Ceiling light recommendations

[nickelplate759]

I will have a shiny new hobby room soon.  It will host an n scale layout and my hobby workbench.

It will have two ceiling light fixtures in about a 9.5' x 12' room.  I get to pick the fixtures - they will be surface mount.   Choices are as follows (both LED)

4' strip (8" wide), settable color temp (3000K, 4000K, 5000K), 3800 lumens, 90 CRI
4'x2' flat panel (3" thick), settable color temp (3500k, 4000K, 5000k), 4000 lumens, 80 CRI

I'm good with 4000k for color temp.
Both are dimmable.

I'm attracted to the 4x2 panel, because two of those panels will provide 16 square feet of diffuse light, which should help avoid any sharp shadows.

I'm attracted to the 4' strip because of the 90 CRI.

Thoughts?

I'm not looking for suggestions for a wholly different kind solution for layout lighting - this is just the base layout room lighting - I have another circuit I can use for track lighting or layout-specific strips or tape lights.

[Mdrzycimski]

Since this is for basic room lighting, I would go with the 4x2 flat panels at 4000k.  If the color is changeable after they are installed, you want to play with the 5000k color to see how it looks in the room.  It is closer to 6500k daylight color which makes the colors of the layout look better.  However, it may be too blue (cold) of a color and may not be pleasing in the room.

[wm3798]

I would get two sets of track lighting with movable heads.  I used such a set up in my attic layout room and it worked really well.
First, with LED directional floods, you can install as many heads as is practical ( following mfr recommended practices of course)

This let's you focus several lamps on any part of the layout whether you are working on a precise trackwork repair, or taking good quality photographs.   Reset them for good general and key lighting when company calls.  Get dimmable lamps and appliances,  and you can monkey with different lighting effects, too

Highly recommended.






Lee

[nickelplate759]

Nice Lighting effects @wm3798!

[wm3798]

Thanks.  If memory serves, I had two tracks and six heads on each track.  I could position them in such a way that they flooded the room nicely for operation, or focus them on a particular spot for photos.  Since the room was a sloped ceiling attic, it made for a really good effect from just about any angle.


Lee

[robert3985]

For my layout room, my workshop, my paint room, my spray booth, my layout lights...I have gone to 5000k lights. This gives me no surprises when matching paint or taking photos on my workbench, at my drawing table or on my layout.

For upstairs, where I relax, eat, sleep, have company periodically and watch TV, I go with warmer lighting.

I installed a bright LED surface mount lamp in my spraybooth which has adjustable color temperatures, thinking that would be handy.  In the 1.5 years since I did that, I have not once taken it off 5000k.

IMO, 5000k would be the right color temperature for your layout room...and, your workshop.

Although I have the equivalent of 600 watts of incandescent light power with my 5000k LED ceiling lights, I still use swing-arm drafting lamps every 3' attached to the top of my skyboard so I can adjust my lighting if I need to work on something on the layout, or take a close-up photo of something.  It's very handy to be able to just reach up and move my light source downward to increase the light in that particular spot if needed or wanted.  Then, it's handy to be able to just move it back to its original position after I'm finished.  Since my railhead to floor nominal distance is 52", and the tops of my skyboard are at  72", my swing-arm drafting lamps don't get noticed very much when operating my layout since the layout is much more brightly lit than what's above my skyboard.

It works well for me, with utility being my main concern.  If my layout wasn't portable and had lighting fascia above the layout, I would probably do something different, but...I'm pretty sure you're going to find that your ceiling lights don't offer enough concentrated light for illuminating your layout when you're working on it...but will work just fine for general overall lighting of the room.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore