Talk to me about skirting / architrave lighting....

[RedLeicester]

In the midst of rewiring at the mo, and wanting to do clever stuff with dimmers, PIRs and all such like. Additionally the upstairs corridor and the stairwell are presenting a few problems: joists / walls in awkward places in the corridor, and the stairwell being so damned deep that simply downlighters would almost require scaffold to ever have a hope of changing the bulbs!

So I'm wondering about using skirting lighting and/or architrave stuff (not sure if the latter is the right description, I mean the stuff that effectively replaces architrave and shines a light either/or across the ceiling or down the walls). Would possibly do the above in combination with fewer downlighters, or as a complete alternative to if they're good enough.

I'd also like to be able to use either this stuff, or some other suggestion triggered at low output by a PIR so I we can see down the corridor / stairs at night when sorting kids rather than having to put the main lights on...

Over to you chaps...

[Brite spark]

some downlighters can be changed with a long pole- with a special bit on the end, alternatively use wall lights or led lamps on the stairs which won't need changing much.
not sure about skirting lighting- perhaps uplighters set into the floor though

[jimmyjimjim]

Brite spark said:

some downlighters can be changed with a long pole- with a special bit on the end

Thanks for reminding me; got to get off my bum and get one. 11' Pole plus step ladder should allow me to get to the 2 bulbs that are in the middle of 1 20' ceiling. And be highly humerous. I think I'll go check my health insurance before I do an emsman.

[andy43]

jimmyjimjim said:

Brite spark said:

some downlighters can be changed with a long pole- with a special bit on the end

Thanks for reminding me; got to get off my bum and get one. 11' Pole plus step ladder should allow me to get to the 2 bulbs that are in the middle of 1 20' ceiling. And be highly humerous. I think I'll go check my health insurance before I do an emsman.

...and some downlighter bulbs are held in place with a circlip, and plugged into a twist-to-release ceramic socket attached to the fitting...

[RedLeicester]

Hmm, will look in to those rods as a last resort, but I am now quite taken with the idea of skirting and/or architrave lighting, certainly don't want uplighters on the walls.

[jimmyjimjim]

andy43 said:

jimmyjimjim said:

Brite spark said:

some downlighters can be changed with a long pole- with a special bit on the end

Thanks for reminding me; got to get off my bum and get one. 11' Pole plus step ladder should allow me to get to the 2 bulbs that are in the middle of 1 20' ceiling. And be highly humerous. I think I'll go check my health insurance before I do an emsman.

...and some downlighter bulbs are held in place with a circlip, and plugged into a twist-to-release ceramic socket attached to the fitting...

Fortunately for me, these look like normal bulbs; ciclips and twist to release fittings would be far too advanced for the US of A.

You'd love how the majority of light fittings are held in place - oversized socket through plaster board, then the light fitting screws up to the socket against the plasterboard. So a half inch rim of plasterboard is holding up, in some cases, a sodding enormous chandelier.

There might be some that screw to a joist, but all of the light fittings I've replaced so far have had a very free floating socket.

And the wiring connection is done by wire nuts!

Back on topic, I was going to suggest uplighters until I saw you were against them? How about pendant lights - I've got a few; couldn't stand the ones previously fitted, but replaced them with less antique effect versions, and they look great(to me, at least) - with the advantage that you can set them at whatever height suits the area/lighting requirements.

[RedLeicester]

Really appreciate the help Jimjimjimjimjimaddedjim. I think in general we're trying to get away from there being anything overtly on the walls or hanging from the ceiling - there's currently a horrid 60's chandelier there which I will thoroughly enjoy stamping on when it gets taken down!

[Tanguero]

Something electroluminescent maybe?

http://www.lightandmotion.at/eng-starel.html

Edited by Tanguero on Monday 25th October 16:52

[RedLeicester]

Slowly but surely getting hits, seems architrave was the wrong word, should have been COVING lighting.

Doh.


Frighteningly expensive....