All You Need To Know About LED Downlights

LED downlights and LED lights have been around for a few years now, but there are still questions to be asked about them. They come in a variety of shapes and colours like black, white or square and it is important to understand their benefits.

What’s the difference between downlights and spotlights?

Sometimes a downlight and a spotlight can be the same thing. It’s what you’re using the light for that makes the difference. A downlight is for general illumination. That’s just lighting the room.  Spotlights highlight something you want people to look at. You use them to light up a piece of furniture or a picture or whatever. You can do that with a downlight and call it a spotlight if you want. Downlights always look roughly the same – a single light that is recessed into the ceiling. They are mostly round, although you can get square and rectangular ones. Very long strips of light are called strip lights.

Since spotlights are called spotlights because of what they do rather than what they look like, they come in quite a range of shapes and sizes. They range from the sizable spotlights use to light the exteriors of buildings and the track lights you see in shops and galleries that can be pointed in all sorts of directions. There are also the ones mounted on vehicles used for hunting at night. If you’re still not sure of the difference, just remember that you wouldn’t go spotlighting with a downlight.

How far apart do you put LED downlights?

It depends on how much light the downlight emits and how well lit you want the room to be. A rough guide for an average LED downlight that puts out around 800 lumens is 1 metre from the wall and then a spacing of between 1.2 and 1.5 metres apart.

Can you replace normal downlights with LED?

The question should be “why wouldn’t you replace normal downlights with LED?” Normal or halogen downlights are being phased out because they waste too much energy. LED downlights are the new normal. Even if the hole in the ceiling is a bit bigger than a standard LED downlight you can get adaptor plates to make them fit. LED downlights are better in several ways. One is that they are cheaper to run. Another is that they don’t run hot and you can cover them in the ceiling with insulation. Often you can switch between colour temperatures and make the light bright white for a kitchen or warm white for a living room. You can dim them. And they last a hell of a lot longer.

Do LED downlights need transformers?

LED downlights have what are called drivers. Mostly they are inside the downlight and called integral drivers, but some especially flat downlights designed for tight spaces have what are called remote drivers. They are small rectangular boxes that convert current and are wired to the light. Metropolitan Electrical Contractors can get the right downlight for you and install any lighting without any problems. So, stop searching ‘LED downlight installation‘ in your web browser and contact us today.