Lighting Installation near you

The FTC's label is the most useful thing on the shelf, because it lets you compare unlike bulbs on the same terms. Brightness is given in average initial lumens, and the FTC's consumer guidance puts the distinction simply: lumens measure brightness while watts measure energy, so a modern bulb drawing a fraction of the power can match the output of an old incandescent. Buy to the lumen figure, not to the wattage you are used to asking for.

Light appearance is the entry that decides how a room feels. The label plots it as correlated color temperature on a scale from 2,600 K to 6,600 K, warmer and more yellow at the low end, cooler and bluer at the high end. The practical rule is consistency: mixing color temperatures within one sightline is the most common reason a newly lit room looks wrong even though every fixture works. Decide on a temperature for the living spaces before buying anything, and keep spares so replacements match.

Life is stated in years on the same label, calculated from an assumed pattern of use, which makes it a comparison tool rather than a promise about your house. It matters most where changing a lamp is difficult: a stairwell, a vaulted ceiling, a sealed exterior fixture or an integrated fixture whose light source cannot be replaced at all. For those positions, ask what happens at end of life before you buy, because an integrated fixture that fails is a replacement job rather than a bulb.

A good installer starts with the room rather than the catalog: what tasks happen where, what has to be lit for safety, which surfaces will reflect or swallow light, and where people will stand relative to the fixtures. From that comes a layout and a switching plan, and only then a fixture list. Deciding the switching early matters, because adding a second switch position later usually means opening a wall, while including it at the outset is a minor addition.

The physical work is mostly access. In an unfinished basement or an accessible attic, cable can often be run with little disruption; in a finished two-story house it may mean fishing through closed cavities, cutting small openings and, where framing or fire blocking is in the way, cutting larger ones. Agree in writing who patches, primes and paints, because that is the most common source of friction on an otherwise successful lighting job.

Finish with the details that get skipped. Confirm that each box is rated for what it now carries, especially where a fan replaced a light; confirm that the dimmer or sensor is compatible with the lamps installed, since mismatched pairings cause the flicker, buzz and limited dimming range that people blame on the bulbs; and have the installer demonstrate every switch, sensor and scene before leaving. Keep model numbers for lamps and controls, because matching them later is much easier with the paperwork than with a photograph.

Over-lamping is the problem with real consequences. CPSC's Home Electrical Safety Checklist asks whether each bulb is the appropriate wattage for its fixture, advises using a bulb of 60 watts or less when the rating is unknown and 25 watt bulbs in unmarked ceiling fixtures that take miniature bulbs, and warns that a higher wattage bulb than recommended may overheat the fixture, its wiring or nearby combustible materials and lead to a fire. Check the label inside the fixture before buying, and remember that the rating refers to the fixture's limit, not to the brightness you are entitled to: a more efficient lamp can give far more light within the same limit.

Flicker and buzz in newly installed lighting are usually a control problem rather than a fixture fault. A dimmer designed for an older resistive load may not match modern lamps, several lamp types on one dimmer rarely behave together, and a dimmer loaded below its minimum can misbehave as badly as one loaded above its maximum. The fix is generally a control matched to the lamps, not a return trip for more lamps.

Some symptoms are wiring rather than lighting, and they are the ones to report immediately. A fixture or switch that is warm, a switch that buzzes or sparks when operated, scorch marks at a lamp holder, or lights that flicker on one circuit while the rest of the house is steady all point at a connection rather than a bulb. The US Fire Administration's household guidance is to keep anything flammable away from lamps and light fixtures, to plug major appliances directly into wall outlets, and to replace anything with a damaged or loose cord.

Changing a fixture on an existing box is the least regulated electrical work there is, and in most places needs no permit. Adding circuits, adding or moving switches, running new cable for a recessed layout, and exterior lighting generally do. Washington's Department of Labor and Industries states that electrical work in the state generally requires a permit and an inspection with a few exceptions, and that the permit is bought by the electrical contractor doing the work or by the owner who will actually do it, so ask the local building department which side of the line your job falls on before, not after.

The requirements that apply to the installation come from the edition of the National Electrical Code your jurisdiction has adopted, which is not always the newest one. Washington adopted the 2023 edition under chapter 296-46B WAC and has said the 2026 edition takes over on December 31, 2026, and Nebraska's State Electrical Division adopted the 2023 code from August 1, 2024. Editions have also progressively extended where arc-fault and ground-fault protection is required, and CPSC records that the code first required arc-fault protection for bedroom circuits in new residential construction effective January 2002 and noted then that later editions could expand that coverage, which is precisely what has happened.

Licensing, as everywhere in the United States, is set by the state. Texas requires non-exempt electrical work to be done by a licensed individual working through a licensed electrical contractor. California's C-10 classification covers a contractor who places, installs, erects or connects electrical wires, fixtures, appliances, apparatus, raceways and conduits. Verify the number with the board, and if a lighting designer or a handyman is coordinating the project, ask specifically who holds the electrical licence for the wiring.