Choosing the Correct Lighting

There are many different types of lighting setups and different types of light bulbs. Each lighting type and each light bulb type have their advantages and disadvantages. Lighting can have an incredible effect on the beauty and value of your home. In selling or living in a home, effective lighting can highlight attractive features of the house and just generally make living in the house easier. Selling a house is as much about how the house feels to a prospective buyer as it is about the features of the house itself. In terms of lighting configurations, the main types of lighting are: ambient, general, task, and accent lighting. The main types of light bulbs used inside the home are incandescent, halogen, CFL (or compact fluorescent,) and LED (or light-emitting diode.) The right choice in lighting can help highlight the beauty of your house, allow you to complete tasks easier, and make sure you’re using the least amount of energy possible.

Ambient lighting is used to light every surface of a room evenly and is very useful in an office setting. General lighting is just as it sounds, lighting used to provide an entire room with adequate light; ambient lighting can be included in this. Task lighting is lighting used for the purpose of accomplishing specific tasks; this includes things like desk lamps and lighting around the vanity in bathrooms. Accent lighting is lighting used to highlight a particular architectural feature or decorative object in the home. Track lighting and recessed lighting can generally be included in the accent lighting.  Track lighting’s main advantage is that it can be configured to meet your needs and is highly adaptable, while recessed lighting’s advantage is that it can make use of space in ceilings to illuminate and put focused lighting on things like fireplaces.

The incandescent bulb is what most people picture in their minds when thinking of light bulbs; it is the cheapest to manufacture, has a relatively short life in terms of light bulbs, and works in most home applications, including dimmers. Halogen light bulbs are slightly more efficient than incandescent bulbs, last longer, and can be used with dimmers, but they burn at higher temperatures and can in some instances be a fire hazard. Compact Fluorescent Lamps use roughly four times less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to ten times longer, but they cannot be used with dimmers and are not quite as bright as incandescent bulbs. LED light bulbs are arguably the most efficient bulbs but they are not very bright compared to CFLs and are not readily compatible with dimmers. The right choice in lighting type and bulbs can drastically improve the beauty (and by extension, the value) of and energy usage of your home, and Partyka Electric can help you make these difficult decisions.