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Residential Lighting

residential lighting
Residential lighting design offers many opportunities to maximize human comfort, health and productivity. The ultimate multi-use environment, a residence requires thoughtful planning and design. 
A designer must consider a variety of key characteristics when developing a lighting plan: light source, glare control, efficiency, maintenance, color quality, daylight, distribution, cost, control and flexibility.
ConTech Lighting is uniquely qualified to guide you through the lighting process and be your lighting resource. We offer a wide variety of lighting systems, including downlights, accent lighting and decorative fixtures to meet your lighting design needs.
At ConTech Lighting, our goal is to help you exceed your residential lighting goals and partner with you every step of the way.

Goals of Residential Lighting

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Create a warm and inviting environment while making it functional and safe

Establish a path of illumination through the house to allow for comfortable transition from room to room

Highlight areas of interest and architectural details to enhance and strengthen the character of the living space

Design a flexible lighting system that
is easy to maintain while addressing
energy efficiency and code issues

Layers of Light

There are four layers of light typically used in residential lighting: general (also called ambient), decorative, task, and accent.
Combining these lighting types gives visual interest to the space. Integrating and balancing the different layers of light into every room allows for a variety of settings, and creates an inviting environment.

GENERAL/AMBIENT LIGHTING

  • Main source of illumination
  • Uniform, base level of lighting
  • Comfortable level of brightness
  • Provide a sense of relaxation and spaciousness
  • Light level should be uniform and neutral

General, or ambient, lighting provides the area with overall illumination, more specifically for orientation and general tasks. Ambient lighting should radiate a comfortable level of brightness and provide a sense of relaxation and spaciousness. The light level should be uniform throughout the space, inconspicuous and neutral.

ambient lighting
decorative lighting

DECORATIVE LIGHTING

  • Contributes to the aesthetic layers in an environment
  • Enhances the look of the space as a design elemen
  • Complements and adds visual interest to the space

Decorative lighting serves a dual purpose: not only to contribute to the lighting layers in a retail environment, but also to enhance the look of the space as a design element. Decorative lighting includes pendants, sconces, chandeliers, table and floor lamps, and cylinders. Decorative lighting should complement and add visual interest to the interior, as well as provide or contribute to the overall lighting plan.

TASK LIGHTING

  • Used as a supplement to general/ambient lighting
  • Provides a focused, localized, and higher level of illumination than general/ambient lighting
  • Should eliminate shadows on the specific illuminated area and prevent glare from the lamp or off surfaces

Although ambient light should still provide the majority of illumination, task lighting reduces the reliance on overhead lighting and provides a better quality of light for specific tasks. Necessary to the functioning of a space, it is important to use energy efficient sources to reduce operating costs.

task lighting
accent lighting

ACCENT LIGHTING

  • Reinforces design aesthetics
  • Creates a dramatic emphasis on shapes, textures, finishes and colors
  • Adds depth and contrast

If Accent Lighting is directed ambiguously, the end result may have many unwanted shadows, obstructing the details of the highlighted items as well as creating a distracting glare. The key is to make this illumination more precise and of higher intensity than the surrounding ambient light. Accenting everything and  emphasizing nothing is a common mistake with accent lighting; keep in mind that there such a thing as providing too much light

exterior

Outside, the entrance to the home
should be well lit to welcome guests
and identify visitors

entry

Inside, general lighting should provide an inviting atmosphere and safe passage
into other areas of the home

living room

The living room: a space for general entertaining, watching television,
working on the computer, doing homework, reading… the correct light levels must be incorporated to suit each activity and mood

kitchen

Kitchens have become the ultimate multi-use room, the heart of the home, and need plenty of ambient and task lighting to be efficient and functional; controls help change lighting scenes easily

bedroom

It is important to focus on the overall mood of the space when lighting a bedroom. Combining ambient and task lighting provides bright enough illumination for reading and other tasks. Using dimmers gives the ability to control different light levels independently so the room can adapt to different moods as desired.

bathroom lighting

When lighting a bathroom, consider safety, function and aesthetics; the light should be bright enough to move around safely and shadow-free to allow for grooming practices

resi controls

Leviton Control Solutions modernize energy management and increase energy efficiency. Leviton gives you the ability to integrate scalable solutions with a host of different control protocols to keep the entire house connected.

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