Bristol Electricians on: Indoor Lighting for your Bristol Home
June 6, 2011
Bristol Electricians on: Indoor Lighting for your Bristol Home
Bristol Electrician - Internal Lighting
Nothing impresses us quite the way lighting does. And if you’re entertaining nothing could make your guests feel more welcome than good lighting in your Bristol home. Create a warm and inviting feeling for your prestigious guests and let them also enjoy some good food and conversation. Designing with light has never been an easier task, and it is always enjoyable. A Bristol Electrician can give you advice on how to get the lights just right for your Bristol home. An electrician has the experience needed to give you all the necessary advice.
When is actually comes to home lighting, the potentials are limited only by your imagination. A good lighting plan could help in making your Bristol home more attractive by combining both style and function. A few type of Indoor lighting are listed below:
Ambient Lighting – It provides overall lighting and a comfortable level of brightness, and allows you and your guests to see and move about safely.
Task Lighting – Task lighting helps you perform a precise activity, such as reading or playing games as well.
Accent Lighting – It creates an awesome mood and adds interest to a room by highlighting certain areas and objects, such as paintings, walls, and collectibles.
Decorative Lighting – It becomes essentials for chandeliers and candles.
Tips for your Dining Room in your Bristol home
•Use more chandeliers or just one fixture to light the room. Layer with light from a selection of sources to get the most flexibility required for creating special moods in the same room.
•Using dimmers and layering with light allows you to use the brilliant light you require while setting your table, and then carry the light down when your guests arrive.
•For a stylish setting, blend candlelight and lesser levels of electric light sources all over the room. Dim every group of lights separately to make a variety of dining moods.
Tips for your Living Room in your Bristol home
•Use Layers of light, wall washers, down lights, and accent lights on dimmers to make a medley of possible effects – from spacious to intimate.
•Place light sources at a variety of heights within the room (ceiling, table, floor) to add image interest and human scale.
•Use translucent shades on table lamps to add to the ambient light level.
Tips for your Kitchen in your Bristol home
•Use White fluorescent bulbs to improve cool colors like gray and blue, use White bulbs to enhance warm colors like yellow, red, and beige or to balance wood cabinets.
•Try fluorescent under cabinet fixtures at the border of your cabinets to illuminate your workspace and decrease shadows in food preparation areas.
•Consider dense fluorescent down-lights for universal lighting to help reduce heat and electric bills.
Tips for Bedrooms in your Bristol home
•Break the room into several zones by lighting and switch them separately, and then regulate accordingly for the mood you want to set.
•Provide light for reading by selecting swing-arm or flexible bedside lamps.
•Use night-lights to give guests the facility to see in the dark if they require getting up during the night.
Tips for Powder Rooms
•Place strip lights to either side of the mirror other than above to improve visibility and reduce shadows for shaving and applying make-up.
•Select a couple of decorative wall scones to flank the mirror in a powder room.
•To make the room more inviting, try to dim all incandescent and halogen sources and keep a candle burning.
Electricians Bristol on: Kitchen Lighting and Factors To Remember when Designing Your Bristol Kitchen
May 31, 2011
Electricians Bristol on: Kitchen Lighting and Factors To Remember When designing your Bristol kitchen
Electricians Bristol - Kitchen Lighting
Kitchen Lighting is often the most over-looked aspect while designing the kitchen in your Bristol home. This is why it is important to get advice during the design phase from a Bristol Electrician. In fact, a well lit kitchen is paramount in order to create the right mood, cook faster and function more efficiently. Moreover, the kitchen just does not serve as a cooking area but in most cases also as a dining and entertaining room. A well lit kitchen also obviates the risk of accidents and a well lit kitchen is always welcoming. For this reason get an electrician to advice you early on in your design phase in order to get the best out of your kitchen. A few factors need to be taken into account when designing the kitchen lighting. Rather than just focusing on the fancy fixtures that blend well with the kitchen decor; it is equally important to take its functionality into account. So, first set yourself a reasonable budget before going ahead with the lighting plan. Electricians should be able to give a quote during your design phase which will help in this process.
Eliminate errors and analyze the kitchen size of your Bristol Kitchen to decided on the lighting. Get lots of advice from electricians in Bristol to help you take the right decisions.
It is never a good idea to just install a single glaring bulb in the middle of the ceiling. Too much or too little lighting in kitchen areas will result in an imbalance which may visually overpower certain areas and create shadows in other areas. There are essentially 3 types of kitchen lighting: Task Lighting, Ambient Lighting and Accent Lighting. A balanced blend of all three creates a well lit kitchen. Therefore, a careful analysis of the kitchen size is essential to determine the kind of fixtures and lighting required in different kitchen areas. Be subtle and make sure you don’t overdo it. A well lit kitchen need not necessarily be glaring bulbs all over. The key is to blend and mix the right type of lighting (Task, Ambient and Accent) at strategic areas to improve functionality and enhance the mood of the kitchen.
Carefully create a balanced blend and go for a layered look Task Lighting. Task Lighting is a directed beam of light that illuminates the work areas of the kitchen. Each work area of the kitchen requires its own task lighting. Be it chopping vegetables, mixing and measuring ingredients; everything requires separate task lighting. Every designated area should ideally have its own task lighting. Under cabinets lights too are a great option to install task lighting as besides offering great functionality; it can significantly enhance and emphasize the features of the kitchen. While fluorescents prove to highly energy efficient, halogens produce a clear white glow. Proper task lighting can prevent kitchen accidents as well. The island tops and kitchen counters need to be well illuminated with task lighting. On the other hand, a poorly lit counter may produce shadows and hinder or delay one’s activity.
Ambient Lighting: As the term suggests, ambient lighting creates a welcoming ambience and creates the general feel and look of the room. It serves as a functional lighting and aids in maneuvering and moving around your Bristol kitchen safely.
If the kitchen cabinets are built or placed half way through the ceiling; the extra space can serve as an ideal spot for ambient lighting. In most cases; the ambient lighting is most neglected and overlooked. This type of lighting should be well blended with other lighting.
Accent Lighting: Accent Lighting is generally used to emphasize the architectural features of the kitchen as well as lend the ideal dimension and depth to your Bristol kitchen.
The fixtures placed inside cabinets which have a glass front to illuminate the cabinet items like China and glassware may constitute Accent Lighting. Even over cabinet lighting or recess lighting accentuates the feel good factors of a kitchen. Track lighting can also be considered if the home owner has a small galley kitchen.
Dimmers: Installing dimmers is a significant factor that needs to be taken into account for kitchen lighting. With dimmers, the lights can be dimmed or undimmed according to the activity taking place in the kitchen or the time of the day. Moreover; dimmers create the right balance required in kitchen lighting.
However, just installing one stray dimmer may not be enough. Separate dimmers for each lighting type would be ideal: Accent, Task and Ambient. The idea is to be able to adjust the lighting; as and when needed. Get advice at this stage from an electrician.
Research, Plan and then Implement Planning ahead can save the home maker some money as well as get the right lighting effect within a stipulated budget. A lighting designer may also be very helpful in delivering the required effects as he would first carefully study the kitchen layout (such as natural light, ceiling height, finishing of the surface etc) and design the lighting accordingly. Also, do your homework and a good amount of research in advance. Information and ideas come in very handy when you most require it. Most importantly, don’t over do it. Be subtle; choose the right focal points and task areas and then mix well. This should lighten up the kitchen enough to get all your culinary tasks done in a jiffy.
Electricians Bristol on: Lighting For Your Kitchen And Cabinets in your Bristol home
May 20, 2011
Electricians Bristol on: Lighting For Your Kitchen And Cabinets in your Bristol home
Electricians Bristol - Kitchen Lighting
Providing adequate lighting to your kitchen is very important as the kitchen is the heart of most Bristol homes.Kitchen lighting is a form of home lighting specifically for the functional purpose of a kitchen. In the kitchen several requirements need to be met and these must be aided by precise lighting. Thus kitchen lighting is mostly task lighting and ambient lighting and less of decorative lighting. Good kitchen lighting, from an aesthetic and functional standpoint, incorporates both ambient and task lighting. A Bristol Electrician can advice you on the best lighting you can use to create the ambiance you want in your kitchen. For Electricians kitchens are interesting projects as they have different forms of lighting.
From the perspective of a lighting designer or electrician, the kitchen is one of the more interesting and versatile projects one can tackle. Include the fact that kitchens are the heart of most Bristol homes, then getting this room right is extremely important for any electrician and the home owner.
Filled with numerous nooks and crannies, cabinets and appliances, shelves and other specialized areas such as islands, kitchens can present more lighting challenges than any other room in your home.
Start with the task areas. These are best lit with bright, shadowless light. Fluorescent tubes are particularly well suited for this. You want to get the fixture close to the task area so as to get maximum light concentrated on the area you wish to work. In kitchens this would be counters, sinks, and tables. Spot lights and directional lights also provide task lighting in kitchens. For pantries or other closets, small Under Cabinet Lights provide good illumination. They can be mounted inside the closet above the door header to provide glare free lighting on the closet contents. An electrician can help you choose the right lights for cabinets also.
Ambient light is the general, overall light that fills in shadows, reduces contrast, and lights vertical surfaces to give the space a brighter feel in your Bristol home.
Fluorescent tubes are well suited to do the job of providing ambient light. They provide broad, even illumination and their efficiency makes it possible to fill the space with light without turning it into an oven. Incandescent down lights are more dramatic and give a brilliant white light but require several fixtures to avoid shadows in a kitchen.Direct lighting is achieved by using conventional recessed lights, surface lights or light fixtures that are on a pendant or chain. These types of lights work well to provide bright lighting for work surfaces and general purpose lighting in the kitchen area. Rope lighting and small recessed lights are budget friendly.
Add a layer of accent lighting. You may be lighting artwork, architectural details, collectibles, or a food presentation area.
Kitchen occupancy sensors can be used in place of expensive complicated 3-way switches in kitchens with multiple entrances. If the sensors can “see” all the entrances from their mounting location, they will turn on the lights automatically whenever anyone enters the room from any direction. Cool device to have in your Bristol home.
The importance of kitchen lighting is often overlooked. The traditional kitchen has been replaced by a modern one where people interact in quietude over the counter. Thus kitchen lighting is evolving with the needs of modern households.
Electricians Bristol – A Guide To Home Improvement Lighting
April 30, 2011
Electricians Bristol
Electricians Bristol
– A Guide To Home Improvement Lighting For Your Bristol Home
Electricians Bristol
We like or dislike a particular room or interior in our Bristol home due to the lighting in the room because proper lighting is very essential in beautifying a particular room. With a successful and pleasant lighting, you can highlight the key features of the room and can also eliminate the shadows and hot spots. An electrician can help you decide which lighting is best for your home.
GENERAL or AMBIENT LIGHTING in your Bristol Home
General or Ambient Lighting refers to light provided to make a room or space comfortable and safe for its intended use. Recessed lighting is very popular as a general lighting source. The visible portion of the recessed light fixture is available in hundreds of styles and colors to control the spread of light.
TASK LIGHTING typically refers to the higher level of light provided on work areas such as kitchen islands, counter tops and desks. This type of lighting is essential for most Bristol kitchens.
Additional light is directed to these areas using recessed, track or pendant fixtures. To be effective, accent lighting should be approximately four times more than the level of ambient light in an area. Focusing light on an “accented object” or “area” draws attention to a picture, vase or other focal point. Here again, halogen lighting type fixtures provide a whiter, brighter appearance than standard incandescent or fluorescent type fixtures.
With WALL WASHING (a type of Accent Lighting) an area can be uniformly illuminated. Here reflected light can be used to create ambient light in the remaining portion of the room and will make the room pleasing and restful.
WALL GRAZING is completely different from Wall Washing as it creates a dramatic highlight and shadow effect on surfaces. You need to put ceiling light fixtures for Wall Grazing closer to the wall than Wall Washing so that the three-dimensional effect can be highlighted.
DISPLAY LIGHTING consists of small low voltage lighting fixtures to illuminate cabinets displaying ornaments, dinnerware etc. Great for Bristol home owner that has beautiful ornaments.
Many under-cabinet fixtures are suitable for display lighting. COVE LIGHTING gives a room a more open appearance by illuminating the perimeter of the room where the walls meet the ceiling.
After knowing about different type of lighting fixtures, it will be easier for you to make the selection. However, if you want to see the sample display of various lights then visit your nearest home improvement store and make the decision.