What downlights in Fake Wood beams?

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MrDavidRoberts

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I have a task to create a fake wood beam to cover up some nasty old piping which can't be moved, also... to install downlights in said fake beam.
like this:

contemporary-family-and-games-room.jpg


Question: What lights are to be used in such stuff? The regular gu10 Led spotlights seems VERY large and you would need the beam massive for it to not look like rubbish, are there any smaller lights with smaller dimensions/diameter which would be good for such task? The power doesn't have to be massive, even 1W Led Lights would do, I have found some ''plinth lights'' however they are way too dim/small for this task+ they do not have a good case to insulate against the wood unlike gu10 with their case/gap,do not want to do it in some weird way that it creates a fire hazard.
I have found some chinese lights on ebay, however...They are 12v! Do not want that...

Is there anything like this on market?
 
In my last flat, a big victorian house conversion, the hallway ceiling was far to high for the now narrowed hall. When we did a bit of work in there the builder recommended lowering the ceiling. Not only did it give us a load of extra storage it made the hallway feel more balanced and therefore bigger although it was a good 3 foot lower. It was just a better space for the brain to accept. The sparks put in some low voltage led bulbs, similar to christmas tree lights to reduce heat and motor space. I was very dubious but I trusted the builder (a mate) and went with it. It looked brilliant. Loads of light and safe as houses. Really worked a treat.
Can't give any more advice but just goes to show what knowledge and experience can bring to a job. I'd be consulting a decent, well recommended sparks. Won't be cheapest option but it might save you a costly mistake as well.
Just a thought.
 
We lowered the ceiling in our bathroom, by about 2'6" (possibly 3'). It looks bigger! It had a 10ft ceiling and a huge window, which chilled it in the winter. It's now snug and warm, and there's room to hide the plumbing from upstairs nicely, and no need to wreck the joists by cutting big notches in them.

It's got the 12V equivalent of GU10s in it. You might consider the LED equivalents too as they run pretty cool, and you can get the sockets for the backs of the bulbs on their own (with wire tails), so you could contrive to fit them in a smaller space than usual - would work well with LEDs but halogens would probably overheat. I've also seen a sort of "starfield" effect with much smaller bulbs, but I've no idea where those come from, and there's even fibre optics for domestic use now if you have deep pockets.
 
Leds are very simple to wire, and if you can solder then you are virtually there and the only thing stopping you is your own imagination, you can use almost any dc power supply, us railway modellers tend to use 12v regulated psu's but any from 3v upwards can be used, it's just a case of using a suitable resistor with the leds, and buying the individual leds is so much cheaper than buying ready made units, with the individual leds you could have as many as you want in the beam,
 
MrDavidRoberts":2ll1alvo said:
I have a task to create a fake wood beam to cover up some nasty old piping which can't be moved, also... to install downlights in said fake beam.
like this:

contemporary-family-and-games-room.jpg

I have no idea about the lights but I am interested in how you will make the beams.
 
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