Top 10 New Kitchen Lighting Solutions

Kitchen Lighting

In recent times, kitchens have become places to eat and entertain as well as to cook. How do you light a room that serves multiple functions? It’s important not to over light – each light must have a role. Our top 10 kitchen lighting solutions will help you plan a new or revamped kitchen.

1. LED Flexi-Strips

Mainly used for mood lighting, LED flexi-strips can be fitted along kick boards or below kitchen cabinets. You can create a floating effect at a kitchen island by fixing them right around the base. The Tagra 24W Warm White LED Light Strip is ideal for this.

Lyco LED Flexi Strips

2. Under-Cabinet Downlighting

Often in the kitchen you’ll be working in your own shadow, especially at outer worktops. Under-cabinet lighting solves this by delivering light straight to the surface. Tagra Warm White LED Strip Light is practical, stylish and creates mood.

Eterna 8W Warm White LED Strip Light - 608mm

3. Fluorescent Strip Lights
Fluorescent fittings are a kitchen standard, and they’ve improved a lot over the years. Problems such as flickering no longer exist, plus up to six of these can be linked, so you can create precisely the lighting scheme you need.

4. Fire Rated Downlights
Fire-rated products like the Luceco F-Eco 5W Warm White Adjsutable Downlight are ideal for ambient lighting. A dimmable fitting allows control over lighting mood, especially when contrasted with other lights. Building regulations require recessed ceiling lights under occupied floors to be fire-resistant.

5. Wall Lights
Wall lights work well in a kitchen if there’s space. The Edit Bench Wall Light with its trendy copper finish suits a traditional room. You might install it over a breakfast bar or table, giving you extra light for reading the paper or even eating.

6. Pendants
Pendants work well over breakfast bars, kitchen islands or dining tables. The Elstead Provence Rise and Fall Pendant is inspired by an old French design. Install this over an island and set it high to light an entire food prep area or low as an intimate dining light.

7. Flush Fittings
For homes with low ceilings, flush fittings use as little vertical space as possible. They don’t have to compromise on style, either, as the Searchlight American Diner Flush Ceiling Light shows. This traditional fitting is inspired by the metallic lights that were popular in 1950s American diners.

8. Track Lighting
Track lighting allows spotlight heads to be moved freely along a length of track. This is ideal above the edges of a kitchen island or counter top. It’s especially useful with metallic surfaces, as the ability to change lighting angles helps control glare. Robus Acorn track lighting suits this role.

Robus Acorn Track Lighting at Lyco

9. Designer Looks
If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen and enjoy entertaining, a designer light will make the space special. A three light bar, such as the Edit Craft Ceiling Pendant, add a bit of glamour to your room, and looks great when placed directly over a dining room table or kitchen island.

Edit Craft 3 Light Bar Ceiling Pendant - Black

10. Plinth Potential
Outdoor decking lights can be used as kitchen plinth lights. These tough little fittings can stand being splashed with a mop or kicked. Install them along the lower plinth section of your kitchen floor units. The Robus Garland Kit includes 10 lights, each giving an attractive blue glow for relaxing effect.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

charles author bio

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

Under cabinet kitchen lighting – hidden lighting at its best

 

In this article we’ll look at the practical and visual benefits of under cabinet lighting and show you products that transform any kitchen.

Why you need under cabinet kitchen lights

Overhead lighting in a kitchen provides ambient light, but it’s less than ideal for lighting most kitchen worktops. There are a couple of reasons for this:

  • Food preparation needs a brightly lit kitchen surface. Being far away, a ceiling light has to use more energy than a nearby fitting to achieve the same light intensity.
  • Most kitchen surfaces are at the room’s edge, so the effect of a ceiling light is often blocked by the cook.

Under cabinet lighting resolves these issues. You can still have ceiling lights—preferably dimmable—but use low-powered fittings to light your kitchen surfaces from close range. This is not only practical, but also creates mood.

Two Types

Lyco’s wide range of under cabinet lights is dividable into two types:

  • Under cabinet downlights provide focused light and are usually installed in multiples. These tend to be stylish fittings that make a good choice for high cabinets. They also create attractive patterns of light on the kitchen wall.
  • Under cabinet strip lights run the length of a cabinet for an even spread of light. These fittings are ideal for low-mounted cabinets. Usually, they can be linked together to seamlessly light a long kitchen surface.

Downlight Recommendations

The stylish Robus LED Triangle Light in brushed chrome has a neat triangular design.  Its warm white hue complements wood, red tiles or brickwork.
A circular design is found in the Robus Commodore LED Cabinet Light. Use of LED makes this fitting dearer than a halogen light, but the extra cost is always recouped through greater energy efficiency. The Laghetto emits a cool white light that goes well with modern white or metallic surroundings.

Strip light Recommendations

Offering superb value for money, these under cabinet lights come complete with LED tube. Up to 10 of these fittings can be linked together. The supplied tube is 80% more energy efficient than its equivalent 40W incandescent bulb.

Another option is an LED Strip Light, which can last around for 2o,000 hours. These energy-efficient lights are sold in a choice of lengths, which can be joined with link leads to create exactly the set-up you need.

Please view our full range of Cabinet Lighting to find the right product for your kitchen.
For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Take a look at our full range of Cabinet Lighting

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

Reception lighting – first impressions count

Endon Phantom 7 Light Chandelier - Polished Chrome

For businesses big and small, first impressions count. Whether you’re looking to impress clients or the public, the reception area provides the first opportunity.

Some thought should be given to lighting when planning a reception. Harsh, bright lights make visitors feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, whereas poor or dim lighting projects lack of care or success. The right lighting will bring the best out of furniture and furnishings and create an agreeable ambience.

Reception lighting for small businesses and hotels

Smaller businesses or hotels may be limited in floor space, but even small reception areas can make a big impression with the right lighting. The main risk is the danger of overdoing it: large, ostentatious light fittings may hint at a healthy balance sheet, but they will overpower a small reception area and everything in it.

The ideal reception lighting for a small business reflects the strengths it has to offer (usually intimacy and personal attention), but will also be smart enough to make it look an efficient, conscientious business. Let’s look at examples from Lyco’s wide range of reception lighting options for small businesses.

Small hotel reception lighting

Pendant Lights

The beautiful pendant adds a touch of traditional elegance to any reception area, with many to choose from it’s important to work out what will suit decor and represent your brand values at the same time. Most pendants are height adjustable to suit any ceiling height.

Ceramic Wall Lights

Wall lighting is useful for filling bare areas of wall and creating a welcoming ambience. It also acts as a secondary source of illumination, with diffuse light bouncing off nearby surfaces. The ceramic wall light can be left bare or painted to suit surroundings.

Small office reception lighting

Gold & Copper Pendants

If you want a funky, modern reception idea that makes an impression, a gold or copper pendant give you exactly that. The stylish, contemporary range is eye catching and on trend. Choose a Decorative Filament Light Bulb to add the perfect finishing touch with head-turning looks.

Edit Wall Light

The uncomplicated simplicity of the Edit wall light makes it a versatile all-rounder that will suit most small office reception areas. It uses 40W small screw bulb, and the white plaster finish will complement most offices.

Reception lighting for large businesses and hotels

The larger your reception area, the greater the canvas is to create a lasting impression. You could use discreet wall fittings for added mood. Make the most of high ceilings by installing an eye-catching chandelier or decorative pendant.

As with small businesses, upgrading the existing lighting in a large business’s reception area can have a dramatic visual impact without you having to change anything else. It offers an affordable upgrade option. Let’s look at some ideas:

Large hotel reception lighting

Zaragoza 3 Light Pendant

This striking ceiling light creates a favourable first impression in any reception area with its classy black-ridged fabric shade and attractive polished chrome fixings. An opal glass diffuser ensures a smooth spread of downward light from this large pendant, which comes in a choice of colours and can be easily co-ordinated with other items in the same stylish range.

Phantom 7 Light Pendant

There’s nothing like a striking centrepiece light to make an immediate impact in any reception area. With its mix of polished chrome and white fabric, the height-adjustable Phantom 7 light fitting adds a touch of class wherever it’s installed. To complete a great first impression, there are also co-ordinated wall lights available.

Head office reception lighting

Lucide Talowe LED Pendant

The Edit Wyndham LED Pendant is a large aluminium statement light with white painted shade and adjustable height. With cool white integrated LEDs, it is both energy saving and contemporary. It also emits 2340 lumens of light, so it’s perfect for reception area atmosphere lighting.

Table Lamps

Add a Table Lamp to create a more homely feel to an area. With many finishes to choose from our extensive range, you are sure to find something to suit your decor.

Save money by switching to LED

Switching from inefficient lighting to retrofit LED light bulbs has a dramatic impact on any business’s lighting costs. Depending on the size of business, annual savings may extend into tens of thousands of pounds. An LED bulb uses 80 to 90% less energy than a filament bulb and it’s also exceptionally long lasting. Running and maintenance costs are drastically reduced.

As inefficient lighting technologies are gradually phased out LED light bulbs are becoming increasingly common. They are now available at a wide range of price points, including many at under £10. By choosing LED for a reception and any other area of your business, a return on investment is guaranteed.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

andrew-author-bio

Andrew Evangelidis Head of Buying

Andrew is an experienced buying professional who takes an entrepreneurial approach to identify new lighting solutions and ensure Lyco have first-to-market ranges for our customers. Having previously worked for well known brands such as Wickes, Carphone Warehouse and Toys R Us, Andrew has now turned his hand to sourcing commercial lighting and ensure our customers receive top brand quality products at marketing leading prices. He manages a team of commercial and decorative buyers who travel the world finding new products that our customers don’t even know they need yet.

Uplighting: beam it up for extra effect

If you’re wondering exactly what “uplighting” refers to, your first guess is right. It’s a commonly used term for any lighting purposefully directed upwards. Light fittings specifically designed for this are predictably known as uplighters or uplights. But what’s the point of this lighting technique?

Creating drama

There are a couple of reasons for deliberately throwing light upward. Primarily, uplights are used to create drama. In this role, the light is positioned on the floor or ground and the light is directed up at an acute angle to glance off a wall, or a fence, or perhaps a statue or tree – this method is used indoors and out.

See our full range of floor uplightersOne thing sharply angled light does is emphasise texture; many objects that look flat in regular light take on a dramatic appearance under acute illumination, with their surface detail revealed. This technique also brings out form. A single light source or an asymmetrical pair of lights shone from beneath (and other angles) provides “modelling”, where light and shade outlines the shape of any item.

It is occasionally said that uplighting looks dramatic because our natural expectation is for light to come from above. A more established fact is that areas of light and dark create atmosphere. Because uplights are often set against subdued background lighting, or even darkness, they are always a fantastic choice for creating ambience.

Reflecting light

Another reason for pointing indoor or sheltered luminaires upward is to bounce light off upper wall areas and ceilings. This has the effect of widely dispersing a smooth light that is completely free of glare. Effectively it turns the ceiling into the light source, and a larger light source creates softer, more flattering illumination.

See our full range of Wall UplightersLight fittings used in this fashion might include floor lamps, concealed fluorescent fittings, and spotlights. The spread of light always depends to some extend on the nearness of the light source to the ceiling, its beam angle, and the light’s angle of incidence as it strikes the surface.

Indoor uplighting

Indoor uplighting works in either of the roles previously discussed. Lighting for drama nearly always means placing a light fitting on the floor. Light that is reflected off a ceiling is usually either wall-mounted or a freestanding lamp. Here are some examples:

The Limina Plaster Uplighter is an attractive luminaire for a hospitality setting or home. Set against subdued background lighting it dramatically lights architectural features, wall-mounted art, sculpture, or houseplants. As a cabled fitting, it serves as a floor or table lamp.

The Mother & Child Floor Lamp directs a phenomenal amount of light towards the ceiling using a powerful LED bulb, which is dimmable for fine-tuned effect. This type of luminaire provides a lot of coverage with its big throw of omnidirectional light, which is further dispersed by nearby surfaces.

A fitting such as the Spot 79 Spotlight might fulfil a similar role to the Opus. By mounting it on a wall and aiming its light upwards, the problem of glare is avoided and a wide spread of light is achieved. Spotlights are often overlooked for this purpose, but they provide good coverage for confined areas while taking up minimal space.

Outdoor uplighting

Most of us have probably noticed outdoor uplighting being used whilst on our travels, perhaps to dramatically illuminate a great cathedral at night. Architectural lighting is one way it is used, which will typically involve a powerful ground-fixed floodlight in outdoor situations.

The Edit Arris Wall Light is usable either as an outdoor uplight or downlight and is ideal for any modern premises. It is intended for decorative purposes, so how you install it falls to personal choice and may be influenced by existing lights or features.

Take a closer look at the Oslo LED Wall LightDrama is usually the motive when using uplighting outside. Popular targets for outdoor uplighting include trees and shrubs, statues, gazebos, fences, trellises, and garden walls. The same principle applies: uplighting gives these subjects texture and form and creates visual interest.

For shrubs, smaller trees, and many other garden items, the Garden Spotlights are ideal, they can be aimed directly upward to accentuate shape. A stronger alternative to Garden Spotlights is the High Power LED Ground Light, which are great option for lighting up large trees or an alternative to wall uplighters.

Water features such as fountains or ponds are often lit from beneath, or within, not least to avoid the peril of surface glare. Here, a product like the set of Garland SMD LED Walkover Lights works well. These provide decorative uplighting, and with their IP68 rating they can be immersed to a depth of 1 metre.

Become a lighting drama queen (or king)

We hope this article has provided you with ideas on how to create drama and mood with uplighting. It may have opened your eyes to how you can use existing surfaces to disperse light and avoid glare. Become a drama queen with your choice of lamps and light fittings!

Browse our full range of wall uplighters

Browse our full range of floor uplighters

For more inspiration and advice take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

andrew-author-bio

Andrew Evangelidis Head of Buying

Andrew is an experienced buying professional who takes an entrepreneurial approach to identify new lighting solutions and ensure Lyco have first-to-market ranges for our customers. Having previously worked for well known brands such as Wickes, Carphone Warehouse and Toys R Us, Andrew has now turned his hand to sourcing commercial lighting and ensure our customers receive top brand quality products at marketing leading prices. He manages a team of commercial and decorative buyers who travel the world finding new products that our customers don’t even know they need yet.

Lighting your picture properly

Picture lighting is important to most people whether they’re a homeowner with a favourite water-colour, a gallery owner with a priceless Rembrandt or even a hospital art coordinator looking to make the corridors a pleasure to walk down with fetching scenes. Picture lights provide a convenient solution to displaying artwork but choosing the right light fitting to get the best out of your artwork can be testing. Below we look at two of the most important factors to consider when it comes to lighting your pictures properly: size and colour temperature.

What size of picture light should I choose?

Rule of thumb

The most common rule of thumb is ‘choose a picture light that is half the size of the picture, excluding frame’, but if you dig around you’ll confusingly find one or two others. In truth, with smaller artworks you’ll often be able to choose lights that are as little as a third of the picture width. The opposite is true of extra large artworks (e.g. over 36” width), where the ideal is two-thirds.

Don’t go too small

This sliding scale of requirements comes from the varying distance between the edge of the light and the picture edge. With a large picture, there is a greater risk of creating a vignetting effect and leaving large corner areas underlit. In general though, the half-picture-size rule is a decent guideline.

Don’t go too large

A light fitting that is too wide for the picture is equally undesirable. Remember that light will spread when reflected off a surface. By limiting the amount of light that falls outside the picture, you are focusing attention on the artwork. This is especially important with dark pictures, where brightly lit surroundings will immediately draw the eye away from the subject.

How important in picture lighting is colour temperature?

Most people enjoy art without paying great heed to the lighting, but lighting directly affects the colour of art. Warm white light emphasises warm colours, and cool emphasises cool. It makes sense, then, to pick a light colour that enhances the dominant colours of your picture.

Shades and technologies

Each lighting technology has different colour properties, as follows:

  • Incandescent: warm white light with a typical 2700-2800K colour temperature. Less than ideal for blue or violet-coloured pictures, but excellent for emphasising reds, oranges, and yellows (flattering to skin tones in portrait pictures).
  • Halogen: warm white light with typical 2800-3200K colour temperature. Stronger radiation at shorter wavelengths (violet and blue) makes halogen appear whiter and brighter than incandescent lighting. It is better balanced than incandescent for artworks containing warm and cool colours. Both technologies offer superb colour rendering, though with a warm overall hue.
  • LED and low-energy fluorescent: manufactured with warm or cool colour temperatures (i.e. anything from 2700K to 6500K). A cool colour temperature lends a natural overall appearance, not unlike window light. These technologies are widely used in art museums (the Louvre Museum in Paris recently switched to LED). However, filament bulbs are inherently more reliable for reproducing individual colours and nuance. Vastly reduced running and maintenance costs may tip the balance!

Lighting Vincent

Below we compare the effect of warm and cool lighting on a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait. You’ll notice the blue areas are emphasised by cool light, whilst the complexion, hair, and palette are more vibrant under warm light. You’d probably base your picture lighting decision on the focus of the painting, which is the artist himself. You may well choose to sacrifice some of the blueness to avoid a pallid complexion. The decision is ultimately subjective.

Vincent under warm white light Vincent under cool white light
Vincent under warm white light Vincent under cool white light

Image courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington

Feel free to view our full range of picture lights. Alternatively if you want to more inspiration and advice, take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

andrew-author-bio

Andrew Evangelidis Head of Buying

Andrew is an experienced buying professional who takes an entrepreneurial approach to identify new lighting solutions and ensure Lyco have first-to-market ranges for our customers. Having previously worked for well known brands such as Wickes, Carphone Warehouse and Toys R Us, Andrew has now turned his hand to sourcing commercial lighting and ensure our customers receive top brand quality products at marketing leading prices. He manages a team of commercial and decorative buyers who travel the world finding new products that our customers don’t even know they need yet.

Top 10 Conservatory lights

astro uplighter

Whether you’re investing in a conservatory for your own home or installing one for a customer, lighting is a key factor. It’s easy to enjoy this naturally lit space when bathed by the sun, but with the right lighting it’ll become a room to relax in night and day, the whole year round.

Direction is important

One important aspect of conservatory lighting is direction of light. In most rooms of a house, light reflects off walls and ceilings to create widespread diffused illumination. This is not the case in a conservatory, where misdirected light will simply escape, and might cause glare.

The hallmark of successful conservatory lighting is that it seamlessly connects the house to the garden, with a multi-layered lighting scheme that is both visually stimulating and welcoming. Ideally, this should extend to the garden itself rather than ending abruptly with a dark void.

Our top 10

To help you plan your lighting scheme, we’ve put together a list of our 10 most popular lights, chosen for conservatories:

  1. Sunbeam Wire Light System

Ideal for uneven ceilings, the Searchlight Thunder Wire Light System allows you to easily introduce overhead lighting in a conservatory. Each of the unobtrusive lights can be positioned anywhere along the wire, so this is a flexible way of highlighting display items or room features, and looks great when layered with a softer, overall light.

Davida 4 Light Spotlight Bar

  1. Edit Eye 3 Light Spotlitght Bar

The Eye 3 Light Spotlight Bar is another way of providing directional light in a conservatory, and being wall mountable it is installable onto the wall that was previously on the exterior the house prior to the conservatory being built, if necessary.

Lamina Plaster Floor Uplighter

  1. Limina Plaster Floor Uplighter

Uplighters provide dramatic accent lighting to emphasise texture and form, and can be used to provide a feeling of extra space by lighting walls and corners. The Limina Plaster Floor Uplighter is an excellent choice for a contemporary conservatory, and can be painted to match any environment.

Kalu Twin Spotlight

  1. Elva Twin Spotlight

The modern-looking Elva Twin Spotlight is a versatile fitting with exceptional adjustability in each light head. This is an IP44 rated fitting that can also be used outside and is made of quality aluminium.

  1. Friend LED Floor Lamp with USB Charging Port

A nice feature of the Friend Floor Lamp is its built-in dimmability. The ability to control light is useful in a conservatory, as it enables you to balance artificial and natural lighting according to outside conditions. The Montana offers a reading lamp as well as an uplighter plus a handy USB charging port and shelf – perfect for charging your phone.

  1. Edit Berkley Table Lamp

Soprana Solid Table LampTable lamps provide a great final touch in a conservatory, emitting a warm, soft glow of light to help make it a comfortable space, our top pick is this large statement lamp, the Berkley Table Lamp.

A pendant is virtually a must-have if the conservatory is to be used as a dining area, so the structure of the conservatory may need to be chosen or adapted accordingly.

 

  1. Lucide Soft Pendant

No pendant could be more befitting to a conservatory than one derived from nature. The Lucide Goosy Soft Pendant  fits directly into an existing lamp-holder and makes a stunning centrepiece for dining areas.

  1. Forum Agol

Another shade-only lighting solution is the beautiful Agol Easy-fit Shade by Forum. Manufactured in a soothing smoked finish, this shade can be accompanied by a large globe bulb to produce a beautifully diffuse, widespread light.

Dynamo Pendant - Cream

  1. Dynamo Pendant Light

For a retro look that will adorn many conservatories there’s the Dynamo Pendant. This fitting is available in a choice of coloured and metal finishes. A halogen bulb delivers bright overall lighting from this pendant, though a decorative-filament bulb has more visual appeal and typically emits a warmer glow of light. Remember that all filament bulbs are dimmable with the appropriate switch.

Nexus 20 Pendant Light

  1. Nexus 20 Pendant

Another mood-inducing light is the Edit Cone Pendant, which has a gold inner shade project a warm toned light. This fitting is perfect for low suspension over a dining table, where it will excel at defining space and creating intimacy.

Self-sufficient garden lighting

You might think a conservatory is a prime candidate for solar powered lights. Unfortunately, window glass greatly reduces a solar panel’s ability to gather power, so any indoor lighting would have to be driven by an outdoor solar panel. Removable solar panels are very occasionally used in small indoor light fittings, but for the time being this idea remains impractical and largely untapped. We’ll let you know when this changes.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

andrew-author-bio

Andrew Evangelidis Head of Buying

Andrew is an experienced buying professional who takes an entrepreneurial approach to identify new lighting solutions and ensure Lyco have first-to-market ranges for our customers. Having previously worked for well known brands such as Wickes, Carphone Warehouse and Toys R Us, Andrew has now turned his hand to sourcing commercial lighting and ensure our customers receive top brand quality products at marketing leading prices. He manages a team of commercial and decorative buyers who travel the world finding new products that our customers don’t even know they need yet.

Buying Guide – Heaters

There are various types of heaters available, each with their own set of advantages, disadvantages and uses for certain situations. For instance:

  • Need a low constant background heat? – a panel heater may be what you need
  • Need to warm an infrequently occupied room? – a wall-mounted fan heater may offer the best solution.

Each situation offers a unique heating challenge. In these days of ever rising heating costs, no one wants to waste energy and pay needless heating bills. Efficiency is definitely the watchword here and with that in mind we have put together a simple heater guide. It explains the different heater types and helps you select the best one for your overall heating requirement – saving you money, whilst keeping you warm.

Convection Heating

Convection heating works by passing the air over an element to warm it up and then circulating it back into the room. There are two types of electric heaters that utilize convection heating technology: convector heaters and panel heaters.

Convector Heaters

Convector heaters are a good choice for medium-sized rooms where an even temperature needs to be maintained. They provide heat fast, are very quiet and are light and easy to manoeuvre. There are free standing or wall mounted versions available, whilst many do both. Free standing convector heaters are great for using in temporary buildings and workspaces and when buildings are being refurbished.

Panel Heaters

Panel heaters are designed for smaller rooms requiring constant low-level background heat. Benefits include their slim, space-saving design and low running costs. Their unobtrusive size makes them particularly useful in bars, restaurants, clubs and hotels.

All our models of convector and panel heaters include a thermostat to control the temperature, as well as overheat protection which automatically turns the heater off if the warm air grill gets blocked.

Oil-Free and Oil-Filled Radiators

Oil filled heater image

Radiators are somewhat misnamed, most of the heat that comes from them is actually by convection. Radiators heat the air that flows past them. As the air warms it rises away from the radiator and the colder air falls. This causes the air to begin to circulate around the room and the colder air is warmed as it passes the radiator.

Oil-Filled radiator

Oil-filled radiators have a large surface area, making them a great choice for heating larger sized rooms. Once the oil has been warmed up, electricity consumption stops and the oil retains heat for a long time. They are a reliable and economical source of heat and as there is no fan they are virtually silent, create no dust and don’t dry out the air. There are even mini, more energy efficient oil heaters available for smaller rooms.

Oil-Free radiator

Oil-free radiators use a unique oil-free, environmentally friendly heating technology to heat a room quicker and more efficiently than traditional oil-filled radiators. They have the same attributes as oil-filled radiators but are more heat effective, faster to warm up and tend to be lighter and easier to move.

Other Heater Types

Infra-Red heater

Infra-red heaters produce instant and directional hot air, providing fast heat. They are a safe and practical way to heat kitchens, bathrooms and work areas – anywhere were localized heating is required in fact.

Fan heater

Fan heaters are a great portable heating solution for workshops, garages, warehouses and office environments. They provide fast, directional heat and can be brought out when necessary and easily and safely stored for the rest of the time. Wall-mounted fan heaters are recommended for meeting halls and conference rooms, where heating is only required for relatively short periods of time.

Bathroom wall heater

Bathroom wall heaters have a compact, space-saving design, are quick and easy to install and provide fast warm-up with good air circulation.

Heated air curtain

Air curtain heater image

Heated air curtains are the efficient way to keep heat inside and the cold out. They are ideal for doorways of shops, hotels, and offices.

Here at Lyco, we stock a full range of heaters to suit most requirements and are always at the end of the phone to answer any queries you may have.

For more buying guides, advice or inspiration go to our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

New build home lighting part 3 (Kitchen / Diner)

A new build represents a blank canvas – a chance to set the tone for the whole house from the ground up. Your choice of lighting for new builds is a major part of what that tone will be, and is the filter that so much of the rest of the house will be viewed through.

So far our series on lighting for new builds has focused on the living room and hallway and then bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, Now we return downstairs to finish off the interior of our imaginary 2-bed starter home by stepping into the kitchen/dining room.

Choosing your lighting: the basics

Obviously one of the key factors in choosing lighting for any room will be the size and scale of the room itself. It might be the deciding factor, for example, in just how grand a chandelier centrepiece is in the dining room, or how extensive a set of cabinet downlights is in the kitchen.

However, that is a universal principle that applies in any room, and so doesn’t need special consideration here. Suffice to say, the larger and more attention-grabbing a lighting fixture is, the more space it needs around it – ignore that rule of thumb and you’ll overpower the room instead of illuminating it.

The same counts for brightness, although with the kitchen being typically one of the brightest rooms in the house you’ve got more room for error. That said, it’s a cardinal sin to under-illuminate a kitchen, so especially if you’re thinking of cabinet downlights make sure they’re close enough together and there’s enough of them (if there’s no other lighting in the room) to light up the entire kitchen.

New home kitchen / diner lighting ideas

There’s a wide range of kitchen / diner lighting products to choose from in the Lyco range. Here we highlight some of the most popular options available, and some of our personal favourites, to give you a sense of the choices available:

Retro style pendant: timeless class

Elstead Provence Rise and Fall Ceiling Pendant Light – Polished Nickel

This classic adjustable rise and fall pendant is the perfect multifunctional kitchen/diner light, bringing together old-world charm and class and contemporary styling complete with polished nickel finish.

Dimmable LEDs: high-tech kitchen lighting

View range here

Nothing gives a new build kitchen that ultra-modern look like LED spotlights, and the Fireguard LED7 range comes in various colour/warmth combinations so you can create just the right look for your kitchen. They’re available in fully dimmable form, and are IP65-rated and fire-rated for both commercial and domestic applications. Plus, the high-performance LEDs mean just 7W of power output matches of a 50W halogen for light output, but with an 80% energy saving.

Cabinet downlighting: low energy, little effort

View our range of cabinet lighting here

Cabinet downlights provide focused illumination on a specific area and are really simple to install, so it’s easy to see the appeal. In the case of the Aurora Mica LED Cabinet Light, you get the added advantage of a white light that’s rated for 50,000 hours and uses far less electricity than any standard light bulb. These LED lights can be surface mounted or recessed and come with 2m of cable included. You will however need an LED transformer, which is sold seperately.

Flexi striplighting: fun, decorative and versatile

View our range of cabinet strip lights

If you’re willing to put in a bit of effort and apply a bit of creativity, flexible striplighting is a clever and highly versatile way of lighting your kitchen – or any other room in the house, for that matter. Each 5M Flexi Strip incorporates 300 LEDs, and can be cut every 3 LEDs to suit just about any application. The strips are flexible and the LEDs come with a 120-degree beam angle, making it an ideal discreet lighting solution for shelves, alcoves, kick boards, cabinets… just about anywhere you can think to put them, in fact. We’ve chosen to highlight the “daylight” colour option here, but strips also come in warm white, and blue, as well as an RGB colour changing option.

If you’re connecting multiple strips together, or want your Flexi Strips to be dimmable, you’ll also need an Inline Amplifier. Last of all, a pack of Link Leads will come in handy should you wish to reconnect your cut LED strips.

The right lighting for new builds

New builds come in all shapes and sizes, which means specific lighting requirements for the kitchen/dining room area can vary greatly – and that’s not even accounting for the vast spectrum of personal taste.

The options we’ve shown here represent some of the more popular new build lighting options available, but of course you could also go for fluorescent or LED solid striplights, as well as halogen or other variations on the lighting types we’ve covered here.

Just remember that while room size might be the first thing you notice about any home, the right lighting to showcase that room is equally important, whether you’re looking to have a house valued for selling or renting, or are fitting a property out ahead of moving in yourself.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

New Build Part 1 – (Living Room & Hallway Lights)

There’s something special about the process of taking a set of plans and turning them into a finished house, but installing your choice in lighting is one of those pivotal moments when a house turns into a home. It’s important, then, to get it right, and in the first of a series of features on choosing light fittings for a new build home, we look at some key advice and top product suggestions for illuminating the living room and hallway.

Whether you’re designing a house from scratch, fitting an existing build according to a client’s brief, or looking to make a change to a new build before moving in, the impact of your choice in lighting is huge.

There’s the obvious functional benefit of light – there’s little worse than a poorly lit home after all – but there’s also the aesthetic value of lighting too. And there are few spaces in the home where getting that balance right matters more than in the living room and hallway. They’re typically the first two rooms you experience when entering a house, and both serve a vital function within the home too.

The living room, after all, is where the entire family will look to relax and spend time together, while the hallway is the main artery running through the home, linking bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas together.

So what should you think about when choosing living room and hallway lighting? Let’s take a look, and then check out a couple of great product suggestions that fit the bill.

Living Room Lighting

Because the living room serves such a multitude of uses these days, getting the lighting right can be easier said than done. A lot of the finer touches will come down to the placement of things like lamps or cabinet lighting, but there are also some fundamental considerations worth thinking about long before that point.

Size

Especially with a new build, it can be difficult keeping a sense of perspective between the size of your light fitting and the size of the room. It can be tempting to choose a striking ceiling light to make a bold style statement, for instance, but you don’t want to end up completely overpowering the room.

Balance

Does your choice and placement of light fitting create an even balance of light throughout the room? If possible, try to make sure you’re left with no problem areas with insufficient light, or areas that are too bright for that matter – neither is ideal in the living room.

Direction

If you’re planning to install wall lights, be aware of where the TV is most likely going to go. It’s important that the screen isn’t the only source of light in the room, but you certainly don’t want the two competing against each other.

Up or down

Traditional ceiling lights are the most popular and visually noticeable style of lighting for your living room, but if you want a more understated approach or want to draw attention to the ceiling itself, wall-mounted uplights are an elegant alternative.

Hallway Lighting

The hallway may not be a room in the strictest sense of the word, but don’t overlook it – there’s every chance the hall lights will spend more time switched on than any other light in the house. It’s an oddly shaped space, and unlike any other in the house it’s purely used to walk through, and so should be lit with both those points in mind.

Quantity and placement

The typical hallway is long and narrow, and is unlikely to have a natural light source of its own. This means you’re relying solely on artificial lighting to keep the hallway feeling light and open, but you also don’t have much space to work with. The solution is to install more than just one light – ideally about three to four metres apart.

Safety

The hallway is a busy place in any home, and there’s every chance it’ll be linked to a staircase too. This area needs to be well lit, and should have light switches at both the top and bottom.

Style

Discreetly placed track lighting is both effective and elegant – especially for long hallways – while matching wall and ceiling light fixtures from the same product range can be combined unobtrusively to provide sufficient light without getting in the way. Consider the height of the ceiling too. If you’re designing a new build from scratch, recessed wall lighting is a stylish way to get around that, but otherwise opt for a flush ceiling fitting suitable for hallways with low ceilings.

Recommended: Zaragoza pendant and wall light set

It’s easy to see why the Zaragoza range is so popular, not just in the hallway but elsewhere in the house too. The combination of classic styling, polished chrome finish and simple yet elegant cream, red or black ridged shades makes this an enduring favourite.

The 400mm Three-Light Pendant looks understated, but with three 60W bulb fittings it’s more than up to the task of lighting the dimmest of hallways, and can be partnered by the equally capable semi-circular Standard Wall Light.

The Three-Light Table Light continues in the same vein should you be looking to break up the visual impact of a longer hallway with a well-placed table, while you can add a touch of class to wider or irregularly shaped hallways or entrance halls with the simple yet stylish Standard Floor Light.

Conclusion

Choosing the interior lighting for any new build involves taking a good number of practical considerations into account, but make the right decisions from an informed perspective and there’s still plenty of room for expression and creativity.

This concludes part one of our focus on lighting a new build 2-bedroom home. In part 2 we focus on the bedrooms and bathrooms and in part 3 we concentrate on kitchen/diner lighting as well as other interior and exterior spaces.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, news and advice, please check out Lighting advice.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.