Table lighting under a low ceiling

[pottr]

I think the four would be a bit much. My two give off a massive amount of light and the ceiling in this room is lower than mine.

[jarcher]

If this was my room, I'd spend a bit extra and go with 4 x 5ft dextra a and set them up like the TV tables, ie, 2 end to end, off centre and angled slightly towards the opposite side of the table, then do the same with the next two. With one the two lights running down the centre, they may be too close to the bed and give the bright centre of the table and dark side cushions.

I'm only suggesting this as I've recently installed new lights in my club, and I really had to get them as high as I could above the table due to the darkness at the side cushions and corner pockets, and this was with daylight tubes. You could also then consider ordering the fittings with diffusers rather than the CAT2 louvre

[philip in china]

I have a similar problem in my place in Bulgaria. The snooker room is OK but I have a room which I am going to convert to a classroom and home cinema. The idea is that the room can be used as an Audio Visual equipped classroom so we can watch videos of how we play. That way we can improve. Then in the evenings we can watch movies. The problem is that the ceiling is quite low. I am only 5'6" so it is less of a problem for me than big guys. I thought I would have the ceiling white to try to give an illusion of more height.

BTW does anybody on the forum know anything about home cinema?

[Bazil]

silly question, but the table is part of the house deal?

Not a silly question at all - yes it is part of it.

The original house particulars stated "...snooker table (available by separate negotiation)"

However, I specified that the offer I made for the house included the snooker table - so
we never had a "separate negotiation" as such.

[DeanH]

silly question, but the table is part of the house deal?

[Bazil]

As I said in my original post, the circuit on which I'll put these is already separate from the spots - so there is a separate switch.

Like the idea of a linked scoreboard light - although, as daft as it sounds, I can't remember there being a scoreboard in there at all!! I'm sure there must be one - I just can't picture it!! I've only been there twice!! I'll know in a couple of weeks.

[pottr]

Leave the other lights, just run the snooker light off a different switch, perhaps buy a scoreboard light and pair it up with the snooker one.

The existing lights won't interfere with the new as they won't be on at the same time.

I have no idea what the failure rate is to be fair, I just like to be prudent. Once bitten and all that.

They really are a bargain. There are better models for sure. I think Throtts has the Luminaire LS-12002 set up for his table. They're a better set up for sure. But three times the price and harder to install as they are trickier to surface mount being a bit heavier.

The dextras really are a bargain.

[Bazil]

Many thanks Chaps – that’s excellent!

Pottr – great info on the bulbs. If you’ve got them and you’re happy with them – that’s good enough for me. Moreover, I assumed I’d be spending a few hundred pounds, so that’s an absolute bargain too!! Good call on the spare transformer too. If that’s a likely point of failure – it’d be mad not to have one up my sleeve for £15.

I’ll get some ordered so that I can do

Terry – good pics on that site. Can see exactly what we’re talking about. 

Mick Dundee – I guess I’ll work out what to do with the existing lights once I’ve got these bad boys up! I can see me just losing the ones over the middle of the end rails though.

[Terry Davidson]

Go to the SouthWest Snooker Academy website to see these lights and their reflectors. The are set somewhat higher than your ceiling but what got to me is just how bright these fixtures are and how they cover the whole table perfectly.

I didn't know about these lights when I had my facility done so I hung 5 x 4ft double fluorescent fixtures crossways with the 40Watt bulbs so that's costing me 400Watts of power when I could've had much better lighting at less wattage.

Terry

[Mick Dundee]

You could change the halogen fittings with led spots
If you get the right ones they diffuse the light better,so no shadows
No heat and are brighter especially in cool white
That way there's no holes to fill

[pottr]

Worth adding, they are remarkably easy to position and install.

I can't believe that the coffin shades still exist in clubs considering how cheap these are. The benefit more than outweighs the expenditure.

[pottr]

Yes, they will light the table better than you could imagine. There will be very little in the way of shadows from the balls.
My ceiling height is 7'10" so not much in terms of difference.

The diffuser which covers the tubes eliminates the glare you would expect.

You need the t8 fluorescent tubes. 5ft 58 watts, they're pretty cheap and will last ages. The two dextra units are 5ft long, placed end on end and centred over the table.

The tubes you need to buy are the cool white colour. You can have daylight ones also but they are a touch brighter. If the pictured room cool white would be best.

You can get the whole set up for about £130 delivered.

One word of caution, when I bought mine, one of the transformers inside the module was faulty. I had it replaced and bought the backup part for about £15 incase it ever happens again.

[Bazil]

Thanks Guys - really appreciate your help.

It's amazing how much more noticeable things are on a ceiling that is just 6 inches lower than standard. It feels like they're almost eye level! So, I quite like the idea of the oak frame (matching the table) to make it a bit of a feature, rather than worrying about making it as discrete as possible.

Questions...

1) Will they light the table effectively if they're on a 7' ceiling. Pottr - if you have them already, do you think this would work at this height?

2) What bulbs do you have in them? I picked up from the other threads that they need to be high frequency, but what about the wattage? Are there options? I don't think I've ever bought a fluorescent light!

[pottr]

The ones Dean mention are what you need.

They're what I have. I fully intended to clad them in some Oak but when they arrived, they looked better than their price would indicate. I left them bare.

[DeanH]

have you read the posts about Dextra Duets? These are High Frequency strip lights and two 5' units placed end to end will cover a full size table perfectly when placed 5' above the table bed.
If you say the ceiling is 7', minus the height of the table so it will be less than 5' but they could still work, hopefuly a table fitter will pop on with precise information.
But the units themselves are relatively unobtusive.