How on earth do you decide about lights and plug sockets

[hardlyworthit]

Electrician just asked how many lights and sockets we wanted. I went blank.

The room we are redecorating has no lights currently (no idea why, we didn't notice until we moved in . It's a long thin room so we will be watching TV at one end with the other end being more of a cosy armchair book affair.

Ceiling lights? Wall lights? The electrician says he can wire lamps into the wall switches which might be a nice idea.

Apparently you now have to decide on a 'lighting scheme' as opposed to a bulb in the middle

sockets - we went for double socket in each corner of the room - that way there should always be a socket nearby.

If it is a long room then sockets half way along the long wall too.

We also went for overhead lights - probably one at each end independently controlled by switches in your case. Then you can use lamps or overhead lights as you choose.

That is the easy bit - now the hassle of deciding which actual lights (you venture into a light shop and come out looking bewildered - or maybe that was just me ?!).

we went for little spotlights along each side of the ceiling with central light - fancy one. dimmer switch. silver coloured. get less reflection on tele. check how high your ceilings are and drop of lights so you don't hit your head. finding light for centre was hard as many look like tat and were too low

we removed wall lights and i think room looks nicer for it - less old fashioned and cleaner

I don't know if this exists in UK, but here in Switzerland it is common to have normal plugs, and ones that are connected to the light switch. So I can come into the living room, flick a switch and 3 indirect lamps come on. Tis rather cool.

I have this range - that one in the corner of the dining part of the room, the table lamp on a sideboard half way down the room and a reading lamp next to the armchair.

Ooh yes MmeL, my parents have that. We chose where to put sockets by trying to imagine all the things we'd have to plug in (which ended up being quite a lot), and where the furniture would most likely be positioned, but it was a bit half baked. You are doing the right thing by giving it more thought. We totally forgot about a bathroom shaver socket (though it sounds like you're not doing a bathroom).

MmeLindt, I think that's the kind of thing he was talking about.

But ceiling lights too

Plan the room's furniture. what is going where? And what power/light would you like for everything in the room? For cosy armchair book area you will need some way of getting lighting to read a book by - you could have wall lights or spotlights in ceiling or freestanding lamps that hang over the sofa. He can wire those in like he says so you can turn them on with the flick of a switch. You can even get remote-controlled switches so you can turn them on and off when slobbing on the sofa with no effort at all. For those moments.

You will need a raft of sockets near the tv for tv dvd etc etc; consider ones with surge protection; also get him to wire in the ariel or satellite connection or something and may a phone point, and a power point for the phone.

You will also need a double socket on each wall if you haven't got one already.

Whatever you do there won't be quite enough plugs or lights in quite the right places.

Also, remember, lots of lights on at once = loadsa electricity. (We had a kitchen with 28 lights in it - needed our own power station for that )

You need to work out where your furniture is going to go, and then put lights in accordingly.

Central overhead ceiling lights are not great in most rooms. However, I love having one over our dining table, which is mostly used as a large communal desk and needs to be really well lit.

Wall brackets are good. In general, for a well lit room, you want several lights at different levels and going in various directions, at various levels of intensity.

The electrician said that the lamps would have to go on round pin sockets as if you accidentally plugged the hoover in you'd blow the circuit

My old house had a 5amp lighting circuit in most rooms. 2 pin plug sockets that you plugged table lights into but they were controlled by wall switches - just like in a hotel. I was pretty good mainly as we were in a old property with cornices and no ceiling lights at all. Saved you wandering around a dark room trying to find a lamp to switch on!

our living room has 8 sets of double sockets and we use most of them. 3 of the double sets are beside the tv

You need to think beyond the tv - you may have dvd/video recorder/wii/games machine/freeview box etc

Apart from the tv - you may also read so you need to think about this got three standard lamps and use sockets to charge laptops/mobiles.

Another is used for a hairdryer and then at xmas you've got the xmas lights etc.