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Is 60 watts enough for peninsula

16 years ago

I have a small peninsula (36 x 57 inches) with 2 bar stool on the overhang. I had a guy from lampsplus come over to give receommendation for a pendant light for the peninsula and a light for my dining room.

He suggested One orangy color pendant light about 4 to 5 inches in diameter above my peninsula. It will be 60 watts. Will this be enough lighting for me to eat dinner at the counter and read the newspaper?

If anyone doesn't mind checking the 2 pendants out at http://www.lampsplus.com for item number 17067 or 16347, I would love to hear which you would recommend.

My kitchen is 10 x 12 feet with giallo venizano full backsplash granite and counter with honey spice color beech shaker style cabinets and satin nicket knobs and pulls with stainless steel appliances.

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Comments (7)

leel
16 years ago
Send him back to lighting school!! No way is 60 W sufficient.
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User
16 years ago
I agree, what kind of lighting consultant is he?

Sixty watts doesn't even begin to give you enough light. Maybe six of those would give you enough light to eat and read the paper, maybe. My neighbor has something similar to 17067, but there are three lights per pendant and she has 3 pendants over the island.

As you can see they show three over the peninsula, and they have 75 watt bulbs. The other one takes fluorescent bulbs, you may not be happy with them. After a short time, they start to come on slowly, and the color of the light isn't always pleasant.

Watts was one of the most important considerations when I looked for lighting for my kitchen. Anything less than 100 watts, I didn't even look at.

Good luck
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If 60w incandescents don't give enough illumination, then as vate says, you can simply use CFL bulbs. A 23w CFL puts out roughly as much light (lumens) as a 100w incandescent bulb, but easily fits within your 60w limit. A 32w CFL is roughly equivalent to a 150w incandescent. 40w CFL is roughly equivalent to a 200w incandescent - that might be a bit much. If you want a warmer, yellower light similar to an incandescent bulb, then make sure you get a ''soft white'' or ''warm'' CFL with light ''temperature'' around 2700 Kelvin, not a ''daylight'' CFL. Of course, the color of the pendant shade will influence the light color too. Some particularly small pendants can't physically fit the larger CFLs above 23w, so take a quick measurement.
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jy_md
16 years ago
I would rather err on the side of too much lighting (is there such a thing?) than too little. So, if there are 3 pendants (my minimum) and it's too bright with 60 watt bulbs, you can always go down to 40 or even 25 watt bulbs. What I'm finding is that aging eyes (over 40) need LOTS of light.
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silvia_2007
Original Author
16 years ago
I do have other lighting in my 10x 12 kitchen. I have 4 recess lights , each with 65 watts and 2 recess lights above the kitchen sink (each 50 watts) and undercabinet pucks for my cabinets.

Do you still think 75 watts ( for 17067) would be enough lighting for above my kitchen penninsula?
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cbreeze
16 years ago
Having 4 recess lights for overall lighting for your 10x12 kitchen is not enough.The lights are downcast and if you don't have chandelier lighting in addition, I think your kitchen would be too dark. I still think you need more than one pendant for your peninsular where you eat and read.
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teedup1
16 years ago
75 watts over a penninsula is not enough light to read by. I have 150 watts over a 42-inch kitchen table and surely never need to dim it.

Two or more fixtures (pendants) over a penninsula look and light better than one fixture.

Where are the pictures of your finished kitchen (except some lighting) posted, Silvia?
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native_tx
16 years ago
My peninsula/bar is 102" x 41" with 3 bar stools. I installed 3 pendant lights, 20" apart, 35" above the bar surface. My fixtures have frosted white shades (see link below). I use 60W bulbs with a dimmer. Although the fixtures are rated for 100W, I have found that at 60W, I can use smaller bulbs that don't show as much and the light is just fine for reading. They can also be dimmed for more ambience when we entertain.

The orange pendants you are considering will most likely project less light due to the colored shade (but they are nice looking!). To get adequate light coverage for reading, I think you need more than 1 fixture. For practicality, you probably only need 2 (1 over each bar stool), but the "rule of thumb" with this sort of thing is that odd numbers look better to the eye. Three fixtures may be a squeeze as my 20" spacing is about as close as I would recommend. And 20" between 3 fixtures leaves only 8.5" at both ends. You can think about this in your space - maybe hang cords with paper cutout shades to help visualize. Choosing smaller fixtures may help.

An alternate solution may be one larger fixture with multiple bulbs. Let us know what you choose.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pendants
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