Putting your home on the market and looking for a non-invasive way of improving the appeal of your home? Try making some changes to the lighting in your home. Poor lighting can make your home look cramped and unappealing, and outdated lighting can also cost you more in monthly power costs.
Energy efficient light bulbs will reduce your power bills. Lighting in larger homes can represent as much as 15% of the average household power bill. Reduce the cost of lighting your home by up tp 50% by replacing the old incandescent lightbulbs with LED, fluorescent or solar lighting alternatives, and change your home from dark and dingy to light and bright at the same time.
Ceiling lights such as fluorescent tubes or down lights are standard in most Australian homes, and provide clear, bright light in areas where you need to work.
Supplement the ceiling lighting with standing lamps which can improve the look and feel of the area. Use this intimate lighting to create distinct spaces for different purposes – a reading nook, a media area and so on. Standing lamps will provide a more subtle lighting solution than the overhead lighting.
Look for opportunities to introduce lighting through other appliances – for example the cookerhood in the kitchen, ceiling fans in the bedrooms. These can provide good lighting when they are in use and save on additional lamps or ceiling lights.
Bring your rooms to life with stylish lamps and light shades – you can change the whole look and feel of a room in line with current trends without having to redecorate the whole room.
Lighting design refers to the deliberate use of light to achieve a practical or aesthetic effect. Consider some of the following principles when deciding what changes to make to the lighting in your home:
North facing windows introduce sunlight and daylight into the home, particularly in winter when the sun is lower in the sky and direct sunlight contributes to heating the house.
South facing windows (for latitudes below the tropic of Capricorn) predominantly introduce daylight without heat gains of direct sunlight — making them an ideal orientation for houses in warmer climates where home cooling is the main imperative.
Skylights and light tubes of appropriate sizing and design can let in light without adding heat in summer or losing warmth in winter.
Externally reflected daylight contains less heat than direct penetrating sunlight (i.e. the infrared heat is predominantly absorbed by natural and built environments).
Light coloured interior surfaces reflect more light and reduce the level of artificial lighting required.
Sunny locations can exploit tubular daylighting devices — tubular skylights — which send direct-beam sunlight into the space below and are capable of delivering very high illumination levels when the sky is clear.
Direct sun should be excluded from task areas (particularly polished surfaces including kitchen benches and desktops) because of the high potential for glare and discomfort.
Internal sun penetration can be controlled with the least impact on an external view by vertical blinds on predominantly east and west oriented windows and horizontal blinds for predominantly northern (and southern, for north of the tropic of Capricorn) oriented windows.
Judicious use of the various available lighting options in your home can improve the look, feel and efficiency of your home with contemporary lighting solutions.
