There are three basic lighting types to consider when creating home lighting schemes: ambient lighting (or general lighting), task lighting and accent lighting. Each have specific roles to play and understanding how they can be used is important in order to create the right atmosphere and ensure each room can be used successfully for its specific tasks.

General or Ambient Lighting is the primary source of lighting, it is the foundation of any interior lighting scheme as it provides the overall illumination of a space/room. Whilst not always the case, ambient lighting is usually created using overhead fixtures such as recessed lighting, track lighting or chandeliers. Ambient lighting provides a general layer of lighting so does not have to be as bright as task lighting. 

Task Lighting, as it suggests, is introduced to aid with a particular task such as reading, office work or cooking. Task lighting types include desk lamps, directional overhead track lights or under cabinet lighting in kitchens. This type of lighting generally needs to reduce glare and also provide enough light to stop eye strain.

Accent Lighting is usually used to draw attention to a particular feature (an architectural feature or perhaps a piece of art etc.) and is used alongside the general lighting in a room. Accent lighting may also be used purely as a piece of decorative lighting… so perhaps a statement pendant hanging in the corner of a room.

It’s important to consider how the amounts of natural daylight affect the space throughout the day and how this may change at night. Layering the above three types of lighting in the correct way, will ensure that a room is both functional and creates the desired mood during the day and night.

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In time for Blue Monday (the third Monday in January and apparently the most miserable and depressing day of the year) the NICEIC and ELECSA are launching a Watt’s The Matter? campaign. The campaign is aimed at consumers and highlights the positive impact that good home lighting improvements can have on your mood. 

Research showed that a large percentage of people working from their homes in lockdown, felt that poor home lighting was making them feel more stressed and had a negative impact on their concentration levels. Home improvement spending continues to rise and it would seem that improving home lighting is now higher on the list for consideration. 24% of the surveyed audience agreed that good home lighting made them feel much better during the winter and 27% stated that good lighting made them feel more energetic and happier overall.

A quarter of home workers say that their home office lighting is poor and around half noted that they regularly suffer from headaches and eye strain. If you’d like to make your home office space more comfortable by considering some lighting alterations, we’d be happy to have a chat.

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Unfortunately the counterfeiting of electrical goods happens on a large scale, the list of products includes: sockets, cables, plugs, fuses and circuit breakers to name just a few. With the UK economy in recession, businesses and clients look to squeeze costs, so it may be tempting for contractors and clients to look for cheaper products. However, ’cheap’ can lead to the installation of components that have not been tested or manufactured to the required standards and therefore they may lead to a risk of fire or electric shock.

Electrical installers are required by the BS7671 2018 Wiring Regs to check that the products they are installing are compliant with European standards. Following Brexit, contractors and electricians need to keep up to date with the latest regulations… the new UKCA (UK Conformity Assessment) mark will come into effect in 2021 (a phased introduction of UKCA against the current CE marking between 2021 and 2022). 

Counterfeiters are becoming ever more clever at churning out goods that look the part, so it can be difficult to spot illegal items. Always buy from a reputable place, check and double check the cost (if it’s cheap, it’s likely to be so for a reason), ask for declarations of compliance, check for CE/UKCA marks and corresponding paperwork and files, visually check the item and the packaging (fakes can have poor printing/smudging, spelling mistakes and faults in the mouldings etc.).

Prior to COVID-19 we were delighted to win the electrical contract for Sunnybank Home’s latest new build venture - Chapel Meadow - seventeen bungalows for the over 55’s in Callington, Cornwall. We completed the power, interior and exterior lighting, street lighting and full testing on some of the plots prior to lockdown. All has been on hold since, due to the coronavirus working restrictions but we’re pleased to hear that the site will be reopening again very soon and our team is looking forward to completing the remaining plots.

Electrical testing and inspection can be confusing, there are lots of different certificate and report names: EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report), EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate), PIR (Periodic Inspection Report) and Landlord Electrical Safety Certificate. With the exception of an EIC, all are the same and require the electrical testing and inspection to be recorded on an EICR document. The EICR is a 9 page document that covers tests and checks to reveal if any electrical circuits or equipment is overloaded, reveal potential electric shock risks or fire hazards, find any defective electrical work and pick up on any lack of earthing or bonding. 

Domestic dwellings should ideally have an EICR every ten years and from June 2020, landlords in England are required to have an inspection carried out on rental properties every five years. Properties that are about to be let for the first time will require an EICR, as do properties that are about to be sold/bought.

So an EICR is used to demonstrate whether (or not) an existing electrical installation is in a satisfactory condition and suitable for ongoing use. An EIC, on the other hand, is used for testing and inspecting new installations (and also following alterations to an existing installation)

This year, we have all become more aware of infection control issues but for the healthcare sector, it’s been a challenge they’ve had to consider for a very long time. Products supplied to healthcare settings obviously have to meet high health and safety standards, and demands for good hygiene are essential. Electrical products such as light switches and sockets have a very high touch rate and therefore are more likely to house a high number of bacteria. It was interesting to read that Scolmore (a British based electrical accessory designer and manufacturer) have developed products that offer enhanced hygiene properties - they have developed a set of plates that have been shown to have anti-viral properties - the plates tested, had a 92% to 99.9% kill off rate against non-enveloped and enveloped viruses. Scolmore’s CLICK® Polar TM, Part M TM and Mode® wiring accessories are manufactured using Urea Formaldehyde that help inhibit the growth of infectious diseases.