Lamps and light fixtures can give rooms a welcoming glow. They can dramatise or soften colours, create a festive or soothing mood, call attention to objects you may want to show off and provide safe work areas and snug places to read.

Types of lights

 Incandescent – the usual bulb, which produces light when electric current is passed through a wire filament inside it that heats it and makes it glow.

 Fluorescent – your usual low pressure mercury-vapor gas discharge light which uses florescence to produce light in tube lights and bulbs that are long-lasting and economical, too, though some associate the harshness of the light to depression.

 Energy-savers and Light-emitting diode (LED) – Though far more expensive than the ones mentioned already these have a far longer life and use up far less energy proving to be very economical, bringing down your electricity bills. Both energy-savers and LED lights can save 25 to 80 per cent on the cost of energy. They are also far brighter than the normal lights. Earlier, they were too bright and harsh to the eye and ugly as well but now they come in various shapes, sizes and light choices such as florescent or day-light.

Residential lights fall into three categories – general, accent and task.

 Gereral lighting, which usually comes from one or more ceiling or wall fixtures and radiates throughout the room like sunlight.

 Accent lights focus on individual areas and may come from movable lamps, fixed fluorescents, track lights or recessed spotlights.

Accent lights are usually spot lights, either in recessed fixtures or on tracks. The bigger the bulb, the broader the beam. Install them 12 to 24 inches from the wall they are lighting and aim the bulb at a 30 degree angle from the vertical so it does not shine in anyone’s eyes.

 Task lights just like accent lights are meant to focus on particular areas like desk lamps for instance.

Moveable and built-in task lights should produce 150 to 225 watts incandescent, 22 to 32 watts florescent. Set desk and sewing lights 15 inches above the work surface, the lights over kitchen counters may be as high as 24 inches.

Single-use areas such as a hall, laundry room or store, can be lit by one set of fixtures and one level of light. Rooms with multiple uses call for several kinds of fixtures and light levels.

The rule of thumb for general lighting in living and sleeping areas is to have one watt of incandescent light for each square foot. And for a kitchen or home workshop it should be double of that. With florescent bulbs, tube lights, energy-saving and LED lights the minimum drops to about one-third watt per square foot in living rooms and three-fourth watt in kitchens. Reflector bulbs save energy, too. A 50-watt reflector bulb is as bright as a normal 100-watt bulb.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 21st, 2014