These photos come from a serious DIY-er, so perhaps they’ll be an inspiration for anyone considering tackling a major renovation project on your own. Chad decided to build a kitchen in his basement, so he picked out cabinets and hardware and then installed all of the electrical, plumbing, and flooring with the help of his wife. He hired someone to help with the countertops and drywall work. “Some things should just be left to the pros,” Chad said. We agree!
Dec 162011
I recently came across a great resource from the Lighting Research Center (a university-based center for studying lighting technologies). It’s designed for homeowners, contractors, and builders exploring best practices for residential under cabinet lighting.
In other words, it’s a completely objective source to determine what kind of under cabinet light fixtures are right for you or your clients. Perfect!
The research is published in two PDF’s – A Homeowner’s Guide to Residential Under Cabinet Lighting and How To Select Residential LED Under-Cabinet Lighting – so read the complete guides if you can. However, if you’re pressed for time, start with these 5 killer tips I gleaned from the research.
Match the Color Temperature With Your Kitchen:
Do you envision a yellowish, neutral white, or cool white (with hints of blue) light for your under cabinet lighting? It’s a matter of personal preference. If you’re a fan of yellowish light, we usually recommend you aim for a color temperature below 3200K. The 2700-2800K range will be closest to the warm glow of an incandescent lamp. Neutral white light is around 3200-3500K and it becomes cool white at about 4100K. Continue reading »
1. When negotiating the steps to your door at night, you’re forced to use your cell phone as a makeshift flashlight.
There’s no question about it – inadequate step lighting is just dangerous. It’s so easy to incorporate lighting into your stairway! Don’t wait until you take a bad fall to make a change. Use this guide to determine what kind of lights are right for your steps.
2. When you’re out of town, so are the house lights.
Sure, outdoor lighting helps you negotiate dark stairways and makes your house look beautiful, but let’s be honest: It’s not just for you. It sends an important message to outsiders. When you leave home for an extended period of time, you don’t want every passerby to know it. The key here is to look for lights with photocells. Whether it’s a series of small utility lights or a light control socket you can screw your front porch lights into, photocells will enable automated lighting for your home. At dusk, the lights will turn on; at dawn, they’ll turn off again. Continue reading »
Dec 092011
If you have an elegant staircase, entrance hallway, or foyer that’s begging for lighting to call attention to its splendor, look no further. This guide will help you determine exactly what types of light fixtures will fill the space best.
You almost always want to incorporate some sort of chandelier if the foyer’s ceiling is above-average height. It will create that “wow” effect you are looking for. However, it’s important to scale the size of the light fixture for the space. Here are some tips that should help…
To determine the right width of the light fixture: Add the length and width dimensions (in feet) of the foyer area together. That number – in inches – is the width of the light fixture you should look for. So, if your foyer is ten feet by ten feet, you’ll want a light fixture that is about 20 inches wide.
To determine the right height of the light fixture: Position the light fixture so that the bottom is at least seven feet from the floor. If you have a window above your front door in the foyer, you can really heighten the effect of a beautiful chandelier. Center the chandelier in the window. Even from the outside, your home will look brilliant!
Depending on how large your foyer is, you may want to look for a flush mount ceiling light, a semi-flush mount light, or a chandelier with two or three tiers.
Very large entryways might call for wall sconces in addition to a ceiling light fixture. Hang them about 66 inches from the floor and place them about eight feet apart.
For more entryway design ideas, check out Houzz Ideabooks.
Nov 302011
Doesn’t this look like a lovely place to vacation – or live? Caves Heights is a private ocean and beach view community in Nassau, Bahamas. Every one of its condominium residences features an expansive balcony with gorgeous ocean views. The living room and master bedroom open up to that balcony to take advantage of the vista.
Besides gracing the blog with dreamy photos, I wanted to write about Caves Heights because they are one of our wonderful customers!*
When Caves Heights began furnishing their interiors with custom built cabinetry, granite countertops, designer bathtubs, and marble vanities, they decided to order recessed lighting and Lutron Skylark dimmers from us.
In the photo below,
you can see our 3-inch low voltage recessed lighting trims with stepped baffles on the ceiling. Continue reading »
When I say “bathroom lighting,” what image pops up in your head?
If it’s a beautiful vanity area accented with stylish wall sconces, or an illuminated mirror above the sink, you’re like most people. The vanity is important to light properly. It can be incredibly annoying to have inadequate light for makeup or shaving, so it’s typically what people (including us!) think of first.
This post is about the part of the bathroom that is frequently forgotten in terms of lighting: the shower. For some reason, recessed shower lights get left off the lighting plan often. The result is a shadowy, unwelcoming space – hardly the place you’d want to spend your first few groggy moments of the morning.
Whether you’re adding shower lights to your finished bathroom (an easy project with special remodel recessed housings), or choosing the shower trim you’d like to use in a new bathroom, this post should help you decide which product is right for you.
Ever experienced that plunge into darkness characteristic of a power outage?
Whether it’s after dark or you are in a windowless room, it leaves you scrambling for the matches, candles, and flashlights.
What if you could eliminate that worry and ensure your home or business would always remain lit in the event of a power outage?
We are now selling a revolutionary lighting system that makes it possible. The base product is a Power Outage Detector. It plugs in to a normal outlet, senses when power is lost, and immediately activates a bright, battery-powered light. You may even detach it from the wall to use as a flashlight. Continue reading »
If you’re an electrical contractor, any tool that makes your job easier/more efficient is a good tool. Derek Singleton of Software Advice shares this guest post with us reviewing Smartphone apps designed specifically for electrical contractors.
Derek researches the best mobile apps for various industries and is considered an expert in the mobile app world. Enjoy, and be sure to leave a comment if you have any favorite apps not mentioned here!
At Software Advice, we spend a considerable amount of time reporting on construction technology and trends such as electrical estimating programs. Every now and then, however, we like to take a look at the lighter side of the construction industry. This time, we decided to report on apps. In today’s mobile world, an app can save an electrician, engineer or student precious time and is a helpful tool in the field or the classroom.
I recently scoured the iTunes and Android markets in search of the best apps for the electrical industry. I came up with 20 apps – 10 for each operating system (OS). Here are the top three apps that I came across for each OS. Continue reading »
Sometimes, it’s best to let photos speak for themselves.
Take a look at this kitchen. See the newly installed under cabinet lights nestled discreetly underneath those cabinets? If you can barely spot them, it’s because our LED Thin Under Cabinet Task Lights are incredibly low profile.
The following photos show the kitchen with the under cabinet lights turned off. For all intensive purposes, consider these the “before” photos:
In an age of cell phones, high definition TVs, DVRs, iPods, and countless devices sucking power from every outlet in our homes, the latest report from the Electric Power Research Institute might come as a surprise. The demand for residential power in the U.S. is actually falling.
For the last 30 years (up until 2011), residential power demand has grown fairly steadily. From 1980 to 2000, the growth rate was about 2.5 percent per year; from 2000 to 2010, the rate was 2 percent per year.
However, during the first three months of this year, residential power demand nationwide dropped by 1.3 percent (after adjustment for the effects of weather). It’s expected to continue to decline over the next ten years.
Why is this happening? According to the Associated Press, utility executives are a bit perplexed – typically, power usage is not affected by changes in the economy. As AP Energy Writer Jonathan Fahey writes, “Even when the economy is stagnant, people still watch TV and keep their ice cream cold.”
Utility analysts are pointing their fingers at quite a few possible reasons for the decline, including the increasing adoption of energy efficient lighting, the efficiency programs initiated by federal and state governments, the weak housing market resulting in families occupying smaller homes, and grassroots efforts from consumers cutting back on energy use. They’ve also noted that appliances have become more efficient in the past couple of decades.
To read more, see the AP article.
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