Making the Right Choices in Home Lighting
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by: AdamPeters
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How to choose the right lighting for your home. There are many new options for today.
Today's options in lighting are stupendous, thanks in part to the many new developments in materials and technology. You can have just about any style or design for just about any room in your home.
Choosing among all of these options is usually the hardest part. Here are some ideas to make this easier.
The first thing you should consider before you start shopping for lighting for your home is the electric code in your town, and the limitations of your own electrical system. Older homes, for instance, are lovely to look at, but have older wiring systems that may not be able to support just any lighting system.
For an older electrical system such as this, your best bet may be to contact an electrical contractor to advise you. He will help you calculate usage loads, number of circuit breakers and other technical aspects so you will know what your system can handle, or if you have to upgrade.
Most new systems today consume less electricity. Fluorescent bulbs burn 30% less electricity than standard bulbs, and can now produce a very natural light, unlike the garish lights of the old fluorescent. They also come in many more shapes and sizes besides the standard three foot lengths.
Light Emitting Diode lights have become very popular because of their longevity. They are more expensive initially, but some can last up to 35 years! It is doubtful that you want to keep the same light for 35 years, but you can easily get 7 years out of most LEDs. They use very little electricity-one design, the Enlux, is said to burn 50,000 and use only 22 watts. This means it could burn 24/7 and last 6 years. This is great for porch or landscape lights you may want to keep on a lot for safety.
A new option is a concept called Light Transmitting Concrete. That's right, concrete. Blocks of LiTraCon are unique idea, with the light emitted by fiber optics that are embedded and give off the light when the block of concrete is back lit.
Luminex fabric uses the same concept, whereby a mesh of optical fibers gives off a soft light from fabrics that can come in many colors. This is a great idea for soft lighting in a bedroom.
Each room has its own special lighting needs. Bathrooms, for example, should be bright and well lit so that shaving, applying makeup and other such tasks are easy. In a bedroom, you would prefer soft lighting and living rooms ideally should have a combination of indirect, soft and bright lights. Keeping the concept of good lighting in mind should make it easier to choose your style.
Outdoor, or "natural" light makes things look the way they do because of temperature. This is measured in Kelvin degrees, a measurement similar to Celsius. For example, a sky in the north, with clear conditions, should measure 7,000 to 8,000K at 12 noon.
This is why bulbs usually cannot imitate natural light; they have lower Kelvin degrees, or "color temperature". Incandescent bulbs are around 2,800K and even a bright fluorescent is only 4,000K.
One of the modern lighting designs will be able to get closest to natural light, if you are looking for that. Lower "temperature" lighting will produce softer lighting that can even be more subtle when it is recessed. Whether it is a wrought iron lightinghanging in the dining room or a set of scrolled wrought iron sconces in the bedroom, the impact of this lighting is immediate and soothing.
With all of the new options available, you should be able to make your home glow just the way you want.
About the Author
Adam Peters is a syndicated writer of http://www.home-decorating-reviews.com .More articles on wrought iron lighting and tuscan lighting at his web.
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