color temperature is used in the patio roof and as spotlights on a track in the living area; here again 3000K but with a narrower beam angle. Of course, this does not replace ambient lighting.
Since the fixtures produce 2800 lumens of light output each without dimming, it can get very bright when needed – for example, during cleaning.
Have a look at ansorg...
We are very satisfied with these. The same type of luminaire with a different 2700K color temperature is used in the patio roof and as spotlights on a track in the living area; here again 3000K but with a narrower beam angle. Of course, this does not replace ambient lighting.
Since the fixtures produce 2800 lumens of light output each without dimming, it can get very bright when needed – for example, during cleaning.
Have a look at ansorg...
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