Tips for Choosing the Right Indoor Spot Lights

As much as many homes’ lighting schemes include downlighting as the most functional and aesthetic option, many people tend to underestimate the power of good spotlighting. It can help produce focused and accented lighting, and therefore create an illusion of a bigger, more luxurious, and artistic space.

So, if you were about to upgrade your living space with spotlights, here are a couple of aspects you need to take into consideration:

Brightness

Before you decide to hit your favourite lighting store and purchase indoor spot lights, make sure you get to know your living space’s brightness needs.

However, you’re probably used to thinking of light brightness in terms of watts- the more watts a bulb features, the brighter it is. However, watts are a measure of electrical energy and don’t express the total light output of a spotlight.

Instead of focusing on watts, keep in mind that spotlight brightness is measured in lumens. But if you’re not sure how to estimate the right number of lumens, you can always determine it based on the wattage of your previous bulbs; you just simply need to multiply the bulb’s wattage by 15.

As a rough guide, around 400 lumens per square metre makes for good ambience lighting for areas such as hallways and kitchens. But if you want to give your kitchen worktop a good spotlight, don’t hesitate to pick something with a light output of around 700 to 800 lumens.

However, keep in mind that LED lights use much less energy to generate the same amount of light output than halogen bulbs, and this is why they’re more recommended.

Beam Angle

The beam angle is typically described as the angle at which 50% of the useful lumen output is distributed. The narrow beam angle indoor spot lights concentrate the light into small spaces and as such increase the shine into a specific area. They’re most recommended for high ceilings, as you probably want to ensure that the light can reach a specific spot or surface before it gets dispersed into the space.

On the other hand, spot lights featuring a wider beam angle disperse the light wider, depending on the size. By choosing these, you’ll be able to illuminate a wider area with diluted light across the specific space or a reduced amount of light on a specific surface.

This type of beam angle is typically used for general illumination to create an even coverage of the entire area. It’s not uncommon to stumble upon cone-shaped indoor spot lighting models. These lights typically feature LED bulbs and tend to increase the dispersion of the lighting as you increase the distance from the lamp.

Halogen vs. LED Lights

When it comes to picking bulbs for your indoor spot lights, you have only two options- halogen and LED lights. Starting with halogen bulbs, they’re relatively cheap and have a similar colour quality as the traditional incandescent bulbs. However, halogen lights last for only around two years and are way more expensive to run than LED bulbs.

As mentioned above, LED lights are considered significantly more energy-efficient than halogen ones. On top of that, colour has never been an option with halogen lights, as all of them feature the same colour temperature and quality. Talking about colour temperatures, LED lights offer a wide spectrum of colour options. In fact, colour temperature refers to the number which describes how “yellow” or “blue” a light’s colour is. The higher the colour temperature, the “bluer” the light’s colour.

For instance, a 2700K light produces the same colour as the classic incandescent bulb. If you’re looking for something more similar to a halogen bulb, a 3000K LED light is a great choice to achieve a warm and welcoming yellow colour light. But on the other hand, if you’re looking for a more neutral light, a 3000K LED light will do the job perfectly fine, as it’s the middle colour of the temperature scale.

Anything above this, such as 4000K has a bluer and colder hue and is mostly used for functional rooms such as kitchens or bathrooms, as well as commercial art studios and retail outlets.

Dimmable vs. Non-Dimmable

One of the greatest myths about LED lights is that they aren’t dimmable. In fact, this is very wrong- as long as you get the correct model, and use it in conjunction with a trailing edge dimmer switch, you can get a dimmable LED light. Keep in mind that the basic dimmer switchers require a higher electrical load which the low voltage LED lights can’t handle.

Once you install your dimmable LED indoor spot lighting, you won’t only be able to control the intensity of light, but you will also get to decide how much electricity the bulbs use. And considering that LED lights are way more energy-efficient than halogen lights, you can imagine the savings you could make by replacing the inefficient halogens with energy-saving LEDs.

LED spotlights may be a little bit pricey, but they’re a one-time investment that definitely pays off. Now that you found out about the most important aspects, it’s time to hit your favourite lighting shop and pick a spotlight set to illuminate your living space.