Recommendation: Pool Table Light ?

[George the Greek]

I appreciate that you are building your room around the pool table.

The builder built up the floor where the legs were going to sit before he put the subfloor down. He spanned the room with a 30ft steel beam so no posts anywhere and 9ft ceiling. The poolroom is 1160 sq ft lol and we designed the house around it. The wife got her dream kitchen and I got a pooltable lol.

 

[smiling_Hans]

I looked at all sorts of lights for the room/table and decided to go with the 4 pot . There's a 60 watt LED in each pot and they give off plenty of light and not seeing the glare of the bulbs when sitting or playing. I added 14 ping pong balls on a wire with a larger plastic ball painted red in the center for marking games. The wife had a bunch for her crafts and I thought I need some for my craft lol

That is a great looking setup.

Class.

 

[smiling_Hans]

Unless you have all sorts of lighting issues, meaning many light sources in the room, then there is no need for arena lights. They are designed for events where there are many lights and the arena lights will overpower others.

In a home room, you’re not having a bunch of light sources. A traditional light would be the perfect balance.

Also, the arena lights omit heat. You will feel it at 100% setting. Get a dimming module if it doesn’t come with one.

Expectations

Reality

 

[trob]

The builder built up the floor where the legs were going to sit before he put the subfloor down. He spanned the room with a 30ft steel beam so no posts anywhere and 9ft ceiling. The poolroom is 1160 sq ft lol and we designed the house around it. The wife got her dream kitchen and I got a pooltable lol.

Lol that’s how we chose our last house before the one we downsized to. She got her massive kitchen and I got my pool room. The realtor thought I was strange measuring rooms

 

[George the Greek]

Lol that’s how we chose our last house before the one we downsized to. She got her massive kitchen and I got my pool room. The realtor thought I was strange measuring rooms

We looked at different designs for a house and I drew up how/where we wanted the rooms/bathrooms etc. The main floor has bdrm/ensuite, spare bdrm and main bthrm, laundry room, walk in pantry,kitchen, vaulted ceiling, screened in porch, covered porch off master bdrm and a 48x12 ft deck. Basement has a bthrm with urinal,sink and toilet, wife's craft room, closet in the hall before the 26x26 attached garage. The house is ICF from the footings to the roof and Cape Cod siding. We thought our last house was our forever home and didn't think we'd be building at our age lol

 

[trob]

We looked at different designs for a house and I drew up how/where we wanted the rooms/bathrooms etc. The main floor has bdrm/ensuite, spare bdrm and main bthrm, laundry room, walk in pantry,kitchen, vaulted ceiling, screened in porch, covered porch off master bdrm and a 48x12 ft deck. Basement has a bthrm with urinal,sink and toilet, wife's craft room, closet in the hall before the 26x26 attached garage. The house is ICF from the footings to the roof and Cape Cod siding. We thought our last house was our forever home and didn't think we'd be building at our age lol

We bought an old home in an area that I grew up in . Those old houses around here are huge but then a little bit of the bad element creeped in and now we downsized to a small townhouse. I turned the garage into a pool room . Easy to clean and maintain. Your house sounds amazing but I have no interest in trying to keep up with that at this stage in my life lol

 

[George the Greek]

We bought an old home in an area that I grew up in . Those old houses around here are huge but then a little bit of the bad element creeped in and now we downsized to a small townhouse. I turned the garage into a pool room . Easy to clean and maintain. Your house sounds amazing but I have no interest in trying to keep up with that at this stage in my life lol

We bought an acre 3 years ago dirt cheap on a small lake and cleared enough to have a parking area, firepit, 10x14 solid gazebo and park our 38 ft motorhome and spend our summers here. We had a massive dock built for our pontoon and plans changed when I got ill and decided to stay and build. We downsized from our previous home as well and friends think our house is big lol

 

[rexus31]

Also, the arena lights omit heat. You will feel it at 100% setting. Get a dimming module if it doesn’t come with one.

You can't just make stuff up on the fly. The arena lights are LED. LED emits waaaaay less heat compared to incandescent and fluorescent light sources. Way less. Incandescent bulbs release 90% of their energy as heat and fluorescent bulbs release about 80% of their energy as heat. Using a 100W bulb as an example, an incandescent bulb burns at 335° F, a fluorescent bulb burns at 179° F with an LED bulb burning at 87° F. I'm not an arena light fan, but can we at lease post correct info? The biggest downside to the arena lights is the glare. The other is the light isn't 100% focused on the table. Some may care about this, some may not. Any overhead light source that is at least 48" from the playing surface will have some bleed over into other areas of the room unless you use parabolic louvers. There's a thread in the Main Forum about the use of Parabolic Louvers. I didn't care for them and thought the slight benefit didn't justify the almost 3X cost.

Your "traditional" table light also comes with its set of shortcomings. It all comes down to personal preference.

 

[sbrownn]

Unless you have all sorts of lighting issues, meaning many light sources in the room, then there is no need for arena lights. They are designed for events where there are many lights and the arena lights will overpower others.

In a home room, you’re not having a bunch of light sources. A traditional light would be the perfect balance.

Also, the arena lights omit heat. You will feel it at 100% setting. Get a dimming module if it doesn’t come with one.

Expectations
View attachment 774525

Reality
View attachment 774526

where does this guy come from?

 

[smiling_Hans]

You can't just make stuff up on the fly. The arena lights are LED. LED emits waaaaay less heat compared to incandescent and fluorescent light sources. Way less. Incandescent bulbs release 90% of their energy as heat and fluorescent bulbs release about 80% of their energy as heat. Using a 100W bulb as an example, an incandescent bulb burns at 335° F, a fluorescent bulb burns at 179° F with an LED bulb burning at 87° F. I'm not an arena light fan, but can we at lease post correct info? The biggest downside to the arena lights is the glare. The other is the light isn't 100% focused on the table. Some may care about this, some may not. Any overhead light source that is at least 48" from the playing surface will have some bleed over into other areas of the room unless you use parabolic louvers. There's a thread in the Main Forum about the use of Parabolic Louvers. I didn't care for them and thought the slight benefit didn't justify the almost 3X cost.

Your "traditional" table light also comes with its set of shortcomings. It all comes down to personal preference.

You want to bet?

To say it doesn't omit heat is pretty ignorant. It's like saying a lighter doesn't omit heat. We have a dimming module at the pool hall and play at 50% as I mentioned before. When we request it to be turned 100% you can feel the heat within seconds.

Lights don't omit heat. That's a new one. Never heard of that. ROFL

 

[rexus31]

You want to bet?

To say it doesn't omit heat is pretty ignorant. It's like saying a lighter doesn't omit heat. We have a dimming module at the pool hall and play at 50% as I mentioned before. When we request it to be turned 100% you can feel the heat within seconds.

Lights don't omit heat. That's a new one. Never heard of that. ROFL

Did you read my response? Please highlight where I said lights don't emit (or omit) heat.

 

[rexus31]

where does this guy come from?

He's a piece of work for sure.

 

[ctyhntr]

If you feel heat, then it's also emitting infra red light. We can't see IR, but we can feel it on our skin and surface. If you're planning on buying budget lighting, make sure they're UL certified.

 

[smiling_Hans]

If you want to get rid of the lamp feel of these modern lights then I suggest building something along the perimeter of it and keep the ligh from spreading to the ugly photos or decor on the wall.

The lights will be more focused on the table alone versus the distracting playboy calendar on the wall.

To each its own. Some want a dark room with the focus on the table while enjoying a cocktail and some want the brightness of a drunk tank after getting popped for a DUI.

From my experience owners usually have buyers remorse. So make sure they are really what you want.

I haven’t tried to lower them and not sure if lowering them will make it better.

 

[cjr3559]

I switched to the perimeter light recently after playing under the old can/pendant lights for decades.

- The perimeter light doesn’t light up the entire room/walls/pictures/other hung personal affects much as I thought it would.

- The perimeter light gives even light across the entire table. No more overly bright center and dark corner pockets.

- No comparison when shooting out from deep in the corner pocket when an object ball is close by. With the old light you may as well be shooting at the dark side of the moon. Same with shots on the rails at ends of table. Perimeter light wins hands down.

- Perimeter gives off very bright peripherally ambient light when standing at the table. Takes getting used to and possibly a con. Keeping the light higher above the table surface helped relieve this. I’m nearly at the recommended maximum of 60” and still get more than adequate 850 lux in the corner pockets.

- While brighter overall than the old style light, it doesn’t always feel that way which seems contradictory to previous comment. It’s kind of a strange phenomenon that doesn’t show up in installation examples and difficult to explain. Another possible con.

- The light is definitely blue/cool. My guess is the cool cast is better suited on tournament blue cloth than tournament green.

- Dimmable version recommended for doing other things in the room.

- Won’t go back to the old can lights ever again, let alone playing under incandescents.