A kitchen is renovated and the lighting is decided on site, quickly, because the electrician needs to know today and the plasterer arrives on Thursday.
Twelve downlights go into a grid across the ceiling. They are all on one switch, none of them dim, and the work surface under the wall units is unlit.
The room is bright, flat and unpleasant in the evening. Everything about it is fixable and all of it requires opening a ceiling that has just been finished.
Step 1: plan lighting before first fix
Cables, switch positions and fitting locations are decided when the structure is open. Deferring the decision means either rushing it or reopening finished work.
Step 2: start with what happens in the room
Cooking, eating, working, relaxing and at what times. Lighting follows use, and a plan drawn from a ceiling grid follows nothing.
Step 3: think in layers rather than fittings
General light, task light where work happens, accent light for interest and low level light for evenings. A room with all four is a considerably better room.
Step 4: reduce the number of ceiling lights
A grid of downlights produces flat uniform light and shadows on work surfaces. Fewer fittings, better placed, with other layers, almost always looks better.
Step 5: put task lighting where the task is
Under wall units, over an island, beside a reading chair, at a desk. This is the layer most often missing and the one most noticed when it is absent.
Step 6: plan the switching properly
Which fittings are on which switch, where the switches are and what somebody wants to turn on when they walk in at night. Switching is decided last and regretted first.
Step 7: include dimming
On most circuits, with compatible fittings and drivers. A dimmable room is usable at different times of day and a fixed brightness room is only comfortable sometimes.
Step 8: check the dimming compatibility
Fittings, drivers and dimmers have to work together. Incompatible combinations flicker or buzz, and it is discovered after everything is installed.
Step 9: decide colour temperature deliberately
And keep it consistent within a space. Mixed colour temperatures look wrong in a way people notice without being able to name.
Step 10: consider colour rendering
Particularly in kitchens, bathrooms and anywhere colour matters. This is a specification rather than a brightness question and it is rarely discussed.
Step 11: plan for lamps
Sockets where lamps will stand, ideally switched. A room with nowhere to plug in a lamp is a room committed to its ceiling lighting forever.
Step 12: think about the bathroom requirements
Zones, ratings and what may be installed where, which constrains the options before any design decision is made.
Step 13: plan the outdoor and approach lighting
Which is decided last, frequently not at all, and which affects how a house is used and secured in the evening.
Step 14: capture the lighting requirements at the enquiry
An assistant that asks what each room is used for, what time of day, whether dimming is wanted and what the customer has disliked previously gives an electrician the brief before first fix rather than a decision made in a corridor. The circuit questions sit in adding sockets and circuit questions, the certification in electrical certificate questions landlords ask, the procurement question in design and build versus separate contractor questions, and the qualification in can an ai chatbot qualify leads. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under electricians.