Potlight Installation: 5 Facts You Need To Know

While great furnishings and décor can spruce up a room, many people neglect lighting and this has an enormous effect on the way you perceive a space. Great lighting adds warmth and ambiance, but in order to provide effective lighting, your potlight installation needs to be planned carefully. Here’s a quick look at potlights and how we can help with your lighting issues.

1. There Are Different Styles Of Potlights
There several different styles of potlights and potlight trims that you might want to consider. Baffle and reflector trims are two types of inset potlights. Baffle trim has a ribbed interior that helps to minimize the glare, while reflector trim has a mirrored surface that helps to focus the light.

We also can install potlights that are not inset and extend past the surface of the ceiling. These can be adjusted when needed, and these are known as eyeball trim potlights or gimbal trim potlights, depending on how far they extend below the ceiling. If you want a narrow beam of light, focused on a specific spot, you might consider a pinhole trim or wall-wash trim. This is an excellent way to show off a painting or perhaps a fireplace mantel or another special area of a room.

You can choose trim colors that match the ceiling color to keep the eye focused on the where the light emits rather than the ceiling or you can opt for decorative styles that catch the eye, such as a chrome or bronze. We also can provide you with dimming potlights, and there are even high-tech color-changing lights that can adjust depending on the time of day or the mood you wish to set.

2. Consider Your Bulb Options
When we provide potlight installation, we offer clients several different bulb options, but typically we recommend that homeowners opt for LED bulbs. These definitely have a higher price tag than compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and halogen incandescent lights, but they are far more energy efficient and should have an extremely long life span and they don’t become hot like other types of bulbs. In areas, where you might want dimming potlights, we will have to install special types of LED lighting, as not all LED lights work with dimming switches.

Compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) is another highly energy efficient option, and these do cost a bit less than LED lighting. However, that’s just the upfront cost, as LED lights will last far longer than CFLs. CFLs also must be disposed of properly, as these lights do contain some mercury. You can recycle these bulbs, and many home improvement stores will accept used CFL bulbs. These bulbs should not be placed in trash cans. When it comes to LED lighting, these bulbs contain no toxic materials, and while many can be placed in a trash can, some types can be recycled, as well.

Incandescent bulbs are the old-fashioned bulbs that are being phased out of production, but there is a type of halogen incandescent bulb that you might consider using for your potlight installation. The old incandescent bulbs were highly inefficient, which is why the production and importing of these bulbs has been banned. The halogen incandescent bulbs meet new energy efficiency standards, but just barely. They are about 25% more efficient than the older, now-banned incandescent bulbs, but far less efficient than fluorescent and LED bulbs and will need to be replaced often. Again, we typically recommend using LED lights because they will save you tons of money in the long run.

3. It’s The Placement That Counts
You could fill a room with 100 potlights, and while it might be illuminated, that doesn’t mean that the room will look fantastic. There could still be areas with odd shadows or areas where the lighting is too harsh. When we provide potlight installation, we consider all aspects of a room, from the way furniture is arranged to the height of the ceilings and the way a room is used. For instance, a kitchen will have work areas that required some focused illumination, but you also will want accent lighting to create ambiance.

4. Mix & Mingle Your Lighting
While we can provide you with quality potlight installation, Toronto homeowners also might want to add other types of lighting to a room. Potlights are amazing, but it’s also wise to add a few other lighting features to a room. Obviously in a dining room or entry, you might want some type of decorative chandelier to enhance the lighting scheme as well as the beauty of a room. Floor lamps and table lamps also can provide focused lighting in certain areas, as well as adding a bit of flair to any room. We can install any type of overhead lighting you might need and make some recommendations regarding where you might add decorative lamps.

5. Use A Professional
When it comes to potlight installation in Toronto, using a professional electrician is essential. Lighting installation can be tricky and even dangerous, so it’s crucial that you hire an experienced, licensed electrician. Using a qualified electrician not only ensures that you’ll enjoy an excellent lighting design; it also ensures that everything is installed properly and up to code. If you are interested in potlight installation, we provide this service for homes and businesses throughout the GTA, and look forward to helping you improve your home’s lighting.