Recessed lighting (also known as can lights and down-lights) is one of today’s most widespread and adaptable lighting uses on the market. It works extremely well with the new trends of layering light and task lighting. Recessed lights are used indoors or outside from the floor to the ceiling.
Many people recognize recessed lighting outdoors as a way to draw attention to steps or the edge of a pool. This style is a favorite method of landscape designers because the recessed lights don’t allow anything to protrude which could cause a fall on the stairs or someone to fall into the pool.
Yet, not all recessed lights made for outdoor use. Before installing outdoors, one should make sure that the unit is waterproof at the very least. Such elements are unforgiving and a serious catastrophe will occur if one places a recessed light meant for the indoors outside.
Another feature which many people use the lights for inside the home as well as outside the home is to highlight certain focal points. Art lovers will use the lights to enhance a work of art in the household or a sculpture outdoors.
The method is a favorite use with art galleries and outdoor gardens because it allows people to see other features which they normally would not have been able to view if it were not for the extra focus.
Fireplaces are another area which receives a lot of recessed light fixtures because few things are more romantic that a subtly lit fireplace. Installing recessed lights over a fireplace is another method that designers love to use with the lights. The fixtures manage to take a design element and turn them into a focal point.
Many people are wary of installing the lighting fixtures in their home because they feel like they will cost them more money. However, that feeling does not hold true by today’s standards. Whereas, in the past recessed lights were known to let heat and air escape through their housings, that problem no longer exists.
Lighting designers have updated the fixtures’ casings with a new seal technology which prevents heat and air from leaving the household and thus helping to regulate the electrical bill. Another feature which helps to save money is installation of dimmer switches on for the lights.
Dimmer kits places the lighting control in the homeowner’s hands and by using only the specific amount of light necessary for the job, the homeowner will save money. Controlling the amount of light needed for a space is another reason the fixtures do well in the kitchen.
One of the biggest trends in kitchen design is the use of task lighting. Task lighting is when lights are given specific lighting jobs. Therefore, pendants over a work area, recessed lights over the sinks and under cabinet lighting to make the cabinets brighter all serve a purpose.
This way, one does not need to turn on an entire set of lights when one or two can do the job. This is another method that manages to save money because only the areas which needs the highlighted and the other parts which do not are left alone.
Recessed lights in hallways are another popular use because those lights typically give off a subtle glow; so that they do not assault people’s eyes with bright light. This is great when one needs to go to another room in the middle of the night and are dreading turning the lights on to see where he or she is going.
Recessed lights are wonderful requirements to any home’s lighting fixtures. The Versatility combined with its ability to enhance any feature one would want in the home puts it on every homeowner’s wish list.
