The lighting in your home should make your space more inviting and comfortable. While you can use motorized shades to minimize the glare from the sun, comfortable home lighting comes from the right interior lighting fixtures with minimal glare.
Understanding Glare
Glare occurs when bright light sources are significantly more intense than the rest of your vision. You have likely felt this when driving around sunset before lowering your sunvisor. Excessive glare exposure can cause difficulty with vision, headaches and staying focused.
What Causes Glare In The Home?
There are several qualities in home lighting fixtures that can cause glare.
Wide Aperture Lighting Fixtures
The size of wide aperture light fixtures makes them more noticeable in a room. The aperture refers to the size of the illuminated element on the light fixture. The larger the fixture aperture is, the more likely you’ll see it in your peripheral vision.
Having something significantly brighter than the rest of your vision, like a light source in a dim room, causes glare. This is especially true with in-ceiling lighting. Because they are used as a primary light source for ambient lighting, the lighting element of the fixture will be significantly brighter than the rest of the room.
Shallow Depth In-Ceiling Lighting
Shallow recessed lighting makes the light source more visible, increasing the likelihood of glare. As we said in the last section, a bright light source in your peripheral vision creates an annoying source of glare. As an extreme example, imagine how difficult it would be to see a light source recessed one foot into your ceiling, versus one that’s not recessed at all.
Fixtures With Wide Beam Angles
Could you light a room with a single, really bright fixture? Probably. However, having a light extend so far outward (wide light beam) means the light will shine right into your eyes as you get closer to it! Instead, it is best to use multiple light fixtures with a narrow light beam to decrease glare in the home.
Finding The Perfect Anti-Glare Solution
One of the primary goals of good lighting design is creating a quality lighting plan that illuminates your space without causing glare. Picking fixtures that are sufficiently recessed into the ceiling with a small light aperture source are two of the best traits for in-ceiling lighting to reduce glare. This can be achieved on a budget, as demonstrated in our blind test.
The final choice you can make to decrease glare is to use fixtures with a low beam angle. We generally recommend no more than 30 degrees. However, it is entirely dependent on the space.
We Can Guide You To The Perfect, Glare-Free Lighting Design
If you want to minimize the glare in your home with a value-engineered lighting plan that makes it feel as good as it looks, call us at 415-883-7700. We will work alongside you and your design team to create a lighting plan that fits your aesthetic and budgetary needs.
