I've been Googling for days now and I'm still no nearer a choice. I have a 3.5m x 5m kitchen into which I want to fit recessed LED downlights in the ceiling for general lighting (I have LED strips under the cupboards for illuminating the counter tops). I'm leaning towards dimmable 3000k GU10 in fire retardant fittings but beyond that, I'm lost as to beam width and lumens etc. Can anyone make some recommendations please? Many thanks.
LED light has introduced a new terminology; colour temperature. 3000K is generally referred to as warm white, which is a similar colour light to the tungsten filament types. A higher colour temperature, 4000K, is generally referred to as cool white. This is a whiter light and much brighter relative to the warm white. This use of colour temperatures for LEDs has made their choice important because they look completely different side-by-side and the light difference is obvious. You should try to get the ones that are similar to your LED under cupboard lights (warm or cool white) else it won't look very good when they are on together. Apart from that I would suggest any GU10 lamp of 4.5W or higher would generate sufficient light for your kitchen. Avoid any lower wattage than this. As far as beam width goes it is not really worth worrying over. Lumens wise the higher the number the brighter the lamp.
I have 28 downlights in my kitchen/snug. All are Enlite with Enlite 5w GU10s, 4000K Cool white for working area, 3000K Warm White for relaxing area, would recommend these anytime.
Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I'm still struggling to work out how many I'll need i.e. spacing.
FWIW I'd think you'd be fine with 6 in that area (& probably end up diming them a bit), but it does depend a bit on how bright the kitchen decor is. Otherwise exactly as per UP. (I prefer the cool light, but warm light is more "traditional". It's a very personal choice)
One open big living space, kitchen, dining, snug, storage. Just glad someone invented LEDs, just imagine 1.4kW of halogen
As a general guide (not an absolute measurement) I find 900mm spacing is a good starting point, then play around with the spacing until you like what you see. The floor joists will be in the way on some of the measurements so you need to make small adjustments until you miss all the joists.
Kitchens generally benefit from brighter lighting, so if you want the brightness of a flo tube in the kitchen go for a cool white (4000K) (good) or (noon) daylight white (6400K) (best), widest angle possible as downlights can be like torch beams if you dont have a lot, and the brighter the better (highest lumens possible) because light is measured in lumens and lux, so if its big kitchen you'll need more than if its a small kitchen as like sound, where a couple decibels less is half the sound, its the same with light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux#Explanation Saying that about the colour temp of the bulbs, cool white and daylight white is quite harsh almost clinical so you may still prefer a bright warm white colour. Basically unless you also eat in the kitchen and want to dim the lights, the kitchen is one of the area's where good bright light helps you cook better and keep it cleaner as good lighting shows up the dirt more easily, and the eyes adjust easily to different brightness levels as you will note when going from outdoors to the indoors. During summer sun, I can record around 50,000Lux, step inside to the kitchen with led downlights and the meter shows the lux level is only about 30. Winter daylight will be around 300-500 lux as a comparison. Only downside with a brightly lit kitchen is at night, if you have to switch the lights on, it can reduce the production of melatonin the sleep hormone so it keeps you awake for longer, until you go back into a dark room and then around 20-30mins later the melatonin production will start rising again making you feel sleepy again if its between sunset and around 2am give or take an hour or so, any later and your circadian rhythms start reducing the melatonin production in time for you to wake up at sunrise . It why computer monitors can keep you awake long into the wee hours.
My kitchen is about same size as yours, have got 13 down lights, although only 10 in the lounge which is about same too. have used these https://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/aurora-insulation-coverable-new.html with Megaman lamps 6w cool and varight v-pro dimmers.