When designing a lighting scheme one of the first factors we consider is “who lives in this house”.
You may think that we all need light so the same scheme will suit everyone. That is true, but there are many things we can do to ensure the lighting can help everyone in the house, throughout our lives.
As someone ages their visual acuity declines. A 20 year old needs 3 times less light than a typical 60 year old, to perform the same task. Young children can function on very little light, as any parent will know.
So how do we build these considerations into our lighting schemes? Here are a few tips :
1. When young children wake in the night they need to feel safe, reassured, and to find their way to their parents’ bedroom quickly. Very small LED lights installed in the skirting board, switched on a separate lighting circuit, will light the way. These can be painted in the same finish as the skirting board so that they are nearly invisible. Low level light doesn’t not register as much in the eye & brain as top light, so keeping the light at low levels, as well as low power, will help children get back to sleep again.
2. In bathrooms we install small led wall lights on a motion sensor mounted flush in the ceiling. In the dead of night children, or guests, do need to search for the light switch. The light comes on automatically and casts just enough light required. After a set amount of time it turns off automatically.
3. Bedside reading lights are great for older children although we recommend these are plug in and wall mounted. This is for several reasons – one of which being that as children grow up to early teens they do tend to like to rearrange the furniture in their rooms!
4. Older people always need very good task light to read. Wall lights or portable standard lamps, at an appropriate height are a great idea for this. It’s also important to have a high general ambient level of light, for safety and comfort, to reduce tiredness & strain.
Everyone in the family has different needs and a well-planned lighting design can be designed to work for them all.
If you would like any help planning your scheme please contact us on : info@owl-lighting.co.uk. www.owl-lighting.co.uk T. 01962 738689
