When our customer Leigh N first approached us with a view to buying a star kit for a small nursery, he was thinking in terms of our Great Bear kit which has 240 fibres. However, since the room is very small we explained that a custom kit would offer much better value for money.

The light source could go in the attic above the room and this meant that the optical fibres needed to be only 1.5 metres – as opposed to the 4.5 metres of the longest fibres in our Great Bear kit. So, we made up a custom fibre harness with 200 fibres, all at 1.5 metres, at a fraction more than the cost of our entry level kit – Kit 1, the Orion. He could have had 240 fibres, but we judged that 200 would be more than ample in an installation of this size.

The moral of the story is that it pays to run your plans by us, by phone or e-mail, before ordering your kit – it could save you quite a bit. In this case, Leigh saved about £70.00.

“The photo of the room is a little over-exposed,” says Leigh. “The room doesn’t light up as much as the photo shows. I’ve also left the fibres about 5mm past the ceiling line (for future painting), which gives each star more of a glow. Everyone who has seen it is well impressed.

“I think I’ve got a fibre optic obsession! Thinking of more uses around the house for them ….”

So, who knows, we may yet get that extra £70.00 back from Leigh at some future date!