Let Your Bedroom Shine with CFL and LED Lighting

The bedroom demands a unique blend of lighting that is both relaxing and atmospheric while being functional and providing plenty of light that allows you to read, get dressed, and do other activities that demand adequate lighting. There are many lighting strategies available for your bedroom lighting, and there are even more strategies available to make your bedroom lighting energy efficient and environmentally friendly. In this article I will give you some ideas for environmentally friendly, attractive, and useful bedroom lighting, ideas, I may add, that I have used in my very own bedroom. The first place to start in designing the lighting in any room is with the sources of general illumination. For general illumination in the bedroom, I like to a pendant lamp or chandelier, which provides diffuse light, and complement it with a more directional light. A pendant lamp and chandelier can require any number of bulbs shapes and wattages depending on the number bulbs it requires and whether they are exposed. Regardless of what bulbs the pendant lamp or chandelier requires, I would go with a CFL. CFLs come in nearly every bulb shape, including candelabra, globe, bullet, and A-shape, all of which may be handy in this application. The days of headache inducing CFLs with poor light quality are over and you can choose a color temperature you like at nearly one quarter of the wattage of standard incandescent bulbs. For recessed lights you will typically want to use an A-shape, a reflector (R) bulb, or a halogen flood. I personally like reflector bulbs in this situation and would go with a CFL R30 or R40 depending on the diameter of the recessed can. Dimmers also help set ambiance, so you may want to look into dimmable CFLs for the bedroom. In general it is nice to have your recessed cans above the head of the bed to allow for good reading light, and have the general illumination source at the center of the room and perhaps on the walls with other fixtures to provide uniform coverage.

For other lighting in the bedroom, such as bedside lighting, you may end up choosing a set of lamps or swing-arm wall lamps for additional light. Again, A-shape or mini-twist CFLs are ideal in this situation, just screw them and you’re ready for comparable lighting to incandescent bulbs that uses a quarter of the energy. If you have artwork or attractive plants or antiques in your bedroom, you may want to look into track lighting to accent these things and give the lighting in your bedroom additional depth. For track lighting, and of course this depends on the fixture you choose, my favorite bulb is the 7w GU10 CFL, these provide a nice soft light that once you install, you can look forward to forgetting about for a long time.

One important part of the bedroom that is sometimes overlooked is the closet. As you can guess, I would recommend a CFL, perhaps a mini twist, if the closet light fixtures consisted of a medium socket in the ceiling or another CFL bulb depending on what the fixture is. Remember that in a closest CRI is very important, look for a CFL with high CRI to make sure that when you are picking clothes you are seeing their colors correctly. Also, you can try LED tap lights for your closet, these are great, wire free, and last a long, long time.

That just about does it here. Leave a comment or question or call BulbAmerica at 1-877-622-0897 with any additional questions or concerns. Good luck!
By Anna Maria Piazza | 02 September, 2010 | 0 comments
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