As important as a lamp’s design might be, it’s also crucial to think about the space it occupies and how the two elements complement each other. This was just one of the many topics that Sol Luminaire lighting advisor Zhi Kai and founder of SG Interior Design’s Mayiduo discussed on the latest episode of the podcast Renovation in Singapore. Here are some of the highlights of the conversation which you can check out in full here.
Zhi Kai: Lighting is one of the most important aspects but also one of the most overlooked parts as I think homeowners and business owners have the mindset that they just need to light up the space. But for it to properly and accurately bring out your interior design and the work of your interior designer or architect, you’d need to have the two basics: consistency of colour temperature and a high colour rendering index.
ZK: We always recommend 3000K, even for task areas and resting areas. You don’t want to enter a room that is 4000K, and then go into another that is 3000K as it will cause some colour disruption and affect your visual receptiveness. This is all about consistency.
Mayiduo: There is just this cohesiveness. When I used to stay at my parent’s place, the living room had one type of mood, and the moment you entered another room there was another mood and you’d go, “Wah, what is this?”.
ZK: That doesn’t mean 3000K is not practical. A lot of locals might feel that 3000K lighting might make them “lazy” or want to just chill. That’s not true. If you have a warmer or cosier colour temperature, you’re technically more enticed to stay in the space longer. So linearly, your productivity will also go up. If you imagine that you’re always in a task area, for example with a cooler 4000K colour temperature, you will feel strained out afterwards.
MYD: Yeah, you’ll feel a bit fatigued.
ZK: That’s not what we want in a house. We want you to stay in the house comfortably.
ZK: That is a very preference-based question. If you like things to be bright, you’d either incur more lighting points on the ceiling, or you will have a lot of LED strips, table lamps, and floor lamps. We generally try to combine the lights together to tackle that situation
ZK: This will be a bit more technical. At Sol Luminaire, we use chip-on-board LEDs. The reason being chip-on-board LEDs consume less power while giving a higher output, whereas lightbulbs will consume a higher wattage and produce even less power. The lifespan of light bulbs are also one to two years at the maximum, sometimes you can stretch that to three. Chip-on-board LEDs tend to last a minimum of five years, all the way to eight or nine years.
MYD: So am I right to say that in Singapore’s market, most people are selling LEDs?
ZK: LED is a confusing term because there are LED light bulbs and LED light fixtures. There are different categories to differentiate. But as long as you see a light bulb with a light bulb fitting like E27, E14, G9, GU10, these are categorised as light bulb fittings. They will not outperform a chip-on-board LED. Because there is also what we call and LED driver to regulate the current within the light fixture.
ZK: For new homeowners, you’d need to ask yourself: what kind of brightness are you trying to achieve? For example, standard light bulbs are four to six watts compared to the chip-on-board luminaires we utilise that are generally 10 to 13 watts, which is double the power with just one light source.
MYD: You really need to go down to a showroom to experience the lights, because for lights, it’s very hard to tell you which one you might like without you seeing it in person.
ZK: Even different lighting vendors might have different definition of a 3000K light. Some might be yellower, warmer, some are whiter.
MYD: You can save on a lot of things, but lighting is one thing you need to really invest in.
ZK: So there are a lot of factors behind the scenes that a consumer won't really see. Not to say that we’re earning from the consumer to cover these costs, but to do it reasonably. We cover all of our consumers 5 years on-site warranty. So if your lights spoil, give us a call and we’ll arrange everything in house.
On top of that, material use. How we build the lamp, how we construct everything, the research and development, and the material consumption to refine the product to make it sellable to the market. It consumes a lot of time.
ZK: Lights are meant to complement any interior design. For example, if you’re doing a darker theme, or a wabi sabi theme, these dense elements and darker tones will absorb the light. We then work with the interior designers on a plan to reduce the number of lights on the ceiling, especially if you have textured paint on the ceiling as you don’t want to see too many holes.
Personally, I prefer to work with more neutral designs so that I won’t worry that the homeowners feel it’s very dark after a storm.
MYD: My take is that I generally like quite clean stuff. So for most of my own projects I implement false ceilings and recessed lights. So when I have a globular light, it’s intentional.
ZK: So you want to capture someone’s attention, and you can have it on the wall; it doesn’t necessarily need to be on the ceiling. You can also put it at your foyer or entrance. These lights might be called decorative lights but they are also guiding lights for when you enter your home and you don’t want a pitch black space.
MYD: So where we plant the lights is actually important.
ZK: I think it’s very important.
ZK: The baseline is two pairs, or four lights.
MYD: Is that enough?
ZK: That’s the most common question. As brightness is subjective, we won’t suggest you to install more downlights if you want more lights. We’d also introduce LED strips, floor lamps, decorative lights, pendant lights to supplement the baseline pairs. We also try not to overkill the ceiling to keep it decluttered. But if our clients want their space to be brighter, we’d propose a higher wattage model.
ZK: For me, I think ceiling character is super important. What I mean is that there are lights that will create a concave facade.
MYD: Oh I really like that.
ZK: Because these ceiling character lamps can act as a decorative piece. Most people would want to retain their ceiling heights and visual clarity, which means not too many things obstructing their big-ticket furnitures. So the lights can still be practical but also act as a decorative element. It’s to go well and complement the interior.
ZK: This is a bit sensitive, but you can start at $1,500 and stretch all the way to $4,000. It all depends on your model selection and your brightness sensitivity. If you like your home to be bright, you’d need LED strips. If you have that plus decorative items, it’ll all add up in the cost.
MYD: Unless they go crazy like my house.
ZK: When you’re at the light planning stage, you’d need to clear with your interior designer about your false ceiling clearance. We’ve faced too many cases where the client says that they have a 5” false ceiling and they buy the lights from us. And when we deliver the lights, we realise that their false ceiling is only 3”.
MYD: This is important not just for homeowners, but for us interior designers too. You need to make sure that your lamps have enough space to enter the false ceiling.
