Are You Choosing LED Holiday Lights for 2014 Christmas Decor?

2014 Christmas season is still about two months away. But it is never too early for us to prepare the necessary decorative items for the holiday season. Besides, some of the decorative items are not exclusive to Christmas decoration. They are also popular decoration for parties or other special occasions, for example, LED holiday lights that are usually used for home decor, garden decoration, party or other occasions. For the coming holiday season, the earlier we prepare, the more choices we can make.

Each of the holiday season means extra cash. This time of year can also mean extra savings if you choose LED holiday lights as an alternative to old fashioned decorative light bulbs. It is said hat homes lit with LED Christmas lights can help save up to 90% on energy costs. There are some data that the traditional decorative light needs about $3 for illumination of 5 hours each day. Instead, the LED lights would only cost 30 cents. That’s really significant savings on our utilities bill.

In the past, LED lights are much more expensive than traditional bulbs. But with the development of the lighting market, the price of LED lights is lowered. It is a wise idea to switch to LED lights if we want to save more in the long time. Besides, LED lights have a lot of advantages over traditional lights. They are safe. Made of durable materials, the lights will seldom heat up for prolonged illumination. LED lights also reduce the risk of fire. The lights can last even 100 times longer than those traditional lights.

Will you choose the new LED holiday lights for the coming holiday season and discard those old holiday lights? Here is some data to help you make the decision.

Based on the U.S. government’s Energy Star program, LED lights consume 90% less energy than traditional holiday lights, which will bring us $50 energy savings during the holidays. The electricity consumption of 7-watt incandescent light string is enough to power two 24-foot LED strings or 140 LED string lights. We have to face the fact that LED lights is a bit more expensive than old-fashioned holiday lights. Usually the price for 100-bulb string of LED lights ranges from $20 to $46 yet $7 to $12 for that of conventional lights. Of course, we can save more on the LED lights if we can find the Christmas lights sale before the holiday season.

Another data I want to share here is about the number of light strings. We can connect 87 or more LED string lights. That’s not safe for the traditional light strings. One more better aspect of LED lights are their color changing feature, which makes the light more vibrant and easier to create special atmosphere for the holiday season.

What’s your choice then? Get prepared for the coming Christmas decoration. The earlier we buy LED lights, the more choices we have and the more we can save. Besides, we can have more decoration ideas for some party occasions before the Christmas day.

Poor Office Lighting Affects Productivity, Mood & Health

There are various environmental factors that may contribute to our overall health. For people in the office, the poor lighting is one of the several factors that affect our health and efficiency as well actually, and light office exposure to some extent affects our sleep duration, quality, amount of physical fitness and overall quality of life. Instead, the good lighting can help to reduce fatigue and improve our productivity.

A few hours at the office may make us feel fatigued. The fatigue is not often associated with the overly workload. Instead, it can be caused by lighting factors. For the office with windows, the employees can enjoy about 170% more white light exposure during work time and then can got a better sleep with 46 minutes more every night than those who hardly get exposed to natural light at the office. Besides, the exposure to natural light, especially during the morning can do a lot of benefits to health. Proper light exposure can help us maintain good mood and metabolism.

Nowadays, we can do work indoors with the help of high tech gadgets. But, with no access to natural light or sometimes even artificial bright light for indoor office life can gradually affect our health. Light exposure has much to do with our sleep and mood or even productivity.

Lighting in an office can be functional in that it offer us basic light, keep us focused and still, increase our productivity. For the sake of strong relation between our efficiency and natural light, we need an office that provides natural light. Or if not practical, we need enough lighting, even if it is artificial. ·

Consider task lighting at the office. Task lighting means office lighting or the light that is much about sufficient light for our work or reading area. Of course, the task lighting can never be too strong. We need to take a step back from overhead lighting because it can give a rise in the headaches, fatigue, and eye strain.

Fluorescent lighting, as one of the commonly used light, typically ends up increasing the glare in the office, especially against the glare of computers. Such lighting can pose a problem for productivity and can spread a glaring glow across the office. Besides, the fluorescent light can not offer enough light to illuminate the office environment. Fluorescent office lighting is also poor because it fails to offer full lighting color to the office environment. Usually, the bright, clear lights can elevate the mood and help us gain a sense of motivation and energy in the day. For better office environment, we need to consider the use of other lighting.

Try to keep the office environment full of natural light. This has much to do with our health, mood and productivity. We can make our office full of atmosphere by adding some decorative lights.

Top Mistakes in Choosing Lighting for Home Decor

Interior designers show increasing preference for lighting in residential environments. With so many different types and functions of lighting fixtures available, lighting is sometimes mistakenly used in home decor. Here I would love to pick out several common mistakes in using the light at home.

The first common mistake is the use of recessed downlights everywhere at home. The price of the recessed lights are lowered and they are ideal decorative items for interior space. Then people love to use them and assure that laying such lights out in a regular grid can make the rooms full of light. Actually, this is not very good practice. Those affordable can lights do not give out enough light on vertical surfaces as the lamps do, unless they are adjustable lighting fixtures or wall wash lights. The use of the recessed can lights just waste a lot of watts and sometimes even create a cave like feeling since the walls are dark.

Another mistake is often made by those who neglect the use of task lights in certain rooms, especially kitchens. For the lighting in kitchen, there is no need to put more emphasis on atmosphere. It is more about a place for housework and needs sufficient light on certain areas, say, the counter. There are a few choices to highlight those work surfaces, such as the application of LED lights, fluorescent lights under the upper cabinet. If there is no upper cabinets, try to use ceiling recessed lighting fixtures or wall mounted lights that can be adjusted with the lamp. If the light is not enough, try to add some low voltage halogen lighting fixtures and that will just make a big difference on the task area.

Have you used the incandescent or halogen lights without dimming? Maybe you also try some alternative lights that are great substitutes for incandescent ones in aspects of efficiency or longer life span, but the incandescent lighting source is still a great choice, especially for the fact that it is dimmable. Dimming means lowering down the energy consumption and output of heat. In this way, the lamp can still be used longer.

For better interior lighting effect, you must have adopted various types of lighting at home. But are you aware of controlling the different lighting sources separately? Each type of the light needs to be controlled so as to ensure the ideal efficiency or flexibility. Besides, some of the lights such as incandescent light or dimmable LED lights need to be dimmed. For convenient ways of controlling the lights, we can turn to modern some modern ways, such as a wireless controls, which generates their own power and can be reprogrammed from a laptop or phone for advanced control of light amount and type.  

The last common mistake about light is the choice of lighting for home decor. What will you consider important factors before choosing lights for interior decor? Do you just choose lights based on how they look? Instead, we need to know better about the features of different lighting fixtures such as light output, quality, color or distribution because if we base our choice solely on the look of lights will only lead to a waste of energy rather than ideal light output. As for the choices of lights, will you incorporate different lights. Each of the light functions differently, with the ambient light for identifying objects, task lighting for more concentrated illumination for tasks, accent light for highlighting artwork or other beautiful areas you would love to highlight, etc. Combining there different lights well can meet the various needs of interior design.

Truly Brilliant Light Decoration Ways To Light Up Home

Lighting is necessary for modern home. It is functional, but still can be used as a work of art. Whether for those people with creativity or for those who want to create a cozy and special home atmosphere, lighting is one of the aspects that they will never miss. Decorate the house with the unique lights and change the whole style of the room. Among all of these home decor items such as furniture, mosaic, wall decors or carpet, lighting seems never take center stage, but still a bit of creativity of using lighting or choosing the exactly right lights can make a great difference. 

Here I would like to share some brilliant light decor ideas. They are creative lights suitable for the living room, bedroom, and other rooms as long as you want to change their original look. Which one do you really like? Read on.  

Pretty Mushroom Light 

This is really very pretty addition to the bedroom or to the kids’ fairy garden. It’s beautiful in the daytime and nicer at night for the wonderful glow. The solar mushroom lamp is also eco friendly. For plant lovers and light decor lovers, this is really a nice choice for adding something fresh and pretty to home. 

Mild Light for Middle-of-the-night Bathroom Trip

Do you love to turn on the light with strong illumination when you want to go to bathroom in the middle of the night? I bet you won’t like the strong light immediately after you just get up from the accustomed darkness. Then it is really a nice idea to get this dim light yet very cute one. Just hold one of the light and go to the bathroom, without any uncomfortable glare. 

DIY Light Thermometer

It’s really innovative to DIY such light thermometer that shows Fahrenheit, Celsius and humidity. The nixie tubes are LEDs and shows the digits on scientific equipment, control pannels. It can be really something completely different for the home. The thermometer is of course different from the normal ones, with a rear temperature sensor, blue LED accent lights, and a motion sensor to change the display. Really cool gadget. 

Portable Book Shaped Light
This is the light which I think will bring you big surprise. It is book shaped one. If you love reading and still add some fun things during reading, this light is really what you will love. It is really a great reading companion. Just leaf through the light as if you are reading a glowing book. 

Besides meeting the demands of readers, it is an elegant and decorative LED light with such ingenious shape. It can function as decorating a room or a corner despite its small size. Store it in a bookshelf and carry it around in a bag or even a schoolbag. We can even take it anywhere we’d like outdoors.

Ideal Places for Holiday Lights in 2014 Across USA

Holiday days are still a few months away. There is no mystery as for the reason that holidays are often seen as the most wonderful days of the whole year, for the joyous singing carols, sharing presents, innovative decoration, various traditions, family get-together, friends parties, or spectacular night view on the street. What makes holiday season especially special may be the lights that ignite romantic and extraordinary atmosphere. Then let's have a look at some of the best places for holiday light in the USA.

The first place I want to mention here is Newport Beach, CA. For over 100 years, the "Christmas Boat Parade" in this place has created a Christmas sea like feeling all over the own. A line of nearly 200 vibrantly decorated boat parade, varying from luxury yachts to simple canoes, glides through Newport Harbor and at the same time, beautiful holiday music and costumed carolers fill the air. The grand scene usually attract numerous viewers and happens from December 14 to December 18 that lasts about 2.5 hours. 

Then let's talk about the Big Apple, New York City. Renowned for doing things better, bigger and brighter, this is also a city that can hold very special holidays. In this city during the holidays, you can just see the steady stream of sparkling holiday lights together with holiday concents, buslting holiday activities such as ice-skating rinks, holiday shopping, etc. Once the darkness falls, you will enter a well illuminated world, from the Rockefeller Center's iconic towering tree accented by 30,000 light bulbs, bugling lit-up angels, tree-lighting fixes, Washington Square Park lit up from December 7 or the lighting of the world's largest Chanukah menorah. You may be lucky to see the wonderful Winter Garden, where 45-foot-tall palm trees are offset by 100,000 white lights 

Another ideal place for holiday lights is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. Yes, this is also one of the happiest destinations in the world. During holiday, the theme park will be illuminated by 5 million LED light bulbs together with some animated displays for vivid interpretation of the holiday themes. That's really fantastic.   
 
If you love ski vocation before the holiday, then never miss a short stay in Denver. During the holiday days, this city will be decorated by downright sparkling light displays during their special event of Mile High Holiday. Take part in the 9NEWS Parade of Lights march that takes place in December 2 and 3 from the city's biggest lighting display. That's really a ideal place to see a million lights shining. During the special Blossoms of Lights exhibition in the gardens, we can see million colorful holiday lights together with some ice sculptures.

For an impressively romantic holiday celebration, you will love Virginia, a place for lovers. If you love holiday lights, you will surely love this place, especially their 100 Miles of Lights festival strings together illuminated extravaganzas between six cities. During the holiday, we can appreciate holiday themed light display as well as Christmas tree accented by various lights along the beach. From November 19, there will be some events of flashing floats, soaring balloons, marching bands, dancers. Some of the forests, fields, and lakes will even be decorated by more than 700,000 holiday lights and 200 illuminated displays. That's really romantic destination. 

If you love holiday lights, just make a plan to walk out of your own city for splendid light display in the ideal places. 

Right Ways to Lighten Up Bathroom

The bathroom is one of the only places that we have shower and lock ourselves inside. It is sometimes necessary to make this place as clean and comfortable sanctuary with the proper lighting. Then how to make this private room to be a well illuminated refuge that can be relaxing as well as functional? Among all of the basic four types of lighting such as task lighting, decorative lights, accent lights and sparkling lights, Let’s have a look at which light can offer the best atmosphere.

As for task lighting, we can see by its name that it is used mainly for some certain task, or it is a type of lighting via which we can see objects or ourselves clearly. In the bathroom, proper task lighting at the mirror seems rather essential. So we can try a pair of sconces fixed at eye level on either side of the mirror to offer shadowless illumination for makeup application, tooth care, etc. Still, we have to keep in mind that above the mirror, no light. Any lighting above the mirror will just reflect a very strong light back into our forehead and cast deep shadows below the eyes or chin.

Then, we still need to consider the right wattage for the task lights. For better relaxation in the bathroom, we can try the light fixtures that offer 75 to 100 watt. For the task lights in powder rooms, we can use fixtures with even less wattage for not anyone will need to do the morning ritual. Light with such wattage range can give out much softer and inviting ambience to family members or even guests.

Then let's come to accent lighting. Accent lighting is usually a kind of light for artistic purpose. If you enjoy any art in this room, you may try to use the accent light for better show off the art or just highlight the art. For better illumination, try to use recessed directional lights for even proper focus.

Different from accent lights, decorative lighting is much about adding some visual sparkle. We can try to use some creative and water proof lights of different types in the bathroom for right atmosphere. For a bathroom of square shape, maybe we can try a single pendant light. For a bathroom with rectangular shape, maybe we can use two or even three light fixtures fixed along the ceiling plane for enough light. If you like the romantic and welcoming tone, try candles that can give out very splendid sparkle. Be sure to keep it far away from towels or hair that can catch fire easily.

Then we come to the last lighting - ambient lighting. It is much a fill light. If our bathrooms have taller ceiling or cantilever details, we can use ambient lights. Such architectural details can help hide the light fixtures and still offer indirect illumination. Try a pendant light together with a translucent shade for the ambient lighting effect or combining the pendant fixture together with ambient and decorative lights.

We can use just one type of light and still combine the use of different lighting. For example, for the mirror at the sink which is much about function, we can use task lighting such as sonces. For tub area, we can use recessed cans in dimmers to create ambient light since romance and relaxation are emphasized here. For additional decoration, we can use wall sconces. Anyway, for the lighting at the bathroom, we need to balance the function against ambience.