The Smartest Way to Use Sky Lighting in Handcrafted Log Homes

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I love sky lighting in a log home. Some owners do not want to spend the money on them. While not cheap, they add a whole new dimension to your home. Have you ever complained about an electric bill? Are some of your rooms darker than you would like them to be? Then let me explain why I changed my attitude about sky lighting in handcrafted log homes a few years ago.

The Why of Skylights In a Log Home

Log homes are built of solid logs. We all know that, right? The logs serve as the finished interior and exterior of the home. No one, unless they don’t know anything about log homes, installs drywall over the logs or paints the logs. Logs are supposed to stay natural looking. Paint can actually ruin logs because paint does not allow the logs to ‘breathe’. So the first factor to remember in your handcrafted log home is logs are brown and will not naturally reflect the light like a white wall will. A sky light allows more sunlight to spill into a room. Also the orientation of the light is important. Windows allow rays to shine in from the side while sky lighting brings the rays in from directly overhead.

Where You Find Sky Lighting In a Log Cabin

I have sky lighting in both of my bathrooms, in the center of the hallway, and in the open loft. The hallway is an interesting space because there is no outside natural light. Bathrooms are an area where natural lighting is the best for putting on makeup. Also during day hours the bathroom bulbs do not even need to be turned on. Our loft does not have any dormers or gable windows. The skylight allows natural light to still illuminate this room. Also for the loft we installed a vented, or opening, skylight. Now on hot summer days we can reduce the amount of time we run the central air by opening the skylight. Because the open skylight allows much of the hot air to pass out of our cabin and not get trapped high in the cathedral ceilings.

Areas I Would Like To Add Skylights

Areas of my log cabin home where I would like to incorporate skylights are in my great room and master bedroom. I think I would love to lay in bed and watch the clouds roll by. A few times when I ‘camped’ in our loft with the kids I loved to lay there and see the constellations bright against the black velvet Montana sky.

Over all I think skylights save money, add charm, and over all enhance handcrafted log home.

By Sue Lemmon Cowboy Log Homes

Use Lights With Good UL Ratings

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When you set things up the right way, you can get a lot out of your outdoor string lights. You can have a lot of fun with patio string lights as well.  The nice thing about lights is they are really useful. The not so nice thing is that if they are set up wrong, you will run into a lot of problems that you wouldn’t want to run into. When you are careful, you will have lights that are very functional. When you aren’t sure what to do with them, you will run into all kinds of problems. The UL rating on a light can tell you what that specific light’s ability to handle nature is. A light with a bad UL rating is not a good thing for you.

If you have a light with a high UL rating, it will be able to stand up to all kinds of problems. If it has a bad UL rating, you might be better off using it only indoors, or possibly using it only in very very good days. Whatever your problem is, you will want to be careful with what you set up. when you set things up the right way, your lights can be really useful. When you set things up the wrong way, you can run into all kinds of problems. That is why it is important that you set things up the right way. Getting things working is always a good idea.

Good lighting fixtures will work well with you. If you aren’t careful, you can run into all kinds of problems. If you are careful, you will be able to get a lot done. A good UL rating will tell you whether or not you have a light that is suitable for outside. If it isn’t, then you may want to look into getting another light, and that can be tricky.

The Benefits Of LED MR16 Spot Illumination

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LED MR16 lamps are common substitutions halogens lamps both equally in residential and also commercial enterprise utilization. The valid reason for their worldwide recognition is that the unique, halogen MR16 lights were normally utilized in households, and LEDs can quickly substitute a great number of them. At the same time, LEDs have significantly better features and also a lot of benefits, contrasted to their halogen version.

The best way to grasp and also appreciate the advantageous abilities of the LED substitutions, we have to look at the halogen MR16 lights in short. The halogen MR16 light bulb has a reflecting surface: the innermost portion of the light is made up of pressed glass or aluminium in more affordable versions. The glass surface is frequently under pressure, which makes it so easy to blow up. The reflecting surface manages both the trend as well as the disperse of the illumination, increasing the brightness of the lamp fixture. The bulb is obtainable with a variety of beam angles of light right from narrow degrees of 10-to-60, nevertheless, the normally utilized spotlight is approximately 45 degrees. The colour temperature of the halogen MR16 is really warm, yellowish illumination, and is without difficulty adjusted with dimming.

The foremost disadvantages of the halogen light is that they have a reduced conversion rate of power, switching lots of it to heat rather than of brightness. So, they have a higher energy usage along with so much heat given off, hazardous not merely to lay a hand on but also to be positioned near to textiles or even wood for the period of operation. Halogen illuminations are factors of fire threat in almost any home, and should be built and also operated with good care. The halogen lamp fixture gives out a significant amount of ultraviolet light hazardous to human health, and is also acutely sensitive to shakes and also shock. Both these troubles are somewhat solved with a glass cover which filters the majority of the ultraviolet light and perhaps performs as an explosion shield.

LED MR16 spotlights, however, do not take a blow from the vast majority of the listed above disadvantages. Though, LED lamps do not have the reflective inner surface, they are called MR spots for the reason that they are substitutions of the early reflectors. Beam angle, which is in the same way varied with LED lights too, is usually managed within the optics of the diode. Colour temperature is far more varied when compared with halogen lights. Cooler white colour temperatures is often closer to natural light, and will not colour the room yellowish. Likewise, coloured versions of MR16 LED lights are on the market.

LED lamps altogether have the characteristics of cool running, eco-friendly type, longer life duration (normally around 30 000 – 50 000 hours), and higher power LEDs can function possibly even 24/7. LEDs are not really sensitive to shakes or shocks, and even operate at low temperature too. The most noticeable positive aspect of LEDs is their extremely inexpensive consumption of power. Since LEDs switch 90% of power to light, they give off considerably less heat, and mean no or hardly any fire hazard in homes. LED lamps are available too with GU5.3 for lower voltage and also GU10 for mains fittings.

For LEDs performing at reduced voltage, the operating power source has an important significance. Electronic transformers applied for halogens are often unsuitable for running LEDs for two main reasons. Several transformers need a minimum voltage to get started operating, that is not drawn by LEDs using just a small part of the power in comparison with halogens. The further reason is actually more essential from the viewpoint of LEDs, considering the fact that electronic transformers can damage the LED lamps. Halogens tend not to require stabilized current, while LEDs are extra-sensitive to alterations in voltage or current. If you are swapping your halogen MR16 lights, it is better to purchase LED suitable transformers as well to ensure their longevity.