The chandelier used to mark your arrival. Clad in crystal, it met you in the foyer of a well-appointed home, then dazzled you from a power position over the dining room table.

Rarely did you find a chandelier in a starter home. To see them illuminating any room other than one used for entry or dining, more unusual still.

My, how times have changed!

Today chandeliers rate as a brilliant idea just about anywhere — from modest homes to magnificent mansions, contemporary digs to traditional houses. They dangle decorously in almost every room of the house.

Credit our bigger-is-better building boom. Taller ceilings and increased volume in today’s homes means chandeliers are less likely to crowd a room.

“Nine-and-10-foot ceilings almost demand something hanging to fill the space,” says Joe Rey-Barreau, educational consultant for the American Lighting Association (ALA) and assistant professor of interior design at the University of Kentucky. The ALA is a non-profit organization of leading manufacturers, retail lighting showrooms and sales representatives in the U.S. and Canada dedicated to expanding public knowledge about lighting.

Colorful chandeliers create drama in the kitchen. Mini ones provide elegance to powder rooms. Even walk-in closets go upscale when lit with a small chandelier.

“Beyond laundry rooms and garages, any room is an open target for hanging a chandelier,” adds Rey-Barreau. “More commonly, kitchens and bathrooms have become the popular locations for chandeliers.”

Chandeliers add twinkle to a boudier. “People are treating their bedroom suites as more luxurious personal spaces with elaborate bathroom areas, so it is not unreasonable to consider chandeliers there, either,” says Dan Blitzer, Director of Education for the ALA..

Landscape lighting can add beauty to your home as well as provide increased safety on your property.  Lighting design can be used to light pathways, highlight your homes architecture, and deter intruders.  When considering adding lighting to your landscaping, it is important to find the right balance of lighting.  Focus on adding lighting to main activity areas like driveways, entrances, pathways, dark areas around windows, and stairs and main focal points such as fountains, trees, or statues.  The following landscape lighting basics can help make the most of your lighting.

Up-lighting: Up-lighting is placing a light facing upward toward an object to illuminate it.  This works well for highlighting the focal points of your landscape or home.  Use it sparingly to highlight objects around your yard like statues, trees, flag poles, and fountains.

Down-lighting: Down-lighting is used to illuminate large areas.  It works well for illuminating entertainment areas such as a patio or a deck.  It also helps to deter intruders.

Accent Lighting: Accent lighting is an excellent choice for lighting paths and stairs by placing lights along both edges of a path or a staircase.  This looks beautiful and has the added safety feature of helping prevent people from tripping and falling.  Accent lighting can also add focus to low-lying flowers, shrubs, and ponds.

Advantages of Low Voltage Lighting: As part of your basic landscape lighting, you have the choice between using 120v and low voltage 12v lighting.  Low voltage has a lot to offer in terms of landscape lighting safety as well not having to dig 18 inch trenches into your yard. Low voltage lighting can be neatly tucked away, just below your yard’s surface.  It is safer in wet conditions, and it offers more precise lighting effects.  Because the lamps (light bulbs) are smaller, it allows for smaller, less obtrusive fixtures.  It can also save you money by having lower energy costs.  Low voltage lighting requires a transformer to convert 120v to 12v which can cause voltage drop (dim lights) if it is improperly engineered.  For this, it is a good idea to ask a professional electrician for help.

These tips will get you started.  For more ideas, ask a lighting consultant for suggestions, and for any questions, don’t hesitate to contact www.electricmaninc.com to find the answers you need!

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About ElectricMan Inc.

ElectricMan Inc. is one of Dallas’ most trusted electricians. Nick Schaeffer, Mr. ElectricMan himself, has quite the resume for a master electrician. He started the company by himself in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since! For more information about Electricman’s list of electrical repair services, please visit www.ElectricManInc.com

Over the years, our clients have asked many questions about their electrical systems; how to best care for them, what the cause of certain issues are, and more. We’ve compiled just a few of the most common questions we get below, with our responses.

A: Is the switch all the way in the “off” position? You have to feel it click off before you can reset it. If you are able to return it to the “on” position—you’ll feel another click—and it does not trip again, then you were successful. If it continues to trip, then there could be a chance that you have a short circuit or an overloaded circuit. Quite often, an electrical panel upgrade is the solution.

A: There are a number of possible reasons this can be occurring. First, check for a tripped circuit breaker. Then, if it’s a GFCI outlet, check for a reset button right on the outlet itself. Push that, if there is one. In the absence of either of these issues, then it may just be an old outlet that needs replacing. Just like any other electrical component, it can wear out over time and is usually no reason for huge concern.

Do, though, make sure you don’t smell or see any smoke or smoldering—this can be indicative of frayed wires starting an electrical fire. If you do detect smoke, your next step is to call the fire department.

Flickering can happen with certain types of lightbulbs and are sometimes not a cause for concern at all. However, if either of flickering or dimmer are occurring when you turn something on or an appliance cycles on in your home, then you probably have an overloaded electrical panel. Another possibility is that the lightbulbs you have installed in whatever fixture is creating the issues are not adequate bulbs for that fixture.