Lighting Installations for a Home-Based Lifestyle

Learn how to create a beautiful interior or exterior lighting atmosphere

Our residential electricians have been assisting numerous customers with optimizing their home lighting installation as part of a massive transition to home-based living. Switching out of legacy lighting systems to LED lighting is a movement, not a fad. It is a real trend, bound to amplify further under the influence of an evolution in tastes, the desire to make our home life more comfortable, and a long-term need to save on energy usage. 

In this article, we discuss several aspects of this topic, cover various applications of LED lighting installations indoor and outdoor, and make some practical recommendations. 

Function Follows Form

LED strips, small LED lights, etc. offer a level of functionality and flexibility unmatched by traditional bulbs. Their form factor doesn’t get in the way of these partitions, and they can match any decor. 

Furthermore, their lower heat signature enables electricians to tuck them away safely in tight spaces where incandescent bulbs would create a fire hazard and would be too big to fit. Form, sometimes, commands function.

Adapting to Physical Limitations

Legacy bulbs only offered limited adaptability to individual physical needs. In a recent past, your choice of kitchen under-cabinet lighting fixtures was limited to cold neon tubes and yellowish 40W light bulbs. Too bad if you were a senior with a bad case of glare sensitivity, or a person in a wheelchair with only a countertop-level field of vision. 

By contrast, LED lighting strips emit diffused light, reduce glare, and direct luminance. We can also control their color to create more or less contrast, depending on ambient lighting. Adaptability increases functionality and visual comfort for all ages and medical conditions.

Saving Energy

Considering the inflation outlook and the rise in energy costs, most of us need to save money everywhere we can. When discussing electrical remodels with local homeowners, we clearly see their need to lower their energy usage. 

Just as foam insulation and high-SEER HVAC systems, home lighting systems directly save on electricity. We wrote several articles on the topic, including how much your household would save each year by switching all or part of your lighting systems out of incandescent bulbs into LED lights.

If your home is not yet converted to LEDs, it is time to take a look at the possibilities offered by simple and sophisticated LED lighting installations. We see at least two reasons to consider the change: (a) transforming the look of your interior; (b) lowering your power bill very significantly. If the first reason is not enough to cheer you up every day, the second is sure to please you at least once a month, when you receive your utility invoice.

Expanding Home Life Outdoor

As people spend more time homebound and entertain guests more often, landscape lighting is becoming a common sight in patios, gardens, and yards. The growing popularity is for lighting fixtures that blend inconspicuously in the landscape, and LED strips definitely fulfill this preference. Their form factor and waterproofed construction allows designers and electricians to conceal them in hardscaping features.

Types of Lighting Installations for Various Applications

For your lighting plan to accommodate all of the activities and types of ambiance you want in your home and outdoors, take a look at the three types of lighting: ambient lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting.

• Ambient Lighting: Ambient lighting is your main light source, meant to illuminate an entire room or section of a room. Any light fixture capable of lighting a whole room ━ or the main area of the room ━ would qualify as an ambient light source.
• Task Lighting: Task lighting fixtures are your smaller lights that illuminate the smaller space where you perform a certain task. The purpose of task lighting is to make it easier to perform a task, and create a more intimate lighting to avoid bothering other people for instance.
• Accent Lighting: Accent lighting fixtures can be even smaller than those used for task lighting. People use accent lighting fixtures to highlight a painting on a wall, or to showcase a sink as a focal point in the kitchen. Accent lighting is a way to underscore design features in your home.

A strong lighting plan integrates functionality and aesthetics to fulfill all the purposes your house serves and give it the look and feel you desire. A residential electrician will calculate the total electric load of your lighting plan and figure out what fixtures to use where, with the purpose of decreasing this load and saving you money. 

Suggested Home Lighting Applications

1. Kitchen Lighting

We typically recommend our clients to install an array of LED ceiling lights. If they don’t already have recessed cans, we use flush-mount lights to simplify installation. This array of lights will create a layer of ambient light for when the family gathers in the kitchen and when they receive guests.

For your cooking activities, we suggest pendant lights over your preparation island or your sink countertop. You can also install these lights over a breakfast counter or nook. These are task lights: they help you accomplish your food prepping and cooking, and to eat quick meals.

Installing LED light strips under your cabinets or inside glass-door cabinets will help accent the general design of your kitchen. From a practical standpoint, they will softly illuminate your kitchen at night and a task area. 

Choose LED strips that can change color. Bright white light is typically best for preparing food. But dimming it in the evening to a warmer yellow would create the mood for dinner. After hours, during the night, switching these LED light strips to a colder blue would enable everyone to go about in the darkness without bumping into things or straining their eyes.

2. Yoga/Meditation/Prayer Room Lighting

This type of activity definitely calls for ambient and task lighting. For ambient, LED light strips along the ceiling ━ hidden, if you have cove/tray ceilings ━ will create a soft, indirect light. Color-changing strips will adapt the light to the mood of your work: stimulating or calming?

In prayer rooms, you probably have lists to go through and scriptures to read. You want a task light for this. A dimmable floor lamp with a directional head will give you the focus light you need.

3. Hallway Lighting

You can either use LED recessed or flush lights, or install wall-mounted sconces, depending on the lighting effect you plan to achieve: broad illumination with overhead lights? Or contrasting brighter and darker areas? 

Remember that LED lights are directional, unlike bulbs. You will need to calculate how far from each other these lights should be installed. As professional electricians, we do these calculations when we propose a lighting plan to our customers.

If you have artwork on your walls, small overhead picture lights will highlight it. Even more sophisticated, edge-lit LED panels mounted over the pictures: they will highlight them and reduce glare on the surface.

4. Bedroom Lighting

There are no rules to illuminate a bedroom, just possibilities depending on practicalities and your wish list.

Most of our clients in San Antonio want bright overhead lighting to go about general activities like dressing up, making the bed, vacuuming and cleaning up. Use recessed or flush-mounted LEDs for this type of lighting.

If you typically fall asleep as your head hits the pillow, think of remote-controlled ceiling lights.

Concealing light strips in a tray ceiling will create a soft, diffused light that sets the mood right.

We love bedside lamps. Instead of bulbs which create a 360° illumination, use directional LED lamps ━ with or without an adjustable neck ━ if you enjoy reading or journaling before falling asleep. These are good task lights that limit light bleed and avoid bothering your significant other when they want to sleep.

A task lights and a beauty dish are of course first necessities if you have a vanity or dressing table. 

Teenagers love to install color-changing LED strip lights in various areas of their bedroom: behind the headboard, lined along the walls, hidden above bookshelves or crown molding. If you parent teenagers, let them show you a few TikTok videos: you’ll get an idea of what’s in. 

All Star Electric San Antonio: Your Residential Electrician of Choice?

All Star Electric San Antonio has been operating in the city for almost 30 years. We are licensed electricians, fully insured, with a lot of knowledge to bring to your table. Our A+ rating at the BBB San Antonio and our 4.5-star rating in Google tell the story. 

We also offer a 2-year warranty on our labor, one of the longest warranties in the industry in San Antonio. When we do an electrical installation, we do it right, on time, and on budget. Call us at (210) 391-0274 for advice. We will be glad to share some advice and discuss your project with you.