When I moved into my house in 2003, it was apparent that not much thought had gone into the design layout of both the interior and exterior lighting. One of my first orders of business was to remedy this deficiency. And in doing so, a few unconventional lighting perks were added to the mix, resulting in an enhancement in both curb appeal and function.
My biggest pet peeve is the necessary mid-sleep trip to the washroom. It isn’t the need to go that is so bothersome to me — it’s the sudden light that burns the retinas once the switch is flicked as you enter the washroom.
Although my master bathroom expansion included several instances of new lighting, such as pot lights above the Jacuzzi tub and separate ceiling lights in the shower, the existing portion of the space where both the toilet and urinal reside was lit only by the vanity light fixture — three brilliant 250-watt halogen bulbs. After enduring a few months of pre-dawn "blinding the eyeballs" experiences, I figured there must be a better and more controlled way to light my bathroom.
The obvious solution was to replace the existing bathroom light switch with a fader. So I visited my local Home Depot to hunt down a fader best suited to my application.
It was during this visit that I stumbled across digital timers that, once installed, can be programmed on half-hour increments during the course of a 24-hour day.
A small lightbulb of my own went off inside my head — what if I introduced ceiling pot lights above both the toilet and urinal areas in my bathroom that would be controlled by both the timer and fader? This would allow me to control not only when the lights would automatically turn on and off, but I could then set the amount of lighting required to faintly illuminate these areas for when nature calls in the middle of the night.
A double electrical box was introduced above the toilet, and power was run to it via 14/2 wire. This first powered the timer, which in turn supplied power to the fader, which then sent this directed feed to the new pot lights. I programmed the timer to only supply power to the fader between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The fader was then adjusted to just barely supply enough power to the pot lights to dimly light the area. This worked like a charm — no more blinding trips to the washroom!
Because this timer/fader combination worked so well, I also introduced this as an esthetic night-time feature on the exterior of my house. There are half-moon or semicircle windows at the top of both exterior doors and all garage doors, on the second floor above the main entrance, at the top of the studio window of the gable above the outer garages of my triple-attached garage, at the peak of both north and south gables and within each of the two decorative dormers above the second-storey windows of the main portion of my home.
Interior lighting naturally lights up most windows when interior lights are on. For the windows that are simply there for show, I decided to introduce faux lighting behind these windows to continue the esthetic design that, once again, would be controlled by the timer/fader combination.
By doing this, I can control when these half-moon windows light up, and how brightly, giving a somewhat of a spooky Amityville Horror effect during the hours from dusk to dawn — which I think is still pretty cool, even after all these years.
There has since been a multitude of advancements in lighting control. Switches nowadays can be connected via Bluetooth, and controlled via cellphone or tablet apps using a Wi-Fi connection. It truly is amazing how easily you can manipulate the lighting inside and outside your home. To obtain the desired lighting result, always assess your lighting needs. Quantity of lighting instances and placement is most important.
How you control them simply depends upon the switches you choose — so make your selection wisely.
bossenterprise@outlook.com
