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Many ways to light up your home
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ver more than three decades in the business of lighting, Don Richardson has had the opportunity to observe various lighting technologies come and go. As co-owner of Richardson Lighting and part of its management team, Richardson advises his customers regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the latest available light bulbs and how they can best illuminate their homes. In recent years, the bulbs currently on the market have surpassed the performance of incandescent technology in virtually every respect. First, halogen bulbs have proven more power-efficient for
By andrew livingstone
their light output. “They can focus the beam quite well to be able to take over higher wattage incandescent lamps,” Richardson said. “For example, a 100-watt halogen may have been equivalent to a 150-watt standard incandescent of the old style.” Now, incandescents are so inefficient as to be obsolete, and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) compete with halogens for sales’ space. With much the same colour and quality of light, it can be difficult to choose between them. All three can achieve similar light emission, but the intensity and direction of that illumination varies slightly. As in their early days, halogens are still strong as directional light sources. “Probably the biggest role of the halogen bulb was in the flood-style, directional types, where you want to shine a spot down on something – a task light or an accent light,” said Richardson. That is a role that LEDs can also perform, he added. “In the past, the LEDs have been better as a directional, comparable to the halogens.” By comparison, CFLs are at their best as more general light sources. This means that, in workspaces like kitchen counters and reading tables, LEDs and halogens are ideal. “Our most common light for a kitchen is a recessed, directional light that you’d run around the perimeter of a cupboard,” Richardson said. “The only option you’d be looking at is a halogen or an LED – you wouldn’t be looking at a CFL for that.” Even in spaces where a diffuse light is desirable, CFLs are not the only solution though. For non-task lighting in a basement or general area, Richardson said that homeowners will find that CFLs, LEDs or
62 You’re home Summer 2014