16 - Friday, August 22, 1986 —- North Shore News

BRINGING A ROCM TO LIFE

Choose carefully your
home’s lighting needs

TODAY THERE are three impor-
tant considerations for selecting
lighting fixtures — decor, energy
costs and lighting needs.

Good lighting brings a room to
life. Your lighting system should
provide a visually comfortable and
safe level of illumination for your
family’s activities, and spotlight
the elements of the decor that you
wish to emphasize.

To achieve these goals, you will
need to know a litde bit about how
the three types of fighting —
general illumination, local lighting,
and accent lighting — interact with
each other, and what function each
performs in your home.

*General illumination encom-
passes the total light available in a
room. It must be sufficient to en-
sure safety and to allow perfor-
mance of simple tasks.

*Local lighting is provided by
lamps or small fixtures. While
local lighting does raise the level of
general illumination, it fills needs
in specific areas ~- for example, a
reading lamp next to a bed.

eAccent lighting dramatizes an
interesting object in a room, such
as a painting, or floodiights an
area, such as a feature wall,

BALANCE LIGHTING

The balance of these types of
lighting, their interaction with
natural light, and the selection of
fixtures and lamps determine the
total effect of any lighting system.

Efficient and effective lighting
requires careful planning.
Whether you are planning lighting
for a new house or updating an ex-
isting system, you must make a
daytime and night-time inventory
of that room’s lighting needs be-
fore you make changes.

Using your furniture arrange-
ment plan, first evaluate the
amount of natural light in the
room on a sunny day. Determine
the minimum of daytime lighting
you will need.

Then determine the night-time
activities in the room and note
what lighting you will require for

Rikki says “put your waste

on a diet. Recycle.”

visual comfort. Finally, decide the
mood you want to create in your
room — one that is restful and
serene, or dramatic and lively.

Plan your lighting for economic
efficiency. Adequate wiring, a
sufficient number of circuits, and
the right fixtures are essential.

Efficient’ wiring requires that
wire size be large enough to pre-
vent a loss of voltage. Have your
wiring checked by a professional
electrician.

CHECK OVERLOADING

You must have enough circuits
to prevent any of them from being
overloaded. If your fuses blow or
your breakers disengage frequent-
ly, have the energy load checked
that is on each circuit.

Vixtures with translucent shades
will produce more light than those
with opaque shades, Use low wat-
tage bulbs in your accent lights,

aut accessories

Remember that fluorescent
lighting requires less power and
emits less heat than inca .-lescent.

General lighting is the overall il-
lumination you need for seeing —
for housekeeping, and TV view-
ing. It minimizes eye fatigue by
reducing contrasts between lighting
tasks and surrounding areas.

Accent lighting enhances colors
of your furnishings, highlights
artwork, plants, wall hangings and
the texture of walls themselves,

Task lighting is the iumination
you need to comfortably perform
specific activities such as cooking,
reading, sewing, shaving, studying
and hobbies.

{t prevents eye strain and acci-
dents. For most tasks the lighting
should be shadow-free and without
glare.

Consider everyone in your home
and where their activities will take
place. Most areas need lighting
suitable for a variety of activities.

NORBURN
LIGHTING

4600 East Hastings, Burnaby Tel. 299-0665

RING GOOD THINGS
TO LIGHT!

CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTRIC
LIGHTING PRODUCTS

FLUORESCENT Sighting requires less power and emits less heat than
incandescent lighting — something to consider when redesigning kitchen
or work areas.

REGISTER NOW for “Guidelines to Good Lighting” and
“Safe Home Wiring Lessons” by GORD] MOORE, C.L.M.C.

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