How to achieve an effective lighting scheme
February 2017
Lighting can make or break the ambience of a room, and can hugely influence our mood, so it is essential to get it right. It’s all about planning at the early stage of a project – not leaving it as an afterthought. It’s a vast, and often complex area, as well as one of the most rapidly growing areas with advances in technology, together with changes caused by new environmental regulations. However, below are some helpful pointers on how to get it right.
Without guidance many electricians will just work out the amount of light required to fully illuminate a room, and fit a grid of down-lights to suit. What I have aptly heard described as “ceiling acne”! Useful perhaps for carrying out detailed work, but most of us don’t want our homes to feel like an office! Instead, it’s important to think of lighting as a series of layers: natural light, general light, ambient light, accent light and decorative light. It’s the combination of each of these layers that is responsible for creating a beautiful lighting scheme.