lighting up a well

cavemanmike

Active member
Bit of a long shot,so hear goes.
I've just built a kitchen extension over a welland I'm planning on putting a glass floor over it,I have pumped the water out cleaned up the stone and put a concrete floor at the bottom (7metres).
It fills up to roughly 1.5metres from the top.
My thoughts are putting a waterproof light ar the bottom and a row of led rope lighting underneath the glass frame to light up the stone.
Now my electrician suggests a led spotlight but I think it would create to much glare on the surface of the water.
Your thoughts would be appreciated
 

Graigwen

Active member
I am glad to hear you are making a feature of it, not concealing it.
However, why did you concrete the bottom?

.
 

cavemanmike

Active member
Concreted the bottom just to try and reduce  any silt to keep it as clear as possible.
Don't know if it will work but whilst it was empty I thought it would be worth a try
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
I did something similar.  On my first house I built a kitchen extension over the old brick lined well.  As it came up close to the line of worktops I built it up in reclaimed brick and turned it into a U shaped breakfast bar.  The bar was made of hardwood with a glass circular centre.  It was a long time ago and I just put two spotlights facing down.  I don't remember any reflection problems but then it was higher up and a different angle.  It was bloody great anyway and a real winner when selling the house.

An underwater light at the bottom and a couple of shielded lenses near the top should look great.  Have a play with torches first.  Good luck
 

Bob Mehew

Well-known member
From a theoretical physics view point, the more light, the more reflection.  Although you can easily work out the way a light source will be reflected by a water surface (use a mirror as a substitute) I think your best bet is to try it and see what happens.  You may need to moderate the power to reduce the quantity of reflection.  Plus more light also means more heat which may promote green things growing.  Not sure if some algae inhibitor will work long term or if you need something else. 
 

cavemanmike

Active member
thanks for your replies, trying to upload some photo's but it's saying the file is to big so will have to play around with it a bit
 

kay

Well-known member
Bob Mehew said:
Plus more light also means more heat which may promote green things growing.

It's the light more than the heat which will promote green things. Can you have any sort of switch which detects if someone is in the room and switches the light off otherwise?

Are you planning to use the water? - that would limit what you could have in the way of algicide.

You may need less light than you think to get the effect you want. But as well as the glare reflecting from the surface of the water, you would also get a reflection of the light fitting which might be annoying.

You would avoid glare from the water surface if you used underwater lights.
 

Dave Tyson

Member
Mike, If your not planning to drink the water I can give you 100gm of Copper Sulphate which will stop any algae and give a nice blue colouration  :)

Dave
 

Chocolate fireguard

Active member
Photosynthesis mainly takes the energy in the red and blue ends of the visible spectrum, but not the green in the middle (around 500 nm), most of which is reflected. So the plant looks green.

If you were to use underwater green lights rather than red ones the algae would grow much more slowly.
I think that would give a pleasing effect but my wife (an artist) believes my colour sense was removed at birth.

 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Sold for fish ponds and my lights have worked for years. They do attract growth though and would need to be cleaned every now and then. They come with coloured lenses. I went to the bottom of a well in a kitchen once in diving gear. It was a horrible experience as the pipe was hanging off the wall and the bottom was narrow. Once at the bottom those on the surface could no longer see my diving light. I would rather forget how deep it was.
 

Tripod

Member
There is a well in the tap room floor of my daughter's pub, glass covered, which is both an attraction and a responsibility. There is another Derbyshire pub with a similar feature, one or both being remnants from brewing days. Certainly talking points but need care and maintenance.
 

Ian Adams

Active member
Pictures of Cavemanmike's well ...

;)

Ian


 

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