What to Consider When Selecting Affordable to Luxurious Closet Lighting in Midland, MI

October 22, 2019 Published by Writer Leave your thoughts

You probably don’t spend as much time considering the type and quality of your closet lighting compared to the lighting in larger rooms of your home, but high-quality lighting is an important issue for you to consider. It’s not unusual for homes, especially older homes, to have closet lighting situations that are anywhere from unhelpful to unsafe.

Therefore, if you need to make some upgrades to your closet lighting in Midland, MI, here are a few of the issues you’re going to want to keep in mind when making your selections.

Safety

Consult your local building codes and see what they say about lighting in closet spaces. One of the most common safety hazards you’ll find with closet lighting is having standard incandescent bulbs that are exposed with a pull chain to turn them on. All lighting fixtures, whether recessed or surface-mounted, must be fully enclosed in a fixed, covered housing. If your current closet light does not allow you to install any type of cover, you’ll need to put in a new lighting fixture.

In addition, incandescent or LED bulbs in recessed fixtures must be at least six inches away from storage areas in the closet, and surface-mounted fixtures must be at least 12 inches away from those areas of storage.

Fluorescent is the way to go

We generally recommend using CFL bulbs for your closet lighting rather than incandescent. While these lights may not last as long as they claim, they are the coolest running type of light, which is good for enclosed closet spaces that don’t have a lot of ventilation. They are also relatively energy efficient, at least compared to those standard incandescent bulbs. Plus, if you already have a surface-mounted or recessed fixture, you can simply swap the incandescent bulb for a CFL bulb with the same light output. Just make sure you choose a dimmable CFL bulb if the fixture is controlled by a dimmer switch.

Battery-powered fixtures

If there isn’t any lighting installed in your closet at all and you don’t want to run new electrical lines yourself, you might consider installing a light fixture that’s powered by batteries instead. You’ll find a number of these products on the market that can be stuck in place or otherwise screwed to the wall, ceiling or surface of choice. Some of these types of batteries have cords or switches, while others are motion-activated or turned on and off by touching the cover.

These types of lights don’t produce as much light as standard fixtures, so they’re better used in smaller closets. However, they are generally inexpensive and easy to install, so they make for a quick and simple solution—certainly much less work than having to wire in a completely new lighting fixture.

For more information about some of the issues you should consider if you’re interested in installing new closet lighting in Midland, MI, we encourage you to contact the experts at Nowak Cabinets of Midland today. We’d be happy to answer your questions and address any concerns.