KItchen Lighting - ZEP 1 advice.
Discussion
We are in the process of carrying out some extension work to create an open plan kitchen/diner/lounge space measuring approx 8m x 8m .I hear that the ZEP 1 lights come recommended on here and was thinking about this option.
Any advice/pictures from those that have these lights would be appreciated .
Thanks
Any advice/pictures from those that have these lights would be appreciated .
Thanks
It's always a bit difficult to photograph lighting and the effect it has on a room so I won't bother but I have ZEP1s throughout the house and I really like them.
I get to work in some pretty nice houses and these days most have LEDs of one sort or another. Generally the lighting in these houses is terrible. I find that dusk can be very telling, the transition from afternoon daylight to LED light, especially in kitchens, shows up the limitations of cheap, badly thought out LED lighting.
To be fair, LEDs are a pretty new product to most people and there's a lot of cheap chinese stuff on the market... who can tell how s
t a st LED light is going to be when it's still in it's box.
ZEP1s were/are expensive compared to other similar looking lights but I'm pleased I spent the money, the quality of the light is excellent.
I get to work in some pretty nice houses and these days most have LEDs of one sort or another. Generally the lighting in these houses is terrible. I find that dusk can be very telling, the transition from afternoon daylight to LED light, especially in kitchens, shows up the limitations of cheap, badly thought out LED lighting.
To be fair, LEDs are a pretty new product to most people and there's a lot of cheap chinese stuff on the market... who can tell how s
t a st LED light is going to be when it's still in it's box.ZEP1s were/are expensive compared to other similar looking lights but I'm pleased I spent the money, the quality of the light is excellent.
Another happy ZEP1 user here.
The lamps are very good, but with all lamps you must still make sure that you place them in the right place throughout the room.
In the kitchen, if you have a mixture of full height units, over worktop cabinets and places where there are no cabinets above the worktop. Then you will need the ceiling lamps in different positions to put light onto the worktop, and/or into an open cupboard. It will be most unlikely that a neat geometric grid of lights will actually give the best task illumination around the kitchen.
The lamps are very good, but with all lamps you must still make sure that you place them in the right place throughout the room.
In the kitchen, if you have a mixture of full height units, over worktop cabinets and places where there are no cabinets above the worktop. Then you will need the ceiling lamps in different positions to put light onto the worktop, and/or into an open cupboard. It will be most unlikely that a neat geometric grid of lights will actually give the best task illumination around the kitchen.
And me too.
They work well with dimmers, we use LighwaveRF and it works well.
Here's a pic of our kitchen (almost finished but not decorated. The walls are currently pure white, so you can get an idea of the tone of the (Warm white) ZEP1 DKLs we are using. It is a newly renovated 1938 house. This kitchen is 7.5 x 6m.
The centre island lamps are 5W "filament" LED bulbs from LED Hut - not cheap, but quality, dimmable items.
The thing to note is not to overdo it. Our ZEPs are all around the room - the centre is taken care of by the island, and there are areas of floor that are not directly lit - we rely on the spots bouncing light off the walls. and we use 13 lights, arranged in four quadrants. The cooking area has 4, all others have 3 - effectively around the perimeter of the room. You can't see most of the spotlights in this photo, but you can see the light they emit.
The light given is a decent, warm shade without being too yellow - not at all cold and clinical. We get no flickering with the Lighwave dimmers, which are in this room running mostly circuits of 3 bulbs (each quadrant has its own circuit/gang on the 4 gang dimmer). In short, very successful.
Go to the 10w variants. You can always dim them down, but it means you can get away with fewer units, and avoid peppering the ceiling in that dreadful style you see in so many new builds. I'd also advise a couple of extra quid for the DKLs. Not only does the black painted recess help with glare, they also look significantly more expensive compared than the standard units. Which they are not.
iPhone photo, but colour rendering is accurate, and I have not messed with the light settings. This is all the ceiling lights (13 x ZEP1 10wDKL + 3 x island pendant LEDs) on full setting. Easily light enough, without any of the under-cabinet task lighting turned on
I've said this before. The ZEPs are one of the purchases I really feel were worth it (many things were not). Quality engineering, and the light quality is fantastic - consistent between lamps, warm and not harsh and cold, as LEDs can often be. Spread from the spots (beam angle) is great too.
Kitchen complete by baconrashers, on Flickr
They work well with dimmers, we use LighwaveRF and it works well.
Here's a pic of our kitchen (almost finished but not decorated. The walls are currently pure white, so you can get an idea of the tone of the (Warm white) ZEP1 DKLs we are using. It is a newly renovated 1938 house. This kitchen is 7.5 x 6m.
The centre island lamps are 5W "filament" LED bulbs from LED Hut - not cheap, but quality, dimmable items.
The thing to note is not to overdo it. Our ZEPs are all around the room - the centre is taken care of by the island, and there are areas of floor that are not directly lit - we rely on the spots bouncing light off the walls. and we use 13 lights, arranged in four quadrants. The cooking area has 4, all others have 3 - effectively around the perimeter of the room. You can't see most of the spotlights in this photo, but you can see the light they emit.
The light given is a decent, warm shade without being too yellow - not at all cold and clinical. We get no flickering with the Lighwave dimmers, which are in this room running mostly circuits of 3 bulbs (each quadrant has its own circuit/gang on the 4 gang dimmer). In short, very successful.
Go to the 10w variants. You can always dim them down, but it means you can get away with fewer units, and avoid peppering the ceiling in that dreadful style you see in so many new builds. I'd also advise a couple of extra quid for the DKLs. Not only does the black painted recess help with glare, they also look significantly more expensive compared than the standard units. Which they are not.
iPhone photo, but colour rendering is accurate, and I have not messed with the light settings. This is all the ceiling lights (13 x ZEP1 10wDKL + 3 x island pendant LEDs) on full setting. Easily light enough, without any of the under-cabinet task lighting turned on
I've said this before. The ZEPs are one of the purchases I really feel were worth it (many things were not). Quality engineering, and the light quality is fantastic - consistent between lamps, warm and not harsh and cold, as LEDs can often be. Spread from the spots (beam angle) is great too.
Kitchen complete by baconrashers, on FlickrEdited by Harry Flashman on Thursday 8th December 13:25
they're really good -we used them in our kitchen diner revamp a few months ago. Replaced 12x 50W halogens with 8 of these and it looks superb -lovely consistent warm white light. Only mistake we made was not planning where we'd be standing/working in the kitchen when we chose the locations for the lights. Result is when you stand back and look at the room the light is perfectly distributed, but as soon as you stand at the worktop you ended up casting a shadow where you are working so we've had to install some additional lights under the kitchen units (LED strips -easy!) and even some hidden LED strips in the window recesses. Solved the problem but if we'd planned in advance it would have been a whole lot easier! Good lights though -make the cheap stuff in the DIY stores look really, well 'cheap' !
Edited by monoloco on Thursday 8th December 14:27
I've had mine in the kitchen for 5 years. We have LED GU10 down lighters in the adjacent utility room, the difference is like night and day, the ZEP1's are superb.
They're ideal for a kitchen actually as they have a diffuser which gives a lovely soft light without harsh shadows. Unlike GU10's which are a much harder light and not really suited for work areas.
I recommend them based on my experience, although I don't know what alternatives are now out there.
They're ideal for a kitchen actually as they have a diffuser which gives a lovely soft light without harsh shadows. Unlike GU10's which are a much harder light and not really suited for work areas.
I recommend them based on my experience, although I don't know what alternatives are now out there.
We have the ZEP1s and chose them because they came highly recommended on here. In general, they work OK but I am luke warm about them.
They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
bulldong said:
We have the ZEP1s and chose them because they came highly recommended on here. In general, they work OK but I am luke warm about them.
They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
Ours don't do this. Might be the transformers? Do you have one per light?They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
Super Slo Mo said:
bulldong said:
We have the ZEP1s and chose them because they came highly recommended on here. In general, they work OK but I am luke warm about them.
They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
Ours don't do this. Might be the transformers? Do you have one per light?They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either. We have a different brand of LED spots in our bathroom which I find much better as you can replace the bulb (if ever required), and they don't flicker. I asked the manufacturer/sales guy about it (by phone and email) and they never came back to me.
Personally, if I was doing it again, I would use the ones we have upstairs, and not the ZEP1 even though I have learnt to live with it.
ETA: house was totally rewired before we installed the ZEP1s and I must stress that no other lights in the house flicker.
bulldong said:
They do this thing where they just flicker occasionally (at random) in bursts. I have no idea why it happens, and our electrician doesn't either.
We have Zep1s in bedrooms, kitchen, office, bathroom and hallway, and other ECOLed products outside. They are great, except for one in the hall - when it is cold outside this one light flickers for about 5-10 seconds when turned on. Sparky can't work it out as we've changed the light and the driver, with no change. We put the light on its own driver - still flickers. Changed the light for another known good one - still flickers. But it is only when the temperature outside drops, usually starts in November time, but it never does it in the warmer months. We've just learned to live with it.The light from the Zep1s is good though.
CAPP0 said:
Speak to Guy (E36GUY on here) at Ecoled, not only will you get a great price but he will also advise on placement and quantity. All about lighting the task areas iirc!
This - he is very hot on using the correct number of lights: to the point of telling me that my original lighting design had too many units. He was absolutely right, and we bought fewer units from him as a result.He knew damned well that they were so good that we'd be back for more, though. All bathrooms have them, as does a section of the loft conversion. We have also bought ZEP6s and some of their in-ground uplighters for accent lighting around the house and garden.
He will also tell you that they are one part of a lighting solution. He's right - keep ceiling pendants and wall lights if you have them, as they can be used for different layers in the room. Our kitchen also has 2 wall lights, out of shot, which gives a lovely, moody glow when you use them, the island lights and the cabinet lights, with all the spots switched off.
ETA - interested to hear the flickering problems. We have fitted nearly 50 ZEPs of various descriptions, with no issues, but the ones in cold areas (porch etc) are yet to be installed...
Edited by Harry Flashman on Thursday 8th December 16:16
I have a Zep2s in my house and have a similar effect. I actually just blamed the vpro dimmers they are on.
Basically very rarely when you turn them on, they go off on then off then on again which is the vpro entering setup mode.
No idea why it is doing it, but all the rooms do it every now and then, so its possible it isnt the LEDs
I also had 3 sparks come and look, and also called up Vpro that said it was setup mode, and Yes when you actively enter setup mode it does the same thing. However I wasnt actively entering setup mode.....
I have lived with it, and it seems to happen less frequently now than it did - but maybe I am just getting used to it
Basically very rarely when you turn them on, they go off on then off then on again which is the vpro entering setup mode.
No idea why it is doing it, but all the rooms do it every now and then, so its possible it isnt the LEDs
I also had 3 sparks come and look, and also called up Vpro that said it was setup mode, and Yes when you actively enter setup mode it does the same thing. However I wasnt actively entering setup mode.....
I have lived with it, and it seems to happen less frequently now than it did - but maybe I am just getting used to it
Super Slo Mo said:
bulldong said:
We are using the transformers supplied with them. One per light.
Ok. Do the ones on the same switch/circuit flicker simultaneously or is it random which ones will do it?It does tie in with the colder temps but it is difficult to tell because we barely use the lights in summer due to our house having windows on all sides and it being light until 10pm, so maybe we just don't notice it because we don't use them. They don't continuously flicker, just when they do it is like "ah ffs, flickering lights again" - like a constant reminder that I didn't quite get that aspect of the renovation right
.The only thing I do know, is that no other lights in our house flicker, and there is never a problem with inconsistent power supply which would mean things like the oven turning on and off, or computers going on and off, or the internet etc.
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 8th December 16:33
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