Your kitchen serves as the centerpiece for your home. It’s a place where family members, friends and new acquaintances come together to not only break bread, but to engage in meaningful – and sometimes contentious – conversations (Does anyone follow the “no political talk at the table” rule anymore?). It’s where kids come to conduct science experiments and to complete their homework. It’s where friends come to play games. All in all, it’s the heart of your home,  a space wherein all should feel welcomed.

Because much of the magic happens in the kitchen, it’s important to have the right lighting scheme. Make sure to follow these useful tips on achieving the right kitchen lighting balance!

Unfortunately, one type of light won’t quite suffice, so to achieve the results you want, you’re going to have to layer.  We recommend implementing three layers of light: task, accent and ambient. You’ll notice that the names speak for themselves.

The best lighting jobs are the ones that aren’t noticeable. Have you ever walked into a room and just felt warm, comfortable and at home? It was probably the light placement and selection in the room that gave you that unforgettable feeling. With the right tools and tips in mind, you can also have that within each room of your home.

In order to effectively use your lighting to enhance your home’s décor, you must first consider the function of your room, the natural light source and the mood you are looking to achieve in your room. With this in mind, you can transform the look and feel of your home!

Knowing the function of your room will allow you to select the appropriate type of lights and placement in the room. For instance, a reading room will have soft lights with intentionally placed reading lamps whereas a kitchen will be a lot brighter and will be equipped with a number of task lights – each room can have very different functions therefore using different light sources and equipment.

Once you have determined the function for each room, you should then discover the natural or ambient light provided throughout the day. In the morning, afternoon and evening, take the time to turn off all your lights and see where the natural light source may come from and how it can be appropriately supported. You may have a street lamp right outside your living room that still provides a considerable amount of light, meaning you may not need to add as much light as you would have assumed for the evenings.

Lastly, you should determine the specific mood you are looking to achieve for your room. Romantic, bright, warm, calm, energetic – there is a number of different effects you could be searching for based on your room and décor. In a living room, we generally recommend a central light to add to the ambient light in the room and then use small accent lights to highlight main decorative objects in your room like a painting, mirror or even a plant.

With the function, natural light source and mood of your room in mind, you can transform your home with simple adjustments to your lighting. For more tips on how to improve the lighting of your home or to have a professional help with the installation, contact Expert Electric at 604-681-8338.

LED streetlights are great for the environment. They consume much less energy than standard high-intensity discharge (LED streetlights. What some cities have failed to consider, however, is that while LED streetlights are capable of emitting different colors of light, not every color should be used in public outdoor spaces. Bright blue-rich white light can cause some issues for residents, local wildlife, and night sky visibility. When it comes to streetlights, the warmer the color/correlated color temperature (

studies showing that it can even aid in IBS as well as migraine and cancer prevention.

Throughout the day, light changes from a warm white color at dawn to natural white then to a cool white in the afternoon, back to natural white, and eventually to an ultra warm white color at sunset. Our bodies are used to this cycle of light. Artificial lights that deviate from the natural lighting cycle can throw off our circadian rhythms. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences states that, “Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an organism’s environment.”

According to healthybuildingscience.com “. . . different types of light trigger different physiological effects. Blue/white light, akin to a bright midday light, suppresses melatonin and increases serotonin, this light is great for activity. Conversely red/orange light triggers melatonin in preparation for going to sleep. If everything is in balance, the body will generate dopamine, serotonin, cortisol and melatonin in the right quantities at the right time of day.”

On their website, the IDA cites important information from a report, this happens “. . . because blue light scatters more within the human eye.”  While it’s not directly causing harm to someone’s health, glare decreases driver safety and can lead to traffic accidents.               

At night, blue light used outdoors can also wreak havoc on ecology. Introducing light with a CCT that’s close to daylight essentially changes the daily cycle that plants and animals are used to. They depend on this cycle of light and dark for hunting, reproduction, sleeping, migrating, and protection. Nocturnal animals have suffered greatly from cool white light at night; the IDA

Because blue light has a larger reach, cool white LED lights used outdoors at night can contribute to light pollution, or brightening of the sky. This decreases the visibility of stars and can have a negative effect on astronomical research. If cool white LED lights are used, they should be shielded or aimed directly downward to prevent light pollution.

Warm white LED street lights and parking lot lights—with a CCT of 3000K or less—are a much better option for public outdoor areas. They emit a much smaller portion of blue light—which is unnoticeable to the eye—and are currently the best options available for street lighting.

Click the photo below to see our line of warm white LED streetlights.

There are many reasons and advantages of LED street lights over HPS, Metal Halide, and any other HID light used in the street lighting industry. These advantages of LED street range from cost savings, higher quality of light, and overall better efficiency.

LED is quickly becoming the “go to” light for all uses; residential, commercial, and industrial. From fully replacing and retrofitting LED is seriously becoming the majority within the world of lighting. The following list is going to cover 4 major advantages of LED street lights over HPS and Metal Halide, hopefully it shines some light on the true benefits of LED for even Metal Halide, you get results that show LEDs actually really do pay for themselves. If you use your lights often, making the switch to LED street lights may even pay themselves off within a few years.

If you’d like to see how much you could save, check out the diminishes over time. This is a highly important thing to note because with greater lumen depreciation comes added costs of maintenance.

Lighting fixtures such as HPS and Metal Halide have lumen depreciation that happens much earlier in their life and much quicker throughout the bulbs life. Whereas an LED takes a longer time to start depleting in it’s lumen output and much slower lumen depreciation than HPS and Metal Halide does.

While not all LED suppliers and manufacturers, MyLEDLightinGuide.com offers LED fixtures and retrofit kits that can produce at a very high MyLEDLightingGuide retrofit kits can run as high as 151 lumens per watt. While the typical retrofit kits on the marketplace (on average) run at only around 110 lumens per watt.

This is just a prime example of how powerful lumens per watt can be. The more lumens per watt you get, the less watts you will need to produce the same amount of light.

So, let’s compare the “average” retrofit kits compared to a Metal Halide light. Remember, the “average” retrofit kits run at around 110 lumens per watt. Compare that to a Metal Halide light that runs around (on average) 90 lumens per watt.

So just by these numbers we can start to see the power LED lights have and how they need less watts to produce the same amount of light that a HPS or Metal Halide light does.

In addition to #3 on this list, LEDs also provide a higher quality of light measure by the Color Rendering Index (CRI). Here’s two images that should do the talking:

Street Light Conversion From 400W Metal Halide to 120W LED using a LED Retrofit Kit (before)

As you can see after the 400W Metal Halide was replaced by the 120W LED fixture, the light produced is much brighter and illuminates a greater area. On top of that, it is using way less energy (400W down to 120W)!

Brighter and greater illumination can greatly increase safety and reduce crime by the simple fact of being able to see more throughout the night. Better illumination also creates safer roadways by not leaving any dark spots that may cause issues for drivers during night time driving.