Lights, Camera, ACTION - PART ONE

I'm sitting here in the dark, dark study writing a post about the beautiful lights we bought and I can hardly see what's in front of me. How funny is that? The other day I wrote about the joys Mr Opoes and I'd had while trying to find 3 pendant lights for our breakfast bar. We'd spent time getting quotes from various discount lighting stores so that we could get the best possible deal. It's still very difficult to go looking at all those lights without wanting to spend up big on all the new trendy and modern lights. I had to keep telling myself that we're going for a classic but stylish look and to just stick with that.

So I thought I'd share with you the type of lights we required to light up the 337.08m² of our 5 bedroom house. 'In Queensland it's a requirement that 80% of the total fixed lighting in your home must be covered by energy efficient lighting' so because of this Mr Opoes and I choose to include a heap of downlights as this was a cheaper option and we could better control the amount of light by simply changing the wattage of the light globe. We'd  considered using LED lights but numerous sales assistances had told us that we'd have to replace the entire light when the light globe blow. So you have to toss up between the economic cost of the LED light (RRP: $59.00 ea) and the approximate time (1200hrs) that the globe would last verses the cost of a replacement globe ($4.95). The other consideration too was that technology changes and in a few years time your LED light may no longer be available. Although we initially wanted to go with LED lighting we just could afford to spend that much money on holes in the ceiling lights.


As you can see from the electrical layout we need a large number of lights.

Mr Opoes and I had decided that we'd be looking to buy some downlights, oyster lights, exhaust fans, sensor lights, spot lights, wall lights, a fan and some pendant lights. So after collecting 3 quotes we dropped the kid's off at Grandma and Grandpa's place and we headed off to our chosen lighting store. Upon arriving at the store we discovered that they were having a closing down sale, there was 10% off all floor stock and all display stock was 50% off. We couldn't believe our luck especially as we'd only gone to fix up our quote (had a few lights that we really didn't need) and to take photography's of what we'd chosen so that we could sit down over coffee and have a final talk. That all changed when we realised what a great deal we'd be getting on the lights.

So Coral Homes gave us an allowance of 29 ceiling lights and 1 ceiling fan for the entire house. As you can see from my initial electrical layout above we have more lights than the allowance accepts. So remembering what our sales consultant told us prior to signing the contract we've decided to talk directly with the electrician to see what price he'll quote us. I'm hoping this will provide us with a means of saving money.

The circles highlighted green indicate were we'd be placing the downlights, we required 5 down lights outside and 27 downlights inside. Initially I was going to go with square downlights, however each sales assistant told me that if the electrician didn't place them perfectly and so that they all lined up with one another you'd notice if they out of line and/or off-centre. With this in mind I opted to go with the round downlights, if there are any issues with them they are easier to work with.

                               



                    Verses







The other reasons I went with the round downlight was because the fitting is easy to remove making changing the light globe easy, it also has the frosted section that the square downlight has but its much smaller and you can move the internal section so that the light can point in different directions. This will be particularly helpful in the alfresco area and at the front door.

This will be very helpful in different sections of the house.

All the lights have elements of a brushed chrome finish, the reason for this is its won't need to be polished. It's like ordering matt photo's instead of gloss photo's and then not being able to touch them as you won't want to get finger marks all over the chrome.

Stay tuned in for part two we will be looking at the oyster lights, exhaust fans, sensor lights and spot lights. On Monday we will finish off by showing you the wall lights, ceiling fan breakfast bar pendants and the entry light. The entry light will surprise you.

Megan