My Two Cents

Sep 10 2009 12:40PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |
Blog This! using: Blogger.com | LiveJournal |

By Susan Bady

A representative from Kichler Lighting visited the PB editors this afternoon. I know this is a bad pun, but I can't help myself -- the visit was illuminating.

In a way, residential lighting has come full circle. When I was a child, my grandmother and great-aunts would admonish me to "shut the light" whenever I left a room. It drove them crazy whenever lights were left on in an unattended room. (They also counted how many sheets of toilet paper we used, but that's another blog.)

From that Depression-era mindset, we've arrived at a point where lighting is smarter and much more energy-efficient. Compact fluorescent bulbs have been refined to the point where they actually do last a lot longer than incandescent bulbs, and LEDs have allowed designers to put lights where they haven't been before, such as inside shelves and above cabinets. Manufacturers like Kichler have been beating the drum about the proper placement, type and amount of lighting, but it's hard to say how many home builders have embraced these concepts.

For instance, to effectively light a walk-in closet you need two light sources: incandescent plus fluorescent. In an upscale garage where homeowners tinker with their big toys, a single 60-watt bulb won't cut it. And in the bathroom, says Kichler's senior product manager Jeffrey Dross, the most prevalent lighting configuration is over the mirror -- also the worst way to light a bath for shaving, applying makeup, etc. The best way: lights on either side of the mirror.

Dross threw out a statistic that surprised me: our eyesight reaches its peak at age 15. It's all downhill from there. So as we age, our need for better illumination increases exponentially.

Having absorbed this new information, I review the lighting in my own home and find it lacking: one recessed light in the walk-in closet and the ubiquitous incandescent bulbs over the mirror in the bathrooms. But I'm gradually replacing the incandescents with CFLs. And in honor of my grandmother, I religiously shut the lights whenever I leave a room.