We’ve installed a lot of downlights lately. We’ve had great feedback from our customers, because we really think about their installation.
Downlights can be tricky because they need to be installed in practical locations, but to look good they also need to be evenly spaced between each other, centred to the room, and they need to line up with each other and other things on your ceiling (like aircon vents). They also must be located in a place the ceiling timber and roof construction allows. It can be a juggling act satisfying all these parameters, but at Athelstone Electrical we put the quality of the job first, ensuring the end result is practical and also looks stunning!
The other day one of our customers, Alan in Hope Valley, said “unlike other tradies, you actually think about how the installation can be the best, and I really appreciate that!”
Downlights are a great way to give your rooms an even spread of light, reduce dark corners, and they’re very discrete on the ceiling to reduce your ceiling clutter.
Our favourite downlight is the Haneco Viva 9W LED downlights. Haneco is an Adelaide based company, and we love to support local! Not only that, they offer 4 year warranty on their downlight – where many other downlights only come with 1-2 years. When we do a job we know that our installation will be reliable and not require call backs for faulty fittings. Haneco are not the cheapest downlight, but they are reasonably priced, and definitely the best value for money.
They are super efficient, which means they don’t generate much heat as a byproduct of the light they emit.
9 watts for 880 Lumens of light output is great efficiency, and is an improvement compared to older LED downlights which are 15 to 20 watts, as little as 2 years ago. And it is a massive improvement from the halogen downlights, which are 35W – 50W. We swapped over some halogens to LEDs in a living area the other day- there were 12 in total. They were much brighter in the room, but also the cost of running them was reduced from 600 Watts to just 108 Watts! They were switched in banks so the customer could reduce the consumption even more when convenient.
On top of that, the LEDs won’t blow globes like the halogens! They were constantly replacing the globes, but with the Haneco downlights, you know you’re good for at least 4 years, probably many more. And if one does stop working for any reason call us and we’ll swap it over under warranty – no questions asked (hasn’t ever happened to us yet!). We keep all our documents electronically so you won’t even need to find your receipt to be covered by the warranty.
Haneco downlights are compatible with all major dimmers (phase-cut dimmers) – and operate without flickering like cheaper downlights.
These downlights also have an IC rating of IC-4 meaning they are legally allowed to be covered by your ceiling insulation – unlike older downlights.
When halogen downlights were introduced to the housing market many many house fires were caused by poor installation – because they run so hot! So to reduce fire danger, the rules were that they couldn’t be installed too close to ceiling timbers, and they couldn’t be covered with ceiling insulation. This lead to many homes with downlights having much of their ceiling insulation removed (often done without the knowledge of the home owner) – which then makes the air conditioning more expensive to run! Because the home is now less insulated for the roof temperature!
We love the Haneco downlights because they work happily under the insulation. Unlike other tradies, we always put ceiling insulation back in place if we move it, and always cover your Haneco LED downlights, meaning we can all enjoy more energy efficient homes, we can all enjoy smaller energy bills and do our bit for the environment.
We never leave rubbish behind at your home – we take away all packaging for parts we’ve supplied, we clean up any mess we had to make, and we recycle everything we can.
