• Task Lighting,
• Ambient Lighting and
• Accent Lighting.

Areas used for Reading, Computer, Dining & Service come under task lighting. Task Lighting is usually executed using specialized luminaries, which concentrate bright and direct light onto the focus areas.

Ambient lighting, also called as general lighting, emanates comfortable level of brightness without causing glare. Luminaires generally used for ambient lighting includes chandeliers, ceiling mounted fixtures, downlighters etc.

Accent lighting is also called decorative lighting. The purpose of accent lighting is to create visual interest. It draws the attention of the visitors towards a wall mounted painting, house plants, sculpture, architectural effect, wall texture, window treatments and other prized possessions. It needs the lighting point to be at least three times more lit as compared to the surrounding general lighting.

The successful Hotel Lighting design can only be achieved by right mix of all the three type of lighting mentioned above. To effectively use that, the lighting designer must use all the different types of luminaires needed for the three types of lighting. In the process of selecting the right product mix, the lighting designer must also consider the energy requirements, the target budget and other regulatory requirements pertaining to hotel lighting.

With increase in architecturally complex designs of New age hotels, the biggest challenge is to light up large open public space such as the lobby. The hotel lobby today are used for different purposes e.g. events, eating, computer work, watching television and socializing. For the same reason lighting a lobby too has become complex as it has to respond to the different lighting requirements for different needs. For example the a meeting zone within a lobby may need ambient & task lighting however the socializing zone may need ambient & accent lighting.

Also, the lighting of a hotel room must focus on the overall lighting design because the guest check-in to a hotel to rest and refresh. To avoid flaws in the lighting design and visitor complaints, a standard hotel room lighting design must include below mentioned types of lighting-

• To provide ambience, safety & cleaning, general ambient lighting must be provided,
• For activities like reading, writing, working on a computer, task lighting must be incorporated into the hotel room design,
• Lighting the personal mirror on the room, dressing area or bathroom for sufficient face light,
• Overhead lighting in the shower,
• Accent lighting for a special effect on a particular area within the hotel room,
• Lighting near or inside the wardrobe,
• Subtle night lighting for visitors to find their way.

Lighting is a comparatively economical approach to include a critical design element amid either new construction or renovation. At the point, with a good lighting design, the space feels right and it’s not a misrepresentation to say that the quality of lighting defines the standard of a Hotel.

The post How lighting can help to improve the ambience, mood & value of your hotel? appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Quality of Light Output

Quality of light has significant impact on psychological result of perceptions, learning, emotional, physiological responses and reasoning. Good-quality light output enhance visual performance, interpersonal communication and well being. Poor quality lighting can be uncomfortable and confusing and affects visual task performance.

Lighting for Human Needs

The needs of people are complex. Emotions, actions, perceptions and health are influenced by lighting. Central to human needs is visibility, because it is the detection and organization of light patterns that allow a person to analyze and evaluate the environment. visibility is central to a larger number of human needs i.e. task performance, mood, atmosphere, visual comfort, aesthetic judgment, health, safety, and well-being and social communication.

Visibility

It is the most critical aspect of good quality lighting. The objective of Lighting designs and luminaire orientations are to facilitate great visual comfort. This is the major rationale for good visibility and visual comfort for a lighting designer over all other aspects. The situation becomes more challenging to adequately light up an office space with employees from different age groups. For the older employees the office space must be brighter and its contrast higher in order to achieve the desired visibility levels as compared to young & mid age employees.

Work Performance.

The most vital objective for all the employees in a workplace is to perform their task efficiently and in a timely manner. Lighting must enable users to perform the work and fulfill the objective.

Mood and Ambiance

A luminous environment triggers a variety of human emotions. For example preference, satisfaction, relaxation and reasoning are influenced by lighting. These emotional states can further affect the work performance of the employees.

Visual Comfort

Visual comfort is an essential need in a workplace that can affect task performance, health, safety, mood and ambiance of the employees. Employees may feel stressed in a glary lighting atmosphere.

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communications in a workplace is facilitated by good lighting conditions as it affects the facial recognition. Also, facial recognition is an important aspect for security and requires not only a well lit workplace but also highlighted facial features by a specific pattern of light.

The post The Psychological Effects of Lighting in Offices appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Glare can broadly be categorized as Direct or Indirect Glare, which can cause inconvenience or incapacity to see object or reading on a computer screen. Light emitted from a luminaire cause direct glare. The light reflected from the object’s surface is classified as indirect glare. For example light reflected from a computer screen or that of a glossy magazine which can cause visual discomfort.

Innovative lighting design solutions from Legero reduce the effect of both direct and indirect glare. The different ways used to reduce glare effects are as follows-

• Luminaires are installed in a way that tosses more light upward which helps to diffuse the light and minimize the glare on different surfaces including PCs.
• Special lens orientation and diffuser sheets are used on the luminaires which diffuse the light output and also help to increase the flux level.
• The light sources are relocated as per the lighting design to minimize glare and maintain light output at important areas.
• Effective utilization of shades on windows to control the transmittance of daylight entering the office space.
• Task lighting within a work environment is done by adjusting the installation point and changing the orientation of the luminaire until the glare is minimized.

The post Create Glare Free Work Environment with Legero Office Lighting Solutions appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Offices can be cellular or open-plan and the tasks carried out can have very different lighting requirements. However, following some essential guidelines can deliver effective lighting solutions that also minimize energy consumption.

Update Overhead Lighting

Need of the hour is to update your old fluorescent and incandescent lighting from the large overhead fixtures. However, it is a proven fact that fluorescent bulbs do consume less energy than incandescent, but they fail to match the energy savings of LEDs.

LED fixtures uses almost 80 percent less energy than traditional light sources and last much longer too. To substitute large fluorescent troffers, you can use LED light panels, which will work just as well and use only a fraction of the energy. Highly recommendable option will be to swap you T5, T8 fluorescent tubes with LED light fixtures, which will have high impact on energy savings and light quality.
Additionally, they also produce virtually no heat. The less heat being produced in the building, the less you will be blasting the air conditioning to try to balance the temperature. They are also available in color temperatures ranging from warm white to stark white to accommodate your particular preference.

Efficient Accent Lighting

Accentuate your company logo using track light or for stylish flair in your conference room use wall scones, most offices are using some form of accent lighting. We are living in a technologically advanced age where LED has potentially replaced all the traditional light fixtures with their acumen of various color temperatures, lumen outputs and energy saving capabilities. If your wall sconces use incandescent, switch them out for LED GU 5.3 bulbs. The same goes for MR16 track lights or your recessed downlights – the possibilities are endless!

Control the Lights

Installing motion sensors in the areas of the building that do not require constant lighting, such as restrooms, break rooms, or supply closets is a convenient way to monitor the amount of light being used. To curb electricity use and extending the life of your office lighting you could also install a dimmer switch to customize the lighting levels.

Low-Wattage Signs

In lighting designs of any commercial building, safety lighting, such as emergency and exit signs, is the most imperative. These signs use energy 24/7, so why not switch to exit signs that use as little as possible. LED exit signs can last up to 25 years and come in an array of designs that will complement the design of your office space. An even more energy-efficient efficient option is photo luminescent exit signs. These signs do not require any electricity use and recharge when exposed to external light sources.

The post A Guide to Energy-Efficient Office Lighting appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Aesthetics

Lighting has a significant consequence on aesthetics. Suitable lighting can momentously augment or greatly diminish from a person’s physical advent or the atmosphere of a room.

Mood

Lighting can also affect our dispositions and sanities of well-being. The correct volume of lighting can make a conventional place seem virtually enchanted.

Artistic Effect

We tend to miscalculate the influence that lighting has on the way we feel about our beloved movies. Contemplate the difference between the bright, lively attractiveness of the ocean in Finding Nemo to the diffusely lit, lackluster locales of the Harry Potter movies.

Outlook

Most prominently, lighting is all about perception. That is why we often use lighting allegories to designate a positive or negative viewpoint on life.

The post Lighting an Inspiration appeared first on Legero Lighting.

These days’ consumers anticipate more from their retail experiences. They mandate more selections while relishing stirring retail environs. The Shopping Centre has become a vibrant and exciting area in architecture where lighting plays a pivotal role. It draws shopper’s attention, draws them into the store and ultimately increases the chance of a sale.

However, it is highly unlikely that two stores are same and require same lighting set-up; nevertheless, there are rudimentary principles and recommendations that must be kept in mind while creating a lighting system that will entice patrons and keep them coming back for more. Below are a few tips for making the most of your retail space using light.

Color Correctness
Natural daylight has a perfect color-rendering index, or in technical terms 100 CRI. This can be portrayed by the buying behavior of the customer, when whatever it may be you are buying you always felt a need to bring it closer to a window in order to see its correct color. The greater the CRI, the more vibrant and true colors will appear to the human eye. When choosing lighting for a retail space, it is a good idea to install lighting that has a very high CRI around 85 or more. Incandescent and halogen bulbs have a perfect CRI of 100, while LED and fluorescent lights are available in 80+ CRI.

Contrast and Focal Points
By forming contrasts with lighting, depth is created and customers are better able to perceive the products. Focusing on contrast also gives you the opportunity to create different levels of attention between different products. Using track lighting or spotlights is an effective way to create contrasts and designate focal points. As display windows are usually the customer’s first impression of store, contrasts and focal points are especially important in this area.

Create Ambience
Understanding the kind of atmosphere you need to create in your store is of an utter importance and lighting can help you achieve it. Various studies have proved that cool white color temperatures (4000K to 6000K) create a sense of openness, whereas warm white color temperatures (2700K to 3000K) convey a sense of familiarity and smallness. All in all the kind of ambience you want to generate depends upon the color temperature of light you select.

Well-Lit Shelving
If you plan to exhibit your products inside shelves and cabinets, the interior of your displays should be well lit. There are few things more annoying than burrowing through a heap of folded shirts on a shelf to find the right size only to realize you can barely see the tag anyways. Using flexible LED strip lights is a great way to light smaller shelves discretely. A combination of wide-area backlighting and accent lighting makes the presented items appear to be more attractive and merchandise identification much easier.

UV Rays and Heat
Exposure of fabrics and other materials to Ultraviolet rays and heat emanated by Lamps could possibly damage and discolor fabrics. LED lighting does not emit UV rays or a noticeable amount of heat, making it a smart option in areas where lights are shone on products constantly.

The post Retail Lighting Essentials appeared first on Legero Lighting.

In days of yore, sunlight resolute when we got up and worked, and the lack of light meant it was time to stop working and go to sleep. The lack of light actually causes our bodies to create more melatonin, which is a hormone that helps make you feel sleepy.

However, have you ever noticed how artificial lighting can change mood? In addition, department stores and restaurants use lighting to create a particular mood. Walk into a fast food chain and the lights are bright, they want you in and out of there quickly. Usually the more expensive restaurants want you to linger on and they will have more dim and atmospheric lighting.

Good interior designers will be able to gauge the lighting needs require to add ambience in different rooms and these crucial differences in intensity of light affect home design. To reduce shadows and to portray a sense of restful feeling soft light is used. Too much of everything is not good, it can make things dull, gloomy, and even depressing, so combine the soft with hard or direct light to create areas of brightness. For example, in a kitchen, hard light is used for working while in the evening, when dinner is cooked, a soft light is all that is needed for ambience.

So go around your house and check to see how the lighting reflects the mood you intend for the different rooms.

The post Lighten Up appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Stairway Lighting
Imagine how juddering it can be to turn on a bright staircase light in the middle of the night just so you do not trip and fall. Instead of flipping the switch to turn on that hallway light, use LED strip light for more elusive brightness, which will not entirely take you out of your just-woke-up state. Install warm white tape light beneath the upper edges of each stair or underneath the railing for concealed down lighting. To give the strip light a clean look, you can use LED tape light extrusions to conceal the tape light itself.

Hard to reach spaces
For those place which are dark and hard to reach, such as above, under kitchen cabinets, and in ceiling coves. LED strip light can turn these apparently unusable spaces into the seamless place for sleek accent lighting. Strip lights installed above your cabinets will deliver an elegant up lighting and will yield new life to lackluster wall spaces. High-output LED strip light installed in a ceiling cove can pull double-duty as both overhead and accent lighting in your living room.

Display Cabinets and Shelving
For lighting enclosed areas such as display cabinets, shelving units, and closets, LED strip light bestow all the properties of being the perfect solution. Strip light can renovate shelves on your wall into an attention-grabbing feature among your home’s ornamentation. With qualities as low operating temperature, energy saving technology and very low heat output you do not have to fret yourself of it being hazardous inside a closed display cabinet.

Furniture Accents
For all those is search of options on how to make a contemporary statement with LED strip light, they can be flawlessly used to craft radiant silhouettes around or under unexpected pieces of furniture such as a washroom vanity, the underneath of a bar or kitchen counter top, a pool table, or even beneath your bed frame. Installing tape light below furniture creates a warm glow that provides modern, low-profile accent lighting. Much like stairway lighting, LED strip light used as furniture accents gives you a way to achieve low lighting during the night with an added element of safety.

The post Flexing your Style appeared first on Legero Lighting.

What is CRI?

CRI is a measure of a light source’s ability to show object colors realistically or naturally compared to a familiar reference source, either incandescent light or daylight. It stands for Color rendering index, and it measures the effect a bulb has on the perceived color of objects. In simpler terms, CRI quantify how well a light source imitates the sun, which has a perfect CRI of 100.
Therefore, it can be easily concluded that; higher the CRI, the better colors will look. The lower the CRI, the worse colors will look. A light source with a CRI of 80 or above is good, and a light source with a CRI of 90 or above is very good. Level below 80 is not that at all great, and will make colors yellow, washed out and can even change the hue of objects.

Choosing the right CRI

You do not essentially require bulbs with a very high CRI in residential applications, especially in places like the living room or kitchen, since these places mainly just utilize task lighting. However, if you are exhibiting artifacts, paintings, portraits, or sports memorabilia, then bulbs with a high CRI, would make these look even better; the colors would look more spectacular and bold. The high CRI of these LEDs create brighter brights and whiter whites, while colors become more vibrant. Places where objects are on display, like art galleries, museums, or jewelry stores, will use bulbs with a very high CRI. So, when is CRI not really an important factor? While that is purely up to you, you can skate by with low CRI bulbs in places like garages or outdoor lighting, since there is not a lot of aesthetic appeal in these areas.

The post Decoding CRI appeared first on Legero Lighting.

Ever thought, why? Same can of paint, same house, applied in two different rooms but results are different. Answer lie in simple fact, LIGHTING. For illustration, a red paint in a room with a north-facing window will make the room appear brighter and warmer and help offset the bluish cast to the light. However, that same paint in a room with a west-facing window will become penetratingly vibrant – perchance tremendously so – in the late afternoon.
Metamerism; The lighting effects on the way we perceive color because it is created by the way objects react to certain wavelengths of light. Realizing that the Black dress that you purchased in the store is actually navy blue that what Metamerism is. The point is color certainly not stands alone. Any kind of light – daylight, artificial light, even candlelight – can dramatically change the way a certain color appears. Therefore, it is important for take presence and absence of light into consideration while specifying colors for a space.

Sunlight is the cleanest light and delivers the unadulterated color from the gamut perspective of the acuity of color; but even natural sunlight is not unwavering. As the day advances from sunrise to noon, late afternoon to dusk, the light deviates in intensity, generating vagaries in the appearance of color. For instance, room that faces east and is washed with resilient sunlight in the early morning will look very diverse when next seen late at night in mock lighting. Moreover, west-facing room can look dull and shadowy in the morning, but be suffused in a warm radiance in the evening.

Discern your end of colour gamut

Artificial lighting is frequently used to either supplement daylight or replace it entirely. In residential and commercial spaces, the type of synthetic lighting used plays a large role in how a color looks.

• Halogen bulbs: These newer incandescent bulbs produce brighter, white light that is more like sunlight.
• Fluorescent bulbs: These generate cool, blue light that amplifies blues and greens, but mutes warmer colors.
• Soft white fluorescent bulbs: These mimic the warmth of incandescent bulbs, but all colors can appear faded in their light.
• Full-spectrum fluorescents: Although expensive, these bulbs produce light that most closely resembles natural sunlight.
• Incandescent bulbs: These generate yellow light that intensifies warm colors but tends to dull cooler colors.

The category of light fitting can also affect the pattern in a room, because the fitting characteristically controls how the light from any type of light source is disseminated.

• Sconces: These fittings give off indirect lighting by directing the light toward ceilings or walls.
• Shades: Lampshades will change the coloration and strength of the bulb inside them. If the lampshade is of a warm hue, it will cast this glow onto the other colors in the room. Strongly colored shades will mute any surrounding colors, while white or ivory shades will give off the brightest light.
• Downlights: They direct light straight down from the ceiling. This provides a lot of light on work surfaces and floors, but can cause ceilings and the top edges of walls to appear dark in comparison.

Paint Qualities

Color perception often hinge on the characteristics of paint. Light reflectance value of a paint; the amount of light it reflects, play a vital role in choosing the right color for certain spaces, especially for those that don’t receive a lot of natural sunlight. Darker tinted paints have lower reflectance values than lighter ones. Therefore, to maintain a sense of flow and coordination, it is always recommendable to paint walls in a lighter tint of the colour.

Gloss level is other characteristic of paint that affects color and light. Higher the light reflectance deduce high gloss level and in result more light will bounce off a surface painted with a high gloss paint than one with a matte sheen. Therefore, we can safely deduce that higher gloss paints tend to enrich and brighten colors.

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