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But new styles have brought track lighting back to a well-deserved prominence in lighting design schemes.

Track light designs generally use a thin, rectangular support with a channel down the center. That allows for a sturdy hold on the lamps while providing a means for moving them along the rail. That gives flexibility to direct the lights exactly where they’re wanted.

That directionality is key to using track lights well. Because of their nature, they don’t make for a good option for overall ambient lighting. But they’re perfect for their intended applications: accent or task lights.

‘Task lights’ are just what the phrase suggests. They’re lights to allow someone to accomplish a task that requires illumination. That can be anything from working at a bench to assemble a ship in a bottle to giving adequate light to make a large drawing.

Accent lights, by contrast, are intended to provide one or more spots to illuminate a wall, a work of art or a piece of furniture. Sometimes an accent light simply provides an atmosphere, where track lights provide a light display against an otherwise plain surface. In other applications they may highlight a fine stereo or direct light onto a decorative element on a wall or table.

Track lights can do all that. Today, they do it with more style choices than ever. Thanks to advances in CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights), as well as better output and lower prices for LEDs, track lights are available in more options than in the past.

Not only do those bulb options create different lighting effects and save electricity, they produce much lower heat than incandescents or halogens. That opens up more design choices for shades and covers. When the bulb creates no risk of melting plastic or heating metal to a dangerous temperature, track heads can be smaller, use different shapes and materials, and offer a much larger array of design choices.

Still, many traditional design principles of good track lighting continue to apply.

Since their purpose is chiefly accent or task lighting, track lights should be placed about 18-36 inches above the surface to be highlighted. If they’re directed downward, it’s important to keep them angled away from viewers eyes. If they’re predominantly angled up, they have to be close enough to bounce ample light without being so close as to create just a bright spot. The figure recommended is a comfortable compromise, adjust it for your particular application.

Keep in mind that, depending on the exact circumstances, deep shadows can result from track lights. That may be just what is wanted in particular applications, or it may not. Every individual room will require using good taste to get the lighting scheme just right. Fortunately, that never goes out of style.

The most obvious application, and one in wide use today, is to turn on outdoor floodlights when anyone approaches within the sensor’s range. Studies confirm common sense that a well-lit home is less vulnerable to a home invader than one that has large dark areas near points of entry.

Adding motion sensors and/or motion sensor lights is an effective way to solve that problem. They trigger the lights on approach, which has two advantages. A light that comes on unexpectedly tends to startle the unwanted visitor. That provides extra motivation to change their plans and move on to an easier target. Homeowners also save money on electricity by not having high-wattage bulbs burn all night long when and where they’re not really needed.

That goal can be accomplished with separate motion sensors that are connected to a whole system, one that includes lights, a horn or other security components. Or, as is the case in many fixtures, the motion sensor can be integrated into the lamp housing itself. Both are effective, though in some cases separate motion sensors have a greater range and angle of coverage.

But security isn’t the only reason that motion sensors can be a huge benefit. They can supply extra safety and convenience, as well.

You pull up into the driveway or walk outside on a dark night. You can’t see a thing. That toy or bicycle is just waiting there for you to step on. That low garden fence you always forget about is ripe for bumping into. Motion sensors can turn on the lights at your approach and prevent accidents.

They can also make it much easier to turn on the lights when you just need a brief light. You don’t have to be near the switch, you just approach or wave an arm and on pop the lights. Now you can find your keys, put away that pesky toy or just make it into the house without any trouble.

Many of the same considerations apply to indoor motion sensors, too. But indoor sensors come in an even wider variety of types and styles.

Existing wall switches or outlets can easily be converted to contain motion sensors. That makes it very easy to have a system that turns on the light when you enter, then turns it off when you leave.

Motion sensors can be integrated with hallway lamp sconces to provide illumination when you enter. You save electricity and bulb life by having the light not on when you’re not there.

Look into the full range of motion sensors available: wireless, infrared, ultrasonic, weatherproof and many more.

Images on large HDTV or projection TVs look best when the lighting scheme is done right. The most obvious guideline is to avoid creating any glare off the screen, shoving light into the eyes of those viewing it. That suggests putting the lights behind the TV. But that introduces the possibility of having them shine directly into the viewers’ eyes.

There are many ways out of the dilemma.

Track lighting is a typical and very effective method. A row of focused lights pointed at the wall can bounce light into the room. That lights the area, but diffuses the result to achieve a good balance of the need for illumination versus avoiding glare. Track lights come in a hundred styles, suitable for every decorating need. But ensure that you place and use them correctly in order to avoid a number of possible drawbacks.

High wattage incandescent track light bulbs can produce high heat. Apart from the chance of harming the track light fixture, a problem easily solved by using the recommended wattage, an incandescent can dry out paint quickly. That produces peeling and discoloration. Halogen bulbs, in combination with a dimmer, can create the right illumination, but they may still produce the same effects if left on for long periods. Consider LEDs.

LEDs will provide a bright spot from each bulb but consume very little electricity by comparison to other types. They cost a bit more up front, but they last practically forever. Many will illuminate for 10 years or more. That makes them efficient and low cost over the long run.

Accent lights provide another key element of the lighting design for the home entertainment section of the home. That all-important ‘movie theater’ look that enhances the mood is best achieved with accent lights.

Look at what’s on the walls the next time you go to a smaller movie theater, one that seats about 50 people, say. Some fixtures are rather dull, others are elegant. But they all give an indirect lighting effect that helps create the right atmosphere.

Equipment will look better when accent lights are used correctly, too. Good home theater systems and stereos can run into thousands of dollars. That’s not just electronics to produce images and sound. That’s furniture, and high-end furniture at that. It deserves the best lighting to enhance that stylish look the designers spent such effort creating.

Keep accent lights directed away from the eyes. Direct them onto equipment when you want to create a spotlight effect to emulate a showroom. Angle them away from the gear when you want to create dramatic looking shadows. In either case, make sure the placement doesn’t interfere with the ability to use the controls. Accents shouldn’t overwhelm the effect of task lighting and you won’t always use the remote.

Provide your home entertainment area with good lighting and you’ll create a practical scheme with just the right mood for eating popcorn or sipping that glass of wine while you enjoy the show.

Incandescent bulbs acquired the name because what they do is, in essence, burn (i.e. incandesce, or glow with heat). A thin tungsten filament sits inside a partial vacuum. Electricity passes through the wire and, because it offers resistance to the flow of electrons, it heats up. Quickly, the temperature rises enough to make the metal glow.

The interior of the incandescent bulb is usually coated with a diffusing material to cut down on the bright glare of a clear, glass bulb. Though, of course, there are many clear glass lightbulbs around. That doesn’t alter the basic way the bulb operates, but it does change the look.

That look is chiefly the result of the lightbulb’s ability to closely emulate the wavelengths of light given off by the sun. That’s determined to a large degree by the temperature of its surface, about 6,000 Kelvin. That’s roughly equal to 5,700 Celsius, since K = C + 273. That’s about 10,300F. That similarity is measured by something called color temperature.

Interior bulbs will often be a bit lower in color temperature, more toward the bluish than the yellow of sunlight. But don’t confuse the color temperature with the actual temperature. Incandescent bulbs typically glow at anywhere from 120F-200F (49C-93C) or higher. Water boils at 220F or 100C, so that gives you an idea how hot one can be.

By contrast, a fluorescent bulb is much cooler because it generates light in an entirely different way.

Inside the fluorescent bulb are electrodes and a thin vapor, usually mercury and a few trace gases. A voltage is applied to one of the electrodes at one end in a long tube and electrons are shot out toward the other end, bumping into the mercury atoms along the way. When they do, they give energy to its electrons. When the mercury atoms release that energy again, it appears in the form of light.

That process generates much less waste energy in the form of heat. That provides the primary reason that fluorescent bulbs are so much more efficient. In other words they can produce about the same amount of light (measured in lumens) for the same energy put into them because so much less is wasted in the form of heat.

Remember that incandescent bulbs glow because the filament is white hot. That produces a lot of heat for the amount of light given off. The result to you, the consumer, is you’re paying for a great deal more electricity over the long run to heat a wire in the case of incandescents.

On the other hand, fluorescents don’t produce the same color temperature or spectrum as incandescents. Modern CFLs come close, but they still don’t have quite the same look as an ‘ordinary’ light bulb. As a result, fluorescents have, for decades, been reserved for areas where that look isn’t regarded as so important, such as the garage.

Still, the initial cost of a fluorescent bulb is 3-10 times a standard 75 or 100-watt bulb. So, the trade off becomes electricity cost savings over the lifetime of the bulb (about 6,000-15,000 hours for fluorescent, 750-1,000 hours for incandescents) versus up front investment costs. Over their lifetime, a fluorescent saves an average of about 70% on the total cost, including purchase price and electricity bill.

While recent discussion about the environment has entered the debate, in fact the contribution of light bulbs is so small it’s hardly worth mentioning. Much larger factors, such as industrial gases, auto exhaust and other outputs are many thousands of times larger than the total produced by home lighting.

So, the old pros and cons still apply. At least, they did until LEDs entered the picture… But that’s another topic.

Where an interior room angle is, say, 90 degrees the outside corner is also thought of as 90 degrees. But, measured the same way, it’s actually 270 degrees. That difference produces just one of the many wrinkles inherent in an exterior lighting scheme. Add to that the presence of bushes, trees, few if any enclosed hallways or spaces and you have a decidedly different environment to illuminate.

Security is one of the most basic concerns in many exterior lighting schemes though it’s rarely the first.

Deep shadows produced by nooks, bushes, trashcans and other common outdoor home features present a challenge. But flood lamps are designed to solve that exact problem. Place them on both corners of a wall, angled inward and there will be very few places for potential home invaders to hide.

Add motion sensors near points of entry – low windows, small garage doors, the front and rear entrances and so on – and you can have a system that saves energy and looks more low key, but still covers your home. Many come with timers or other features that allow you to ensure they don’t come on during the day or at other undesired times.

All of the above may be categorized under the heading of ambient lighting. Clearly, though, the outdoor scheme is very different than providing general room illumination indoors.

But home protection isn’t the only reason to add lights to the exterior. Convenience can be important, too. That’s where task lighting comes into play.

You drive up onto the driveway then walk up to your front door. That journey might be sufficiently illuminated by street lights. But trees, rural neighborhoods and other factors may cause them to be absent or inadequate. A child’s toy on the sidewalk can be a hazard. Finding keys and the front door lock can be annoying without good coverage of the walkway and entrance. So, task lights that give adequate light to the driveway, walkways and front door become important.

There are times when you’ll need to do minor repairs when it’s dusk or dark. A broken window may not wait until morning. Dusk may be the only time you have to finish a section of garden. Good task lighting can provide you with permanent or mobile solutions.

But when people think of exterior lighting, accent lights are usually uppermost in mind. Giving the home that finished look is often best accomplished by placing lamps at a dozen spots around the house.

The lawn is a popular spot, since both grass and walkways can be covered by the correct choice and placement of lawn lights. Small solar-powered lamps have become an often selected option, and for good reason. Solar lawn lights allow for wire-free, easy installation that never requires batteries.

Wall accents are another frequently found feature of exterior lighting schemes, thanks to their ability to provide focus. Small indirect spots can give a home that ‘looks like a quality TV commercial’ touch. Exterior wall sconces come in a hundred different designs. That makes it easy to integrate them with the rest of the home design or add decorative accents that suit any individual taste.

Invest in exterior lighting and you’ll be more secure, walk and work with confidence, and add a beautiful illuminated look to your home.

Actually Edison didn’t invent the light bulb. He improved it, devising one in 1879 that burned for 40 hours, achieving 1,220 hours a year later (a number a little better than modern incandescent bulbs, 750-1,000 hours). GE patented tungsten-filament bulbs in 1906.

But all these still require a source of electricity. Batteries made the situation better, but they still have to be replaced periodically. They’re also not great for certain applications, such as the lawn where sprinklers can get them wet.

Enter: solar-powered lawn lights.

Though the initial cost is sometimes a bit higher than other lawn lamps, they make up for it in several ways. Since they’re stand-alone units, no wiring is required. No need to dig trenches and plug into the house current. They also outdo battery-powered units because, as noted, there’s no risk of internal decay. They’re well sealed.

With that degree of independence and functionality, solar lawn lights can be placed anywhere. If you later decide to expand the lawn, adding more is a snap. Just shove them into the new ground and you’re good to go. Ditto, if you decide to turn part of the yard into a walkway or patio. Pulling up solar-powered lawn lights entails no risk of hitting the wires and no need to re-wire an existing design.

That flexibility makes it ultra-easy to move lights. It makes it just as easy to replace them. They can last for 10,000 hours or more (that’s almost three years if they burn 10 hours a night, every night). But ultimately the batteries will need to be replaced. That’s super easy since you just pull one up and insert the new ones. With the rate at which people move houses today, they may well last as long as you own the house.

The Ni-Cad or NiMh batteries used in these units today have little or no ‘memory’ so they’ll recharge fully over and over again, even when the light doesn’t run out of power before dawn arrives. That can be an issue in certain Northern climates where, during the summer, there’s only a few hours of darkness.

By the same token, there may not be enough sunlight hours to fully recharge the batteries. The lights may not burn all night. But many people set a timer on wired lights to turn off well before dawn. So, as with any option, solar lighting is an individual choice.

There’s no need to turn them off and on, or even to set a timer. Sensors cause them to charge as long as there’s sunlight and to come on when the ambient light dips to levels at dusk. Most modern solar lamps will produce almost 7 watts for 8-10 hours. They can achieve that because most use highly efficient, low wattage consumption LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs.

They’re a great option, durable and attractive. Give solar lawn lights a try.

True, many home lighting situations are as easy as that. But if you want to get the most out of your budget, and also to design a more pleasing and practical home environment, a little more thought is useful.

Lighting the bedroom, for example, can be as quick as the scenario described above. But you won’t be getting the maximum value out of your lighting scheme. If you want lighting that offers better reading, with less eye strain, a little designing is needed. If you want to create an elegant atmosphere for evening that is still functional in the morning, a little homework is helpful.

Even when you’re lighting the exterior of the home both esthetic and functional factors come into play. Home security requires careful placement of just the right kind of lights. Motion sensors are a great addition. Decorative accents to make your home look its best have to be carefully selected and optimally placed.

The deck is another opportunity to make your home shine, literally and figuratively. Post lights, recessed lighting and many other options are available to give that often used structure just the right illumination. Whether providing a safe walk along the surface, or a decorative glow along the path to the pool, deck lights can add a stellar look to an otherwise ordinary area.

Indoors, track lighting can perform a similar function, even though using very different means. Highlighting a fine piece of furniture or wall decoration is one popular purpose for track lighting. But they can even add dramatic spots and shadows to dress up an area where no objects reside at all.

Naturally, these design elements can be enhanced by using colored lights. But going one step further to give control over placement and intensity is another way to optimize your lighting design. Movable track lights, dimmer switches and many other forms of control increase the beauty and usefulness of these elements.

When planning all that activity it’s helpful to know a little bit about the various kinds of lamp and fixture. You’ll want to find out about incandescents, CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) and LEDs, along with halogens and other lighting types. That will help you select the look and function you want within the budget you project.

It’s also useful, both for the best results and for safety reasons, to know something about basic electricity. If you confuse a watt with how bright your light is, learn about lumens and color temperature. If you get nervous every time you hear the word voltage, do a little homework and take the edge off.

Lighting is one of the areas of do-it-yourself home projects that don’t take a lot of experience or special tools. A good eye for what looks good, combined with some elementary information, can get you well down the road of creating just the look you want and need.

Enter LEDs.

Light emitting diodes have been used for over 40 years, first making their commercial appearance in watches and small clocks. But for almost that same length of time, they gave off too little light and of limited color to be useful for home illumination. No one could read or cook by a dim red light.

But LED bulbs have come a long way in recent years. While still much more expensive than an incandescent bulb, they have overcome many of the disadvantages of fluorescents. They produce bright, natural-spectrum white light that can illuminate a medium-sized area with one bulb. Actually the bulbs are made of multiple LEDs in one enclosure.

And, not the least consideration, they last practically forever. A LED bulb can burn for over 50,000 hours. Some are rated at 60,000 hours. Even if in use for as much as 10 hours per day (4 hours/day is closer to average), that works out to almost 14 years of use.

Add up all the money spent on incandescents – which last from 750-1,000 hours – and the total savings is substantial. If a 75-watt bulb costs $1 and an LED bulb costs $50, most will opt for the incandescent. But if the LED lasts 50 times longer, you break even. That doesn’t even include the time spent picking up bulbs, changing them and so forth.

Apart from the initial outlay costs, the difference in electricity use is equally dramatic, but in the LED’s favor. Keep in mind that the standard label on an incandescent is how much power it consumes, not how much light it puts out. A 60-watt incandescent bulb puts out somewhat less than 900 lumens.

A LED bulb costing roughly $50 is available that is the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent in terms of the light given off. Yet, it consumes only 2 watts of electricity. Multiply that electricity savings by 4 hours per day over 10 years and the cost savings will far outweigh the cost of the LED bulb. At 10 cents/kWh, the total savings over 10 years is about $350. So, the bulb will pay for itself in about 18 months.

At the same time, a LED bulb runs cooler so there’s no danger of burning as so often happens with incandescents. A 100-watt bulb placed in a socket designed for a 40-watt will burn the covering plastic shade in a matter of hours or less. Also, how many times have you singed your skin when touching an ordinary bulb? That doesn’t happen with LED bulbs.

The color spectrum of LED bulbs is also superior. While incandescents do a good job or providing a reasonable emulation of natural sunlight, LEDs are far better. Incandescents are somewhat yellow, LEDs are white and much closer to the color temperature of natural daylight. And, unlike fluorescent bulbs, LEDs contain no mercury, which is hazardous if the bulb breaks.

Still LEDs have some drawbacks, apart from the higher cost. They don’t currently put out as much light per bulb as a single incandescent so it may require more than one for particular lighting applications. They light a little less than CFL bulbs.

Since LEDs are more directional, they’ll do better in reading lamps, recessed ceiling lamps and other such applications than as general ambient light. But where a long-lasting and/or always-on bulb is needed they can be very cost-effective.

Even such a simple act as parking the car and walking into the house can be compromised by poor lighting design. Bumping into low shelves, tripping over toys and many other common garage accidents could be avoided with proper lighting.

But how can you achieve that?

The process starts by first recognizing the difference between wattage and illumination. A 100-watt incandescent bulb draws 100 watts of power from the electrical outlet. That’s how the number gets assigned. The bulb consumes 100-watts. That’s only indirectly related to how much light is given off, measured in lumens.

A standard 100-watt bulb gives off about 1,740 lumens. By comparison, a pair of 4-foot 54-watt fluorescent bulbs, the type commonly found in garage lighting fixtures, can provide anywhere between 5,000-8,800 lumens, depending on the design. That’s a considerable difference in efficiency, which is one of the major reasons fluorescent bulbs are so much cheaper to use.

In many garages, that ordinary 2-bulb fluorescent fixture may well be adequate, but usually just barely. Any garage with shelves, corners, or – most especially- a workbench will need much more.

As in any other area of the home, there are three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent. Accent lights are just what they sound like, lights used to highlight some feature, such as a decorative wall painting. Ambient light provides the overall illumination for the room. Task lights are especially important in a garage that is used for anything more than just to store the car.

Even something as simple as storing tools and tool boxes, gardening supplies and the like will benefit greatly from task lights. Imagine going into the garage to pull out the right chemical and grabbing weed killer instead of plant food. That means a trip back to the garage for the right stuff. Grab a flat head screwdriver instead of a Phillips head and you have the same problem.

Good ambient light is still important, though. No one should have to feel their way around the garage to avoid bumping into things. Slips and falls are more common in the garage than they are on indoor floors, even though both are about equally slick. Installing lights that provide good ambient light are a small investment to minimize that risk.

Finally, though it’s not often considered very much, a garage too creates a mood. Compare the dark hole of many home garages to the well lit atmosphere of a professional car dealership garage. Safety is one factor. But having lights to lift the spirits is just as important, especially since many garages have few or no windows.

Design a lighting scheme for the garage with the same attention to goals as you would any other room in the house. If you spend time there, it’s worth lighting right.