Month: July 2021

How To Create The Atmosphere You Want In Your Home By Using Lighting

The lighting of any space defines the atmosphere that is created. Even in your home, it is one of the most essential components that decide the ambiance of the space. Bright lights help keep you fresh and awake while dimmer lights provide a more soothing environment. Subsequently, manipulating your home’s lighting setup can completely transform the aura and mood in your house. Here are some tips as to how you can create the atmosphere you want in your home by modifying the lighting.

1. Create A Lighting Plan

Whether you’re redoing the lighting of a room or simply starting from scratch, it’s a good idea to first create a lighting plan that covers every aspect. Your plan should cover the very basics for the lighting setup of your room. For each room, you need to consider the activities that need to take place in that particular room or space and choose the lights accordingly. For example, your bedroom should have a comfortable lighting setup, and shouldn’t consist of harsh overhead lights. You also need to consider the architectural features of a room that you want to define. Make sure that you consider the style, scale, intensity, and color temperature of the lights you select.

Keeping these factors in mind, you’ll be able to come up with a rough sketch of how you want to design your lighting. Early planning will make sure there’s no clash between the lights you set up and the room’s color scheme.

2. Layering Lights

You should consider a multilayer lighting approach to make the most of every inch of your room and give it more ambiance. You can use different types and styles of lights to give the room a more aesthetic aura. Whether you choose to combine these different light sources from a single point, like the ceiling, or from different places in the room like the walls, stairs, and even the floor, make sure that the light illuminates every part of the room well. Though, when you use a combination of lights, the illumination is much more enhanced. By using suspended luminaires in the form of a cluster, even a large room will look cozy. Similarly, if you want to make your room look taller, you can use a combination of spotlights.

3. Ensure the Lighting Is Practical

The functionality of your home’s lighting should be your first priority, aesthetics come second. Make sure whatever combination you choose is practical, keeping in mind the requirements of each room.

Your kitchen should be the brightest place in your home since cooking requires bright illumination. To achieve the best kitchen lighting, you can combine bright downlights, accent, and recess lighting, which works best above stovetops. Sunlight is also a great source of natural illumination and should be present in your home in a sufficient amount. You can make use of window shutters to control the amount of sunlight entering your rooms. You’ll easily be able to dim the lights according to your mood and weather changes. To ease your reading habits, directional lighting can be installed in your study rooms. Another great idea for practical lighting is using dimmers in your bedrooms so that you can easily change the atmosphere and warmth of your rooms.

4. Choose Carefully

When choosing the LED lights or bulbs for your lighting fixtures and lamps, you need to pay more attention to the energy efficiency and color temperatures. The color temperature of the bulbs will decide the basic atmosphere created. A low light color temperature will give a more warm look, whereas a higher light temperature will provide a cool, sky-like illumination. Warm color temperature is considered the best option for indoor home lighting. The second thing you will need to consider is the energy efficiency of the bulbs. Be mindful that LED lighting is much more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs and is majorly considered the better alternative.

5. Utilize Accent Or Spotlights

If you want to create the effect of having a large space, you can accentuate certain spots to make your rooms look bigger. By accentuating mirrors on the wall, your room will not only look bigger but also get a sophisticated aesthetic. You can also highlight certain architectural elements or fancy furniture by using wall-mounted accent lights.

6. Be Consistent

Make sure you keep the theme, color scheme, and lighting of your home well-suited with each other. Your lighting should be consistent, huge variations in light intensity or style shouldn’t be seen in every other room of your home. Although neutral and dark combinations are suggested, make sure the difference doesn’t cause uneasiness.

Your home’s lighting is as important as any other essential. In addition to providing the necessary illumination for your day-to-day tasks, it also defines the type of atmosphere created in your home. By using a combination of accent lighting, spotlights, and other fixtures, you’ll be able to achieve that cozy, aesthetic, and warm ambiance you desire.

OmaiLighting LEDs is PRO Fasional LED Whoesale.If any problem, please feel free contact us with e-mail: mike@omailighting.com , We will do best for you.

LED vs. HID

LED and HID lamps are two of the many lighting technologies that are available today. Knowing the difference between HID and LED can help you make an educated decision on what’s best for your application and budget.

HID and LED Comparisons
Left to right: differences in output and color rendition of mercury-vapor, metal-halide, high-pressure sodium, and LED high-bay lights for use in typical HID applications
HID (High Intensity Discharge):
HID lamps consist of a ballast and a quartz tube that contains gas, metal salts, and two tungsten electrodes. The ballast controls the voltage and current necessary to operate the lamp.

LED vs HID – An HID fixture and an HID replacement bulb
An HID fixture and a metal-halide HID replacement bulb
An electric arc passes from one electrode to the other through a gas (most commonly mercury, metal halide, or sodium). The arc heats metal salts and vaporizes them—creating a plasma—which increases light output created by the arc and increases efficiency.

Types of HID Lamps
Mercury-Vapor:
This type of lamp creates an electric arc through vaporized mercury that produces a bluish-green light. An outer bulb envelope insulates the bulb and protects against ultraviolet radiation. Mercury-vapor lamps are the oldest type of HID lighting and are being phased out because of the increased efficiency and better color rendition of metal-halide lights.

Metal-Halide:
Much like mercury-vapor lamps, metal halides have an electric arc that is created through vaporized mercury. However, metal halides (such as sodium, indium, and thallium) are added to increase efficiency and improve the light’s color-rendering index (CRI). An outer bulb envelope insulates the bulb and protects against ultraviolet radiation.

High-Pressure Sodium:
This type of HID lamp uses mercury vapors and sodium to ignite an electric arc, which produces a gold-colored light that is used mostly in parking garages.

Considerations:
HID bulbs are used for many applications, including warehouses, parking garages, outdoor stadiums, street lights, and headlights.
They produce a substantial amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that can be damaging to skin, eyes, and fabric.
Due to the large amount of energy that passes through it, the ballast necessary for creating the arc often wears out quickly.
HID bulbs and fixtures can last up to 20,000 hours but will often start to lose color and brightness long before that. To protect the ballasts, it is recommended that bulbs be replaced when they’ve reached 70 percent of their life span.
They last at least three times longer and are three times brighter than halogen bulbs, but their life spans are three times shorter than LED bulbs.
HID bulbs are fragile and contain mercury. They should be recycled, and bulb contents should be sealed if they are broken.
These lights can take anywhere from several seconds up to 10 minutes before they reach full brightness, and they need time to cool after being switched off before they can be turned on again.
They pose a risk for explosions and fires and can reach temperatures that make them unsafe to touch.
Shop Super Bright LEDs for solutions to retrofit old HID fixtures with more efficient, higher-performing LED bulbs.

Energy Consumed at Equivalent Light Output – LED vs HID
LED (Light Emitting Diodes):
LEDs produce the longest-lasting, most energy-efficient lighting available today. A semiconductor rich in electrons and a semiconductor rich in holes are used to create an LED.

LED Wall Pack and LED Corn Bulb – LED vs HID
LED wall pack and LED corn bulb
Passing a current through the junction of these two materials combines the electrons with the holes and produces photons, which is the light that you see.

Considerations:
LEDs run much cooler than HID bulbs and don’t require high running temperatures to work properly, which greatly increases their longevity and enables them to function in cold temperatures.
Unless an LED light is specifically infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV), it produces little to no IR or UV radiation, which can be damaging to skin, eyes, and fabrics.
They can last up to 50,000 hours—three times longer than HID bulbs and fixtures.
Power consumption is the lowest compared to all other lighting technologies—80 percent less than HID bulbs.
LED lights contain no mercury, harmful gasses, or toxins.
Many of these bulbs are shatterproof and shock resistant.
They illuminate instantly unlike HID bulbs that can take several minutes to reach full brightness.
LED lights require higher initial investment but are the best value due to energy savings and longer life spans.
They are available in many different colors and variations of white.
Because of their low power consumption, LED lights are great alternative lighting solutions for solar-powered systems.
To remove the hassle of bulb replacement, Super Bright LEDs also offers many fixtures with LEDs integrated into the fixture. Shop thousands of LED lighting solutions at OmaiLighting.com now

Replacing Halogen MR16 spotlight bulbs With LED light bulbs – Make the Switch

If you’ve still to upgrade your halogen spotlights to LED, time is running out.
In September 2020, the European Commission directive banning the manufacture of ‘high-energy’ halogen spotlights came into force. These light bulbs are now becoming increasingly difficult to find as retailers sell through the last of their stock. This guide will tell you everything you need to know about replacing Halogen MR16 light bulbs with LED light bulbs.

Fortunately, upgrading Halogen MR16 light bulbs to LED is usually a painless affair, as most LED light bulbs are now designed to retrofit to existing light fittings. All you have to do to swap your old light bulbs out is remove them from the light fixture and fit the new, shiny light bulbs in their place.

The same goes for low voltage spotlights, but as they use transformers to convert mains voltage to a suitable lower one, you have to be careful to install the right LED light bulbs.

Replacing Halogen MR16 light bulbs with LED light bulbs
If you have low voltage halogen light bulbs installed with a transformer, the first thing you need to do before replacing Halogen MR16 light bulbs with LED light bulbs is to find the transformer’s maximum load. You should be able to find this on the body of the transformer itself, in the form of a ‘VA’ number. This VA number will either be fixed, or it will be a range (e.g. 10-60VA).

These numbers tell you the maximum wattage that the transformer can carry. For example, a 40VA transformer can handle up to a 40-watt halogen light bulb, while a 10-60VA one can carry between 10 and 60 watts worth of light bulbs. Some transformers might just carry one individual light bulb, while others might be able to carry several lower wattage light bulbs in a series.

At this point, it’s important to note that if it is a halogen transformer, this maximum load applies to halogen light bulbs only. For example, if you have a 40VA transformer for halogen light bulbs, you should not install 40-watts worth of LED light bulbs. This would overload the fitting and potentially cause a safety issue.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to find the right low voltage LED spotlights.

Equivalent wattage – swapping halogen MR16 light bulbs for LED
The natural energy-saving properties of LED light bulbs means that they can offer the same brightness of a halogen equivalent, but using only a fraction of the power. A 5W LED spotlight, for example, can offer the same brightness of light as a 35W halogen spotlight.

The 5W LED light bulb is the ‘equivalent wattage’ of the 35W halogen light bulb. You can usually find this equivalent wattage listed with online product details, specification sheets (where available), and on the product packaging.

When replacing Halogen MR16 light bulbs with LED light bulbs, it’s important to use LED light bulbs of equivalent wattage to your existing halogen light bulbs. This will ensure that the transformer can still handle the load safely.

For example, if you have one 35W halogen installed in your kitchen, ensure you swap it for 35W equivalent LED. The actual wattage of the LED light bulb may vary, but the equivalent wattage must be the same as your current halogen light bulbs. For example, you might find both 5W and 6W LED light bulbs that have an equivalent wattage of 35W; both of these would be fine to replace 35W halogen light bulbs.

This is only getting more complicated as LED technology gets ever more energy-efficient, but as long as you remember to look for the equivalent wattage, you will find the right LED spotlights. We’ve finished our guide off below with a quick ‘cheat sheet’ to help you remember all the technical terms discussed above. See our in-depth glossary of lighting terms for even more information.

Equivalent Wattage
A term used to compare LED light bulbs with their incandescent alternatives. An LED light bulb with an equivalent wattage of 35W is a direct replacement for a 35W incandescent light bulb. This is different from a light bulb’s stated wattage (see below).

Halogen MR16 Spotlights
Spotlights are ‘directional’ light bulbs that emit light in a focused beam. Halogen spotlights are a form of incandescent light bulb that use a tungsten filament and a mix of inert and halogen gases to produce light. The European Commission directive in September 2016 banned the manufacture of this type of power-hungry spotlights.

LED Spotlights
LED (light-emitting diode) light bulbs are the most technologically advanced and energy-efficient light bulbs available. They last many times longer than halogen light bulbs, produce the same amount of light, but use only a fraction of the energy. Most LED light bulbs can be used with existing light fittings (this is called retrofitting).

Low Voltage
Most light bulbs operate off mains voltage (see below), but some light fittings are designed to be lower voltage. These are most commonly used in integrated kitchen fittings, where space is at a premium and smaller light bulbs are a necessity. Low voltage light fittings often need a compatible transformer (see below) to convert mains voltage to the correct, lower voltage. Most low voltage spotlights will be between 12-24 volts.

Mains Voltage
The voltage of a building’s electrical circuits. in the UK mains voltage was 240 volts until late in the 20th Century, when it was changed to 230V to match other European countries. As this comes with a +10% tolerance, electrical equipment with a stated voltage of 240V is still fine to use on standard UK mains circuits. The majority of light bulbs are for use with mains circuits, except for ‘low voltage’ light bulbs, which must be used with a compatible transformer (see below). All low voltage light bulbs should be clearly stated as such on product listings and packaging.

Transformer
Bulbs that operate on a lower voltage than 230-240V must be used with a compatible transformer when installing on UK mains circuits. The transformer converts mains voltage to a lower voltage suitable for the light bulbs, ensuring they function as designed and preventing damage to the light bulbs and/or light fittings.

VA rating
The volt-ampere (VA) rating is the maximum load (in watts) that a transformer can safely carry. For example, a 40VA transformer can handle up to 40-watts of electrical equipment, while a 10-60VA one can carry between 10 and 60 watts worth. Installing low voltage LED light bulbs on a transformer designed for halogen lighting requires you to find the equivalent wattage (see above) for the LED light bulbs, so as not to overload the transformer.

Wattage (or Stated Wattage)
Denotes the rate of power consumption of electrical equipment. A higher wattage equals greater power consumption. LED light bulbs have a stated wattage and lumen output, as well as an equivalent wattage (see above).