Ash Beck of A.M.P.S Electrical in St Austell talks us through the lighting design scheme of a new build project with an upside-down layout in Cornwall. Pairing LED strip lighting with our ZBARLED for smooth, flicker-free lighting control.
Name: Ash Beck
Company: A.M.P.S Electrical
The job
When you’re lucky enough to have a stunning landscape on the doorstep of your property the chances are, you’ll want to make the most of it. So, it comes as no surprise that the upside-down floor plan is often the best architectural decision of choice for new build properties along the Cornish coastline.
The basis of an upside-down floorplan puts the bedrooms on the ground floor and the living areas occupy a home’s first floor. Allowing the most used and sociable spaces of a property – the kitchen, living and dining room areas – to enjoy panoramic views of (in this case) the glistening coastline of Constantine Bay in North Cornwall.
With magnificent views overlooking Trevose Golf & Country Club and Constantine Bay, when electrical engineer, Ash Beck of A.M.P.S Electrical was asked to carry out the electrical planning and lighting work of a new build property in Trevose Close in the Constantine Bay area, he had the perfect idea in mind for the lighting in order to transform and accentuate the property’s upside-down layout.
The planning phase
Often, lighting can be left as an afterthought, at a stage in the project when it is often too late to incorporate certain controls, fixtures and fittings without a great deal of disruption and extra expense. To create a lighting scheme that works perfectly for the size, shape and style of a property, the key lies in planning early and enlisting a team of professionals that have the technical expertise, attention to detail and knowledge to best transform the space – and whose skillsets all work together and complement each other in the best way possible.
With the project in question, Travose Close, the homeowners recruited JAM Interiors - an interior design company based in the southwest of England - to take their dream to completion, and who, as part of their comprehensive service specified the property’s lighting design scheme down to the last detail. The project involved thorough forward planning and included a high specification of materials in the design phase of the project.
Knowing exactly what was wanted and what was needed by the interior designer and homeowner, and working closely with local building contractor Alistair Richards, Ash was able to use his experience and expertise to introduce products to the project that transformed what was possible with the lighting design scheme across the property.
The project scope
Helping to capture the wonderful scenic views of Constantine Bay and its surroundings and bring the outdoors in, the property was built and designed with multiple windows and glass doors across the length and breadth of the property - providing plenty of natural light throughout. It was key for the lighting design scheme to complement and work with the natural light available, create depth and height and draw attention to the property’s most impressive areas such as the upside-down layout and the upstairs open plan living and dining area.
With a high apex ceiling on the first floor spanning the length of the property, Ash knew that the project cried out for LED strip lighting within the box section of the apex to accentuate the apex and add focus to the ceiling.
Having a similar apex style ceiling in his own home Ash was confident that the addition of LED strip lighting would work well – perfect for darker, grey days, and evening time when the property’s natural light source diminishes, and a solid source of lighting is required throughout. Easily and stylishly concealed within a bespoke box section made out of plasterboard by the project’s building contractor, with ledges on the back of the plasterboard to frame and house the LED strip lighting.
Not only was Ash keen to introduce LED strip lighting to the project, but alongside the interior designer, he was confident that the lighting design scheme across the property needed to be dimmable from multiple control points. Having worked with Zano Controls’ ZBARLED on numerous occasions before, Ash knew that Zano’s ZBARLED remote dimming pack would be an ideal addition to the project to provide flicker-free and silent multi-point dimming and lighting control. What’s more, with a handmade glass lighting pendant specified within the plans for the property’s living area within the interior designer’s lighting scheme – Ash needed a dimmer that would be able to cope with the complications of dimming large and mixed loads.
Multi-point dimming control with ZBARLED
Ash was able to supply his choice of LED strip lighting, LED spotlights and LED wall fittings across the property while JAM interiors supplied the handmade glass lighting pendant and a set of retro glass pendants for the kitchen. The property had 10 lighting circuits across the upstairs kitchen-dining/living area in total and after calculating the total load of each circuit, Ash knew that 9 of the ZBARLED300 remote dimming packs would work well to control a large majority of the fittings and fixtures, with one ZBARLED1000 required for to control the LED strip lighting in the box section of the apex ceiling.
The ZBARLED300 was chosen to provide flicker-free and silent multi-point dimming of a mix of spotlights and wall lights by Astro Lighting across the 9 upstairs circuits, including FossLED Nano Linear 10W Strip lighting in the kitchen under the cabinets and the handmade glass lighting pendant as chosen by the interior designer. With no limit to the number of control points that can be added to each circuit, Ash paired each ZBARLED remote dimming pack with a number of Zano Controls’ ZBAR rotary controllers in the grid version - specifically designed to control ZBARLED remote dimmers – to fit into the MK grid system and provide multi-point lighting control across the upstairs of the property. 16 ZBAR controllers were used in total throughout the upstairs of the property. In the main living space, for example, Ash had one row of Astro Ascoli spotlights connected to one ZBARLED300 remote dimming pack to provide dimming control from multiple points.
Ash chose to go with FossLED’s LINEAR range for the LED strip lighting in the box section of the apex ceiling, pairing it nicely with Zano Controls’ ZBARLED1000 remote dimming pack. Using 22.6 meters of the FossLED Linear Strip listed as 20W per meter, (split into 4 custom cut sections of 5.6 meters each that were fed from both ends and met in the middle) produced a total load of just over 400W/VA. LED strip lighting, by default, lists wattage per meter and produces a large inrush current on startup, so the ZBARLED1000 was required to cope with the large load - inrush and all.
Fantastic results
With the homeowners expected to move in mid-April 2021, the property is yet to be finished in its entirety, but the results so far are impressive, and everyone involved in the project so far, from Ash himself, to the team at JAM Interiors and Alistair Richards Construction, are ever so pleased with the progress.
Set apart on Trevose Close as a remarkable property that stands approximately 35.12 metres above sea level with remarkable views over the popular and sandy Constantine Bay beach that is popular with tourists and surfers in the Summer months.
Project summary
Name of project: Trevose Close, Padstow, Cornwall
Contractor: Ash Beck
Bio: An electrician for 18 years, Ash Beck at A.M.P.S Electrical in St Austell, Cornwall went straight into an electrical apprenticeship from school where he completed his training and joined the A.M.P.S Electrical team. Ash considers himself a bit of a workaholic, telling us quite simply that ‘you’ll always find me working!’
A.M.P.S are a team of 12 hardworking electrical engineers that carry out complete electrical installations, across domestic, commercial and industrial settings in the St Austell area of Cornwall. The owners are husband and wife team, Jamie and Sophie Kitts who set up A.M.P.S Electrical in 2003.
Brief: New build electrical planning and lighting for a property with an upside-down layout in Constantine Bay, North Cornwall.
Wholesaler: CEF Saint Austell
Total number of circuits: 10
Dimming products installed:
x 1 ZBARLED1000
x 9 ZBARLED300
Switches/controllers:
x 16 ZGRIDBARCR (rotary grid controllers) paired with the MK grid system.
Lamps and fittings:
LED Strip Lighting for the Apex -
FossLED LINEAR warm white at 20watts per metre.
Total span of room is 11.3metres, lit both sides of apex so 4 x 5.65metre tapes measured to cut by Foss. 22.6 metres of FossLED LINEAR white strip total.
Powered by 2 x 300watt dimmable drivers.
Total of tape = 452watts.
ZBARLED1000 used for this.
LED strip lighting in the kitchen –
FossLED 10W per metre linear warm white LED strip installed in recessed Nano aluminium profile under kitchen units.
Spotlights –
8 x Astro Ascoli spotlights in the kitchen. Paired with Aurora 5W GU10 lamps.
5 x Astro Ascoli spotlights in living area.
Wall lights –
3 x Astro Parma 210 wall lights in dining area and 1 x in kitchen. Paired with Philips GU10 5W core pro lamps.
Hand made glass pendants –
Supplied by JAM interiors
Kitchen pendants – 3 x Curiousa Retro Glass Pendants supplied by JAM interiors
*****
About the ZBARLED
A powerful solution to dimming LED, the ZBARLED1000 can handle up to 100 amps of inrush, and dim between 0-1000W/VA LED, with up to 32 rotary controllers on a single circuit. Zano’s ZBARLED remote dimming packs are their most versatile yet. With award-winning technology delivering flicker-free and silent dimming for all good quality dimmable LED, tungsten, low-voltage or CFL lamps. 0-300W/VA and 1-10V versions are also available.
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