Room lighting

[basementcalling]

Looking for advice and suggestions on perhaps the most subjective topic in model railroading: room lighting.

I have a 19x20 foot basement, finished, that needs a lighting upgrade. Right now I have 4 flushmounted ceiling lights. One spotlights the fireplace and is fine, but the other three are not satisfying my older eyes with a layout with 2 decks on its central peninsula. The central aisle is especially dim as none of the lights is directly over this area.

I've been searching out options that involve a minimum of alterations to existing wiring. I am not an electrician, I do not play one on TV, and I have never slept at a Holiday Inn Express, so 120V wiring is a dicey proposition here.

Another option would be to replace the square, cheap, flush mount lighting sockets with a larger flouro fixture in each area.

Trying to get a handle on how various options would work BEFORE buying and paying someone to install them isn't as easy as I thought. How are you shedding light around your layout room?

[C855B]

Start here in my layout engineering thread and scan to the end of the thread. Lots of discussion about lighting in there.

Additional: today I installed an Envirolite LED troffer ordered from Home Depot as a test. This was the slightly more expensive version, not the "three tube" design. Very nice. Not plug-and-play like you're looking for, but lots of very even light with really low energy consumption. Recommended.

[Scottl]

I have similar lighting in my smaller room.  I am going with track light conversion kits that screw into the existing lights and allow mounting track lighting.  Although I am amenable to LED lighting, I don,t think it is cost effective currently and I will use CFL spotlight bulbs, which have good colour rendition and the lumens needed for my eyes. 

[MVW]

Peter, my low-tech attempt at dealing with the same problem involves LED under-cabinet lights. The particular type I found, you can daisy-chain up to 10 of the units, and they can be dimmed with most standard rheostats. They're not cheap, though -- about $25 each on sale, $30 each otherwise.

I just screwed 'em to a 2x4, and screwed the 2x4 into the ceiling joists. A valance can be hung from the 2x4. No electrician required.

Jim

[Chris333]

I use these with CFLs:
http://www.partylights.com/Commercial-String-Lights/Commercial-Medium-String-Lights/48-Medium-Base-Stringer-Black

[basementcalling]

Mike, thanks. Been following your progress and noting info on lighting, but much of your decision making seems based on your large scale commercial applications. Good info on lumens and temperature though.

Scott, I've not been able to find square conversion kits locally. My recessed lights are in a square enclosure. I could probably go with a flouro fixture large enough to cover the hole and just remove the recessed hardware. Adapting to a track system would leave a visible patch job in an already finished drywall ceiling.

Chris, how long is the cable from plug to first socket? That set up looks very intriguing. I like the idea of using CFL bulbs to provide plenty of illumination without overloading the string.