KRAFT LED or an LED panel light
An LED panel — a troffer, in American usage — takes up a whole opening in the grid. KRAFT LED replaces a part of the grid instead: a T‑bar, a baffle or a cell profile, and it carries on the ceiling's own structure. Two different approaches, and the difference does not show in the catalogue. It shows on the installation and a year into running the building.
Seven things a suspended ceiling light has to get right
This list did not come out of a meeting room. It came from talking to architects, installers and clients before KRAFT started designing its own lighting. That took five years; the third generation went into production at the end of 2017.
Weight
A suspended ceiling is designed to hold itself up and nothing more. We recommend giving anything over 250 g its own hanger back to the slab.
Usually over 250 g, so it needs its own wires. That is hardware to buy plus labour on every single fitting. Across a big floorplate it adds up fast.
Carries on the ceiling structure itself. No extra fixings.
Fit
Most fittings are tied to one ceiling type. Open cell, for instance, gets its own downlights sized to the cell — so the moment you pick a ceiling, your lighting options narrow.
Built for a 600×600 module in a T‑bar grid. Baffles, open cell or cube profiles need something else entirely.
One fitting, three fixings: T‑LED into the T‑bar, G‑LED onto open cell and baffles, InterioLED onto cube profiles or with no suspended ceiling at all. You choose the ceiling first and the fixing second, rather than the other way round.
Where it goes
Most fittings need the position prepared in advance. So the light ends up where the grid allows it, not where the design wanted it.
Takes a whole opening. The spacing is whatever the ceiling module dictates.
Goes anywhere on the ceiling. That also makes it a straightforward relighting job in an occupied building — no stripping the ceiling out.
Running cost
Suspended ceilings go into buildings that run twelve hours a day and more — shopping centres, shops, office blocks, hospitals, schools. In those, a year of electricity costs more than the difference in purchase price.
The number that matters is efficacy in lm/W — how much light you get per watt. Look for that on the datasheet, not the wattage: a 40 W panel can put out less light than a 29 W one.
110 lm/W — 3217 lm from 29 W, per the datasheet. Run your own numbers in the calculator below.
The numbers
Workplace illuminance is set by EN 12464‑1.
Check three things on the datasheet: luminous flux, flicker and colour temperature.
3217 lm, flicker at 1 %. Colour temperature 4700 K, beam angle 109°.
Reliability
Replacing fittings in an occupied building is not just the price of the unit. It is access, it is dismantling, and it is downtime.
Check the warranty period and the replacement terms.
Five-year warranty. EU declaration of conformity No. 01/2025.
Safety
The fitting has to be safe for staff and for the public: protection against electric shock, no flicker or stroboscopic effect, no UV and nothing hazardous inside.
LEDs as a class contain no mercury and emit no UV. Flicker is the one to check individually — it varies a lot.
Constant-current driver, flicker-free operation, IP20, working range −25 to +50 °C.
Work out the difference for your room
We are not going to quote you a percentage saving — it depends on your panel, your floor area and your hours. Put in the figures from your own datasheet and the calculator runs both options the same way.
KRAFT LED figures come from the KRAFT LED 29 W datasheet, backed by the .ies photometric file. Panel figures are whatever you enter from your own datasheet. This is an estimate, not a lighting design.
When an LED panel is the better call
We make lighting, and we do not think it is right for every job. Here is where a panel makes more sense.
Capital cost matters more than running cost
On a one-year lease, or somewhere the lights are on two or three hours a day, the electricity saving never catches up with the price difference.
You need it tomorrow, from stock
Every wholesaler has 600×600 panels on the shelf. Ours are made against a project.
The ceiling is up and staying up
KRAFT T‑LED goes into the take-off with the ceiling, because it replaces a T‑bar. If the grid is finished and cannot be touched, a panel drops in more easily — though it is worth a look at G‑LED, which fixes to a grid that is already installed.
One or two fittings
The whole case for KRAFT LED is built on scale. Over 20 m² you will not notice the difference. Over 1000 m² it decides the job.
Frequently asked questions
Unit for unit, a panel usually costs less to buy. But you need more of them to hit the same illuminance, and they draw more power doing it. How much difference that makes depends on your panel, your floor area and your hours — put your own datasheet figures into the calculator above.
A panel is built for a 600×600 module in a T‑bar grid. Open cell has its own downlights sized to the cell. KRAFT LED comes with three fixings and works with T‑bar, open cell and baffles — and InterioLED works with no suspended ceiling at all.
A suspended ceiling is designed to carry itself and nothing else. We recommend that anything heavier than 250 g gets its own hanger back to the slab — extra hardware and extra labour on every position.
In an acoustic ceiling, recessed fittings take up tile area and cut the absorption you paid for. KRAFT LED sits in the profile and takes no tile area at all.
Flicker is how much the light output pulses — the eye does not register it consciously, but it tires you over a working day. KRAFT LED measures 1 %. Panels vary — check the datasheet.
It depends on the level the space requires. Under EN 12464‑1 an office needs 500 lx, a sales area 300 lx and a hotel reception 300 lx. Use the calculator: it counts both options with the same method.
Not sure what suits your project?
Send us a floor plan. We will run it through Dialux, pick the fixing to suit your ceiling and price the materials. No charge.