Lighting Design

Ways to Improve Lighting

Improving lighting is a common reason for making changes to a home's electrical system. In older houses, electrical remodeling often focuses on both improving lighting and providing added circuits and electrical capacity.

Try these suggestions to improve lighting in your house.

Many lights draw attention to themselves because they look good. Others, such as recessed lights and modest flush-mounted fixtures, recede visually. Limit use of showpiece lights to only one or two per room.

Plan lighting with your household activities in mind.

1. Start with general illumination (also called ambient lighting) that will give the whole room sufficient light.

2. Then add task lighting, directed at a work surface. Make sure the task lights do not glare in people's eyes. Many lights several feet below the ceiling--for instance, a pendent light--highlight a certain spot while enhancing general lighting.

3. Install accent lighting that can be directed precisely to spotlight an area or a work of art.

To make sure you get all the light you want, check a fixture's bulb wattage rating. Some fixtures take low-wattage light bulbs that may not provide the light you're looking for. (And installing light bulbs of higher wattage can damage the fixture.)

Content courtesy of the American Lighting Association