How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Some photos of man examining things in house

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Build looking great but I can't look at pic 3 due to strong Blair Witch vibes.

I’ve never seen it!

ceiling mounted downlights. what’s the consensus regarding LED fixtures that have the lamp built in as opposed to using gu10 bulbs?

And has anyone used the nordlux moodmaker lights? like the idea of having a very dim outer ring light to leave on for nighttime pee visits but wonder if you end up flicking the switch in frustration as it’s never at the setting you want and would be better off with just a conventional dimmer

https://www.lampsy.com/products/nordlux-fallon-surface-mounted-led-downlight-with-moodmaker

Integrated are good value at the moment and can solve some fitting issues. There far more complicated systems becoming more popular (Dali etc.) for controlling extra low voltage lighting in domestic properties which will likely become the norm.

If you buy integrated and one fails in 6 or 7 years, will you be able to get the same model? A lot of installers are buying an extra fitting and leaving it on site for this kind of thing.

Most important thing you should be considering is the CRI value (colour rendition index). In terms of night time dimming, you will learn to operate whatever type of dimmer you have to suit your needs. I like Lutron but visitors and the cleaner have never been able to figure them out.

Lots to love here. Can't wait to see if finished.

The Orluna air fixed are really nice, beautiful diffused light and sharp finish.

At a cheaper option, the lucide gypsy is a nice light, not as sharp as the Orluna but much cheaper

We had something generic installed with the kitchen, no idea what, don't really care, it just works.

We had IKEA smart ones in our old house bathroom. They were good for dimming and fancy smarts. I had them setup for a single dimmed downlight with a motion sensor, will probably do this again when we do the bathroom in this place.

@airhead good point about buying a spare, hadn’t though of that, i’m on board with CRI, i’m a photographer so am aware not all light sources are created equal, in my current place i have 4000ºK everywhere as i’m not a fan of tungsten as i find the yellow a bit grim.

@Tenderloin good shout, there is also the Astro Kos which is probably between the 2 in price/finish.

@Grumpy_Git am considering this for the lounge/diner as new lamp over dining area is on the lounge switch as splitting them would mean lots more concrete chasing so if they are smart i can split them apart and maybe have one on a motion switch from 1am-6am for low level bathroom visits.

Are you confusing colour temperature with Color Rendition Index which is measured as a percentage? Halogen is circa 98% a lot of led is less than 90%. As an example aubergine would look black in a lot of led light.

No, was schooled in mired shift, CC, kelvin, spikes in spectral graphs, Gamut etc etc so know what CRI and TLCI are.
was commenting on my dislike of 3200ºk in domestic settings and using 4000ºk lighting.
I even picked the RGB values of the grey walls to work with the colour temperature of the bulbs and reflected north light in the room.

I work with colour/light every day so it’s a bit of a ‘thing’ for me.

Why are you even considering the lights you linked to which are only 80% CRI then?

Hadn’t got that into detail plus they are for a hallway/passageway.

Ok, seems like the biggest problem with integrated at the moment, lack of high CRI options. For hallways it's probably not that important though.

To be fair it seems like the general population is getting its head around colour temperature these days. Halogen has the tendency to get warmer when you dim it which is a characteristic a lot of people like, there are some high cri leds that emulate this.

Does it seem crazy to have the bottom right cupboard dedicated to a bin for the bathroom? Would lower the shelf. The other two will be laundry baskets.

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Not sure I understand.

You need a bin. It can either be out or in a cupboard, right? The only thing is how far away is it from the toilet? It might be a pain to have to walk your used sanitary products over to a cupboard.

IME with recycling as it is now, it would be useful to have a recycling bin. So a small toilet-side bin, plus a larger one in a cupboard sounds like the ideal scenario.

I suppose I'm thinking is it a waste of storage space but then I really don't want to have a bin on display. Hadn't really thought about re-cycling...so maybe a dual bin in that bottom right cupboard.

I'm loving the look of Vola taps for my Kitchen but can't really ever justify spending £900 on a tap. Is there any brands I should look for that are there with the quality and functionality but half the price?

Anyone got experience of a central heating system with a plate heat exchanger separate from the boiler?

My prehistoric boiler pilot light has gone out for the second time this winter. Last time I got it to relight after a couple of hours trying. Tonight it's taking longer. Time for a new boiler. (Hopefully it will light later and I can delay this until the weather is better.)

The current system isn't pressurised and one heating engineer has suggested that if we do pressurise it I'll probably have leaks in the old pipework in the most inconvenient places. He recommended a new condensing boiler connected to a plate heat exchanger to keep the old bit separate which would also have the advantage of isolating the new boiler from the old crude. Boiler and hot water tank are in the garage with loads of space.

What is the best form of heating? My Victorian Terrace has a single radiator on the ground floor and it did very little over the cold spell we just suffered.

Our initial plan was to go for a wood burner however after reading comments here and online about the effect on the environment and on our health we changed our mind.

We next thought about a gas stove that looks like a wood burner but I then read about the health risks related to these. I have a very extensive history of Cancer in my family so I'd like to limit my exposure to anything that may increase my risk.

Finally, we have been considering underfloor heating. My only concerns with this are the cost of running and how effective it actually is at heating the space.

Radiators are still an option but I'm not a fan of them aesthetically

Thoughts?.

Underfloor heating with a heat pump but you probably want some insulation too.

If you have no central heating right now underfloor plus heat pump plus make the house well insulated plus probably solar.
If you have or can get the money.

Am I missing something? If you already have a working boiler and other rads, just add more rads on the ground floor. Anything else is going to be a very expensive soliton to not really liking the look of rads.

If you have the money: ASHP, loads of insulation and wet underfloor heating.

This ^

Although ufh is great bc no ugly rads 😁

Radiators it is then.