Dwindling Daylight

As the days move towards the winter solstice, the sun rises later and sets earlier. We spend much more of our waking time immersed in night without the freedom to light our homes by simply opening the blinds or pulling the curtains open. Artificial lighting takes on a more appreciated role in day-to-day activities when the sun is sinking below the horizon at 4:30 in the afternoon, and Lamp Select is your source for indoor and outdoor lighting solutions that are stylish and practical.

It’s perfectly normal to feel not so enthused about the day when you rise from bed to the darkness of night. It’s similarly depressing when you watch night return in the late afternoon before you’ve even left work, and the feeling is augmented by the fact it’s almost always in sharp contrast to the Indian summer we’re only a month and some removed from. This makes it all the more important to have home lighting pieces that not only fill your space with light but provide a sense of comfort as well as you steel yourself to this aspect of the long winter ahead.

A chandelier is no longer exclusively within the domain of traditional decors. Adding an elegant suspended lighting fixture to any area of the home is an option for more modern themed spaces as well, as the Kenroy Home Medici Brushed Steel 5 Light Chandelier will confirm. The AF Lighting Supernova Chandelier would be a natural for an expressive modern space awash in an art deco style. Those looking for a more traditional chandelier will find many in the same style as the ELK Lighting Minique Three Light Chandelier.

A floor lamp can be a comforting presence on those long November and December nights when the sun is long since set as you finish dinner. One look at the Kenroy Home Hemisphere Rust Floor Lamp will confirm there’s just as wide a variety of styles in floor lamps as there is for chandeliers. The array of hanging and pendant lighting is equally diverse and these accents can further any area’s visually distinctive character. Surely you agree this Quoizel Autumn Ridge Lantern would garner more than a few second glances as guests approach your home.

After December 21^st we can take some solace in the fact the days will start getting longer again, though most of us will still wake to night until mid-February. It’s an inevitability of the passing seasons that, although we grow accustomed to it, is never really agreeable as we have precious little daylight at our disposal. Stylish and practical lighting options help in making the long wait for spring that much more bearable.

Shed Some Light

As we move past the formative stages of the 21^st century, it is clear that conservation and the related ecological concerns have very much earned one of the top spots on the human agenda for both the immediate and more long-term future. Scientists, researchers and all manner of findings have stated emphatically that we cannot continue established patterns of consumption and expect the same level of environmental resiliency on this planet. The 3 Rs – Reduce, Re-use and Recycle – should be a globally embraced family value soon if not already so.

I was fortunate to have a mother that was on the conservation wagon long before the situation was as critical as it is now, and accordingly I’m well-trained in that regard. Most specifically, I remember “Did you turn off the lights?” being a common inquiry after I had emerged from the basement. At the time it seemed insignificant to me, but I’m thankful for her rigidity now.

First and foremost, incandescent light bulbs need to be phased out ASAP. Only 10% of the energy drawn by these massively-inefficient bulbs is turned into light, with the remaining 90% dissipating as heat. Compact fluorescent bulbs, most commonly seen as the dual u-loop or spiral-coil bulbs, use 75% less energy than the aforementioned lighting dinosaurs and last up to 4 times longer based on average use rates.

Both home and office are, on average, considerably gluttonous when it comes to electricity consumption. Often times, especially with family, it may be difficult to cut-back as much as you’d like overall in the home, but the office is one place where you can curtail energy-consumption more effectively. For those who wish to be accountable as such, replacing existing task lamps with any of the impressive selection offered at cymax.com is an excellent place to start. The value and versatility of a Lite Source clip-on Lite can take on a go-green element as well when fitted with one of the aforementioned fluorescent bulbs, and as always the appeal of online shopping is the ability to re-furbish your home or office without having to leave it. For more stationary lighting needs, Ledu desk lamps are a practical hybrid of function and style, easily adjusted to suit the task and personal space preferences and similarly compatible with these vastly more efficient fluorescent bulbs.

The efforts of pop culture artists like Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews, among a host of others, have made most welcome efforts to incorporate being environmentally-responsible into the realm of being “cool.” Johnson, in fact, recorded his entire new album, Sleep through the Static, entirely with the use of solar-derived power and Matthews is well know for his line of BAMA RAGS hemp clothing and personal goods.

Whether artists such as these two falls into what you consider cool or not, style is important to everyone and, getting back to task lighting, some of you with more decor discerning tastes will be pleased to peruse the selection of more expressive Adesso Desk Lamps at cymaxstores.com. Stylish and functional, these quality-constructed lamps are built to last and are also part of the trend in shunning the use of incandescent bulbs.

Turning off lights when not needed for use is an easy habit we all need to develop fervently and parents are encouraged to take positive-reinforcement steps to ingrain this behaviour in their children from a young age. Further, individuals of all ages are encourage to focus on need-specific area lighting, rather than lighting an entire room to, for example, read a book in bed.

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I’m In the Dark Here

I realize that Al Pacino is better known for some of his other works, but my absolute, all time, watch-over-and-over-every-time-it’s-on-TV-even-though-I-own-the-video-Al-Pacino-movie is Scent of a Woman. There’s one line in the movie that makes me cry. I know it’s coming; I know he’s going to say it; I’m prepared for it—but it makes me cry anyway. Every single time. You just know that Lt. Col. Frank Slade would go back and do it all over again, this time without the mistakes, when he shouts, “I’m in the dark here.”

Well, I’m not in the dark. Not exactly. But I am in denial.

In the daytime, my living room is ideal. I have a lot of furniture in it, and over the course of several years, I have managed to arrange it so that it will accommodate all of my various activities and interests, such as watching TV, playing music (as in a musical instrument), reading and writing. During the day, these different, if you will, activity stations (a term I borrowed from my friend who is a primary school teacher), are well lit by Mother Nature. But when the sun sets, it’s an entirely different story.

My living room has no overhead lighting. I have a banker’s lamp, complete with the popular green glass shade, on my writing desk. There’s a well-placed floor lamp by a corner arm chair and a third lamp on the end table by the sofa. That’s it. As I mentioned, during the day, it’s fine; during the evening, I’m mostly in the dark, underscored by isolated pockets of light.

Every so often, I am given hints that the lighting situation in my living room is not ideal. When planning to do some mending in front of the television, for example, I often find myself getting up from the couch and going into the kitchen to thread the needle. Or when I’ve dropped something on the floor and it’s rolled somewhere, I turn on the desk lamp, floor lamp and table lamp and even the chandelier in the dining room. But the other day, as I was trying to peer into the enclosed storage area of the end table for an item I was looking for, even with all three living room lights turned on, I had to admit defeat and go and fetch the emergency flashlight in the hallway drawer. It was official; I could no longer effectively fool myself that the lighting in my living room was anywhere near adequate.

For the musician’s playing area, complete with music stand, a tree lamp (a floor lamp with more than one fixture) would be great standing in the corner, while a clip-on reading light for the music stand would make it much more functional. The room could easily house two more table lamps, while the existing floor lamp would be much more effective on the opposite side from where it is now standing. Replacing the current table lamp with a 3-way bulb style light would make the area around the end table more versatile and user-friendly. The open stretch of wall above the sofa would be ideal for two sconces. This roughly formulated plan sounds like it might actually be a viable solution—it covers all the bases, including task lighting and ambient lighting.

But something needs to be done, and soon. All I know is that when I ended up having to fetch the flashlight to look for something that was relatively out in the open, I felt pretty silly.

I am fortunate enough to have an ocean view from my apartment. Quite often, on a summer evening, I delay turning on the lights for as long as possible so that I can enjoy the glorious light shows, a.k.a. sunsets that Mother Nature puts on. Suddenly I’ll find I’m in the dark, the last traces of sunlight being reflected in the water as it fades from the sky. There is something to be said for just sitting quietly in a darkened room—it’s soothing and calming, watching the shifting shadow play created by other light sources.

Although, I have to admit, being in the dark is not so soothing or convenient when trying to fix a hem or entertain friends—something tells me they just might object to chatting and snacking with no lights on.