RE: Automatable lighting (LED?) for my loft?

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Gerry,

The height is pretty good in there - ridge height is 3.6m! So even with
reductions due to the floor rising and allowance for the roofing materials
and centre ridge beam, there's still loads of height and certainly more
than most modern UK houses have :)

The biggest problem I can see is finding the right kind of fixture (or
designing one) that works with the open design of the loft i.e. little
clutter on the floor and getting the number of LED's right and positioning 
before the loft is built. Also getting the cabling put in the right places
if it's needed.

Paul.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Gerry Duprey
> Sent: 19 August 2006 04:51
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Automatable lighting (LED?) for my loft?
>
> Howdy,
>
> > The biggest problem with the lighting in the loft is that most of
the
> walls are at 45 Deg! Not many places to put traditional lighting -
maybe
> one or two of the 'strung' LV lighting systems though. I wonder if I
could
> modify one of these?
>
> Worse, given the apparent headroom, nearly all overhead lighting looks
> like
> it's going to be casting shadows.  Certainly a challenge.
>
> That said, I think overhead lighting is over rated.  Other than when
> cleaning
> (when I want lots of light), I find overhead lights are generally
harsh
> and
> unpleasant (even with nice fixtures).  I think you can light better
and
> more
> attractively with table lamps and perhaps some wall sconces or other
> wall/table lights.  I think your idea of long continuous bars of
lights in
> the
> corners will probably be somewhat useful for lighting, but should be
> wonderful
> for mood and accents.
>
> > My thoughts so far with the LED stuff was to have a series of
longish
> 'bar' fixtures with diffusers to give a uniform wash along a length of
> wall. Maybe a whole load of RGB LED's at quite short spacing to
achieve
> this - what do you think? Can a whole group of lower power LED's be
driven
> in parallel from a single output? I guess I'd need an amplifier to do
> this? I'm thinking maybe a meter long fixture with 30-40 Led's even?
>
> The amp board I mentioned with the transistors I'm using can drive 1
AMP
> per
> color, or about 50 SuperBright RGBLEDs.  You definetly could not
directly
> drive 50 RGBLEDs from a controller without a driver as those
controller
> outputs top out at 20ma and for 40 LEDs, you'd need .8 amps.  You can
> build
> one of the other amp circuits in the cad/ directory with MOSFETs and
drive
> up
> to 6 AMPs (300 SuperBright LEDs) and you can use multiple amp boards
to
> drive
> even more.  And if with other MOSFET choices and good wiring
practices,
> you
> could move up to 24AMPs per color (or 1,200 SuperBright LEDs).
>
> > Is this how the colour kinetix type systems work?
>
> I don't know, but I'm sure it's something like that.  I suspect the
big
> difference (besides price and flexibility) is that they *likely* use
> constant
> current drivers, so you can add/remove LED segments without having to
> adjust
> the current limiting resistors.  But for fairly static (that is, a
fixed
> number of RGB LEDs that doesn't change often), it's over kill.
>
> Given the size of the space, I think you've got a great opportunity
there
> to
> play with LED lighting.  If you do decide to do the wash stuff, I'd
love
> to
> see some pictures when you get it don.
>
> Best of luck,
>
> Gerry
> --
> Gerry Duprey
> Ann Arbor, MI 48103
> http://www.cdp1802.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>