Learning Center Extra Details

LOOK AT LIGHTING IS AN INVESTMENT.

It is an often missed fact that lighting is an investment. Aside from increasing your homes value, it provides many hours of enjoyment at a very reasonable cost. If one were to amortize it over many years, it costs just pennies a day to enhance how your home functions and is used. We all spend thousands of dollars on interior furnishings but then forget to allow the budget to be able to enhance that look and style you reached out for. If you wonder what value it is, think back to the time when you really liked someone elses home or a restaurant made you feel good ... you will probably recall that they made a reasonable investment in Lighting. It is the Lighting that effects our mood in small rooms or large rooms .. indoors or outdoors. If the budget is tight, do one room or two well, and wait to do the next one. It is a long term investment.

DETERMINE YOUR NEEDS

Lighting should be planned to complement your lifestyle. So, first you need to develop a home lighting plan that suits your individual needs and those of your family. When planning your lighting, look at the activities that occur in each room, the atmosphere you want to create and the decorative elements you wish to emphasize. Set them up in a priority manner.

DONT FORGET THE FUNDAMENTALS - USE ALL THREE LAYERS OF LIGHT

There are three basic types of lighting that work together to light your home as well as add general ambiance to your living areas.........
1) General 2) Task and 3) Accent
A good lighting plan combines all three types to light an area, according to function and style.

COMPLETE YOUR HOUSE MAP TO BE READY TO SHOP

Once you've selected what you want to light, you'll have to decide how you're going to light it. Create a map of your home, go through each one and make note or mark them on the map. Consider the three layers of lighting, make trade-offs or schedule your rooms out. It is better to do each room right and “add-a-room” at a later date.

There are many different styles, sizes and shapes of lighting fixtures that are available to deliver the general, task, and accent light you need. Visit our WEB STORE, shop by room, develop you lists and come back often..take your time. We have hundreds of products that have dimensions and details to help you plan it out.

INVEST IN LIGHTING CONTROLS (THEY PAY FOR THEMSELVES)

Lighting controls give you the flexibility to design a lighting plan with multiple uses and decorative effects. With the touch of a button, today's control systems enable you to:

Lower light level to conserve energy and increase bulb life.
Vary the mood of a room.
Alter the intensity of the light to suit the activity.
Create and save a number of different lighting scenes in each room.
Set up motion switches or heat switches
Provide automatic security lighting

Automatic lighting controls pay for themselves in terms of energy savings through dimming (saves energy and preserves the life of a bulb) and automatic on/off controls that mean the light is only on when you need it.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LIGHT SOURCES (BULBS)

a) Incandescent:
b) Fluorescent:
c) Halogen (or Tungsten-Halogen):
d) High-Intensity Discharge:

These are the standard residential bulb of choice for many years BUT they are the least efficient. Recent advancment has brought them to residential prominance as CFL’s (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) offer significant savings vs Incandescent. A higher upfront cost but over time the most economical and supportive of a “green planet” brighter and hotter and reasonable efficient on balance Used commercially but also residentially as a bright light in outdoor and security applications. A good choice for outdoor use.

ENERGY SAVINGS & EFFICIENCY

Lighting uses 12 to 15 percent of the electricity consumed in an average home and can be as high as 25 percent in a more elaborate home. There is no need to look for complexity in calculating energy savings. These few changes will let you look at your energy bill every month and see the savings materialize. The top 5 ways to economize on electricity lighting bills with lighting are:

1	Turn lights off when you don't need them. Consider automatic on/off motion detection replacement switches available that will fit any normal decora panel.
2	Use dimmers to save energy and increase bulb life. Most dimmers will fit into existing switch boxes.
3	Use photoelectric cells or timers to turn outdoor lighting on and off automatically.
4	Use more efficient reflector bulbs, especially for task and accent lighting. As an example, a 50W "R" bulb can put as much light on objects as a 100W "A" bulb..
5	Use CFL’s wherever possible. They give more lumens-per-watt (more light from the electricity consumed) than incandescents. New CFL styles accommodate a wide variety of decorative and functional fixtures produce light that is similar in color to that of incandescents, making them an excellent choice.

	Summary
	Hi .. it’s me “Professor Bright” again. Thanks for attending school with us. We think you will find your new knowledge powerful and by combining it with your good taste in home furnishings and decorating skill, we are confident that you will make some ILLUMINATING decisions. Come back and see us whenever you want .. we are always happy to see returning alumni!