Things To Consider When Lighting Your Home And Office

Lighting, also called illumination is the deliberate use of light in order to bring about an aesthetic or practical effect in your home. Lighting may include both artificial and daylight sources. Artificial sources include lamps and other light fixtures. Daylight capturing includes using skylights, light shelves or windows. Daylight is the main source of light in most buildings during the day, and it saves a lot of energy where artificial lighting could be used. Proper lighting can improve task performance and also improve the appearance of the place. The lighting of the area impacts greatly on the occupants’ psychology. Indoor lighting is a basic part of interior design and it is usually achieved using light fixtures.

According to recent research, lighting in homes can consume around 6% of the average energy used in the house. Efficient and well-designed lighting will save your expenditure on the energy. Household energy use includes water heating, heating and cooling, as well as the equipment and appliance; for example cooking and refrigeration. When lighting your home, try to be as energy resourceful as possible. Proficient lighting in your home will provide a comfortable, safe and desirable environment that is visually appealing for family members as well as visitors. Your office as well, needs proper lighting in order to improve productivity at work. In the office, you should mainly focus on task lighting but also accent lighting is important because the office will look more inviting and it is decorative.

Things you should consider when lighting your home and office.

– First and foremost, make sure that the appliances you choose are energy efficient in order to save the cost on energy.

– The lighting design should combine both daylighting and electric lighting strategies, and also remember to ensure distribution of light throughout the building.

– Daylighting is efficient during the day and it negates the need of electric lighting. Sources of daylight include sunlight, which is bright, and a directional beam.

– Windows do not only add a view in your building, but they also provide a valuable natural light. In the office, natural light positively affects the mood, increase’s the workers’ satisfaction and therefore improves the productivity. Make sure that the windows are close to the task area.

– Light tubes can also save up to 60W of light, running for up to 8 hours in a poorly lit room. Light shelves also enable light to penetrate into your home or office, and you design the pattern, depth and intensity through which the natural light penetrates the room.

The aspects of electric design

– Electric design aspects include precise task lighting and creating an ambiance for the whole space at night.


Why you should use LED light

– LED lights are the most recent technology in lighting and they are energy efficient. LED light stands for “Light Emitting Diode”, which is a semiconductor that is responsible for converting electricity into light.

– LED lights are the most efficient appliances for electric energy, because they use around 85% less energy compared to incandescent and halogen lighting.

– LED lights have a longer life span compares to other types of lighting for your home or office. Therefore, you should always use LED bulbs because it will always save on your energy bill, as well as the frequency of buying new bulbs.

Task lighting

– Secondly, after choosing LED lighting, consider the size of the room. The size will define the number of lights depending with the amount of light needed. Remember to work on the points of focus when considering the space to be lit.

– Use highlights to draw the eye’s attention to the essential objects in the room, for example; artwork and furniture items, but do not waste energy, use the minimum needed highlight level.

– Task lighting is ideal for illuminating specific tasks that you habitually undertake, such as cooking, homework, reading, sewing or even games and hobbies.

– Accent lighting creates visual interest in the room, as in emphasizing paintings, collectables and house plants, highlighting drapery, outdoor landscaping and also the texture of the wall.

– Downlights and directional lamps, such as LED reflector lamps are best used for accent lighting.

– Remember to make sure that your eyes do not strain by ensuring that there are no shadows but it is bright enough for you to perform the task.

– In the office, task lighting is the most effective, with the use of lamps and table lamps. These can be a part of accent lighting, to enhance the mood in the office.


General/Ambient lighting

– Ambient lighting in the room should radiate a comfortable brightness level for everyone in the room from the central source of light. Do not use downlights for ambient lighting because they create “pools” of light on the floor and they make the cavity of the ceiling to appear darker.

– The height of the ceiling is also an important aspect when lighting your home and office. The higher the ceiling, the narrower the beams to be used and the more the lumens. The ceiling height will determine the intensity of light that will generally cover the space of the room.

– If the room is larger, use wider and larger fixtures as well to fill up the space of large rooms with higher ceilings.

– Make sure that the lighting matches the color of the room and the hardware in the room.

Choosing appliances for lighting

– If you are choosing lightbulbs, go for LED lighting that are the most efficient, of CFLs. Incandescent lightbulbs are no advisable because they use up more energy.

– Choose the lightbulb with the lowest wattage for the specific purpose you intend.

– In Singapore, the Energy label will guide you on the energy efficiency rating as well as the energy consumption of an appliance before you buy it. This rating is shown by the use of green ticks.

1 tick is for a fair appliance.
2ticks show a good appliance.
3ticks- very good
4ticks is for excellent appliances.

– The more the green ticks, the more energy efficient the appliance is.

– However, if you are buying other lighting appliances that are not under Energy Label Scheme, then you should check if they are ENERGY STAR qualified. The ENERGY STAR is a labelling program to assist you choose and promote energy efficient appliances.