Although lighting and lighting is an industry that has existed for many years, as ordinary consumers, we always have doubts about living in this way. On the one hand, today’s lamps are becoming more and more complex and diverse in terms of styles, shapes, types and parameters of light sources, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to fully understand them. On the other hand, in the face of various “routines” and “traps” in the lighting market, we often cannot make correct choices and trade-offs.
The following is a summary of the methods and principles for the selection of lamps for your reference.
Several general directions when choosing lamps
1. Safety first
Whether it is hard decoration or other furniture, safety should be the first consideration. Therefore, we must not be greedy for cheap when choosing lamps, and must not buy “three no products” (no production date, no quality certificate, and no manufacturer). Although it is said that branded goods and big factories, not all of them are good, but their probability of “error” must be much lower than that of “three no products”. If a fire is caused due to quality problems, the loss outweighs the gain.
2. Consistent style
Whether it is home decoration or engineering decoration, there are differences in style, European style, Chinese style, modern, pastoral…etc, each has its own characteristics. This requires us to be as consistent as possible with the decoration style when choosing furniture and lighting, whether it is color, shape, or internal light source. Avoid by all means is flashy, superfluous.
3. Appropriate size
Many people have a concept: the brighter the lamps and lanterns in the home, the better! In fact, this is a misunderstanding in many people’s minds. In fact, we need to determine the size of the lamp and the wattage of the light source according to the size and area of the space. Here, the author also provides some tips on choosing the size of the lamp by the way: dividing the area of the house by 30 is the diameter of the lamp; Two meters away is the maximum height of the lamp; 5W per square meter (taking LED as an example) is the brightness required by the room.
4. Carefully inspect the goods
“No return or exchange of goods out of the cabinet” has become the “clear rule” of many lighting merchants. Therefore, we need to do a lighting test in the lighting store to avoid unnecessary troubles in the later stage. You should know that most lamps and lanterns are made of fragile materials, especially some glass or crystal lighting decorations, and you must be more careful. Once damaged, there is really no place to reason.
It is worth mentioning that online shopping for lamps has increasingly become a norm in the procurement of building materials and home decoration. This situation is especially important, and it is important to confirm that there is no problem before signing. If you have any questions, please take photos and save them in time to avoid unnecessary disputes in the future.
5. Do what you can
No matter in terms of shape or material, the grade of lamps and lanterns has no boundaries. Just like buying a car, maybe you only planned to buy a 100,000-class family car at the beginning, but after being “fudged” by various stores, you finally bought a car worth 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Fuel consumption and maintenance make you feel strenuous. The author believes that under the premise of conforming to the style, it is more reasonable for the expenditure on lamps and lanterns to account for about 10% of the entire decoration expenditure. Therefore, when we choose lamps and lanterns, we should look at style and budget, not the more expensive the better.
It is worth mentioning that the styles of lamps are updated quickly. We recommend that you check the lamp market first before purchasing lamps (especially some high-cost lamps). So as not to buy the lamps and lanterns prematurely out of date.
Supplementary principles for choosing lamps
1. Simplicity: The main function of lamps is lighting, and the secondary function is decoration, and this decoration is the “finishing touch”, not the protagonist of decoration. Therefore, we suggest that the lamps should be simple, and the lamps with overly complicated shapes are not conducive to the matching and coordination of the overall decoration. Especially for styles such as Chinese style and modern style, the lamps and lanterns need to be simple in shape.
2. Convenience: The convenience mentioned here mainly refers to the installation, use, maintenance and replacement of the lamps after they are bought back. That is to say, before we pay for the purchase, we need to have a general understanding of the installation method of the lamps, and fully consider the difficulty of cleaning the lamps and replacing the light source in the future.
3. Energy saving: Living at home, save as much as you can. In the long run, we generally recommend the use of “combined lighting”, that is, the main light + auxiliary light for lighting. When the current activity does not require excessive illumination, we can only turn on the auxiliary lights (such as floor lamps, table lamps). Or, if conditions permit, we can consider a smart lighting system that adjusts the intensity of light as needed.
4. Function: This point involves the knowledge of lighting design. Generally speaking, the living room needs bright and gorgeous lamps, the bedroom needs low color temperature and non-glare lamps, the children’s room needs brightly colored lamps with cute styles, and the bathroom needs simple and waterproof lamps. The kitchen requires that the material of the lamps and lanterns is easy to wipe and clean.