Proper lighting can improve your home’s functionality, beauty and even its value. Whether you’re remodeling your current home or building a new home, installing the right lighting can help you save money and improve your overall quality of life. Knowing the benefits of proper lighting can help you install the right kind of lighting for your home.
Safety
- Being able to see properly helps you avoid household accidents like slips and falls. Good
lighting is especially important in parts of the home like the bathroom, kitchen and
stairways, where accidents and injuries are a common occurrence. These tips will help
you light your home for safety and maintain proper lighting in all your home’s spaces: - Install light switches at the top and bottom of your stair case.
- Install recessed lighting over your shower, toilet and nooks of the bathroom.
- Mount lights under kitchen cabinets to illuminate countertops.
- Install motion-activated lights outside your home to keep your home secure and
prevent night-time slips and falls. - Install lights in dark spaces like closets.
Although all homes should be well-lit to keep occupants safe, this is especially important in homes where seniors hope to age in place. Seniors often have poor eyesight that can make accidents more common. In fact, an 80 year-old needs six times as much light to see as a college student. When installing lighting for a senior, install extra light controls in each room to ensure that the light levels each room can be easily controlled. Remember that glare can distort vision, so It’s also a good idea to reduce glare by
furnishing the home with non-shiny surfaces.
Set the Mood
Lights do a lot to establish a pleasant environment in the home. In addition to offering value-improving interior design options, varying light sources in each room ensures that home owners have lighting options for all occasions. Dimmers give homeowners control that makes it easy to lower and raise lights as needed. In addition, connecting outlets to light switches gives homeowners the option to install lamps around the room, which in turn creates a cozy, more intimate environment.
Get Work Done
It’s hard to get work done in the house when you can’t see that well. Cleaning, reading, studying and preparing food all can be challenging when it’s difficult to see. To ensure that members of your household are able to get work done when they need to, install task lights in various parts of the home. Directed, focused beams of light in study areas and in dining rooms ensures that homeowners have a place to go when they need to get something done.
Save Money
Good lights help save money by being more energy efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs. Using LED lighting, for example, can save homeowners about 75% on energy needed to light the home. LED lighting also lasts 25 times as long as traditional incandescent light bulbs, so homeowners can save money on light bulb purchases as well as energy.
Improve Property Value
Proper lighting can improve your home’s property value. By making your home more desirable to buyers, proper lighting can help you sell your property when the time comes. Not only is good lighting just overall desirable, it’s also useful during home showings. Turning on all the lights during a home showing can help ensure that buyers have a good view of the home.
Work With an Experienced Contractor
Homeowners thinking about upgrading their home’s lighting can turn to their contractor for help. For more information about how you can upgrade your home’s lighting, talk to your lighting contractor.
