Popular Lighting For 2010

It seems almost unbelievable that April has arrived already. The worst winter for decades is behind us and Spring has finally arrived. The colours in the natural world around us are changing, from the flowers on the ground to the leaves in the trees, but what about the changes indoors? The first few months of the year are a great time to re-decorate. So what has been popular as an interior lighting choice so far in 2010?

The Grossmann Leuchten Magic 52-653-163 has been an excellent seller. For those who aren’t familiar with Grossmann Leuchten, they are a German manufacturer of high quality lighting. Every single one of Grossmann’s lights has been designed and made by a Grossmann employee. Nothing is outsourced and this has led to really high levels of build quality and inspiring design. It has also allowed Grossmann to keep a strong and consistent brand identity. It is easy to recognise a Grossmann lighting product by it’s sharp modern design and it’s beautifully crafted sheets of metal and glass. The design of this particular light from the Grossmann ‘Magic’ range is a minimalist rectangular design. It has a flat plate of glass mounted to a small square piece of metal surrounding the bulb. Upon first inspection, the first thing you notice is the effect of the beam of light up and down the wall. But when you look more closely, you realise that the strong and well defined shadow is equally as important, and just as striking as the beams of light.

Another area that has been popular has been LED technology. In February we saw Philips release their 2nd generation of LED lamps. Complete with new heat-sinks which allow the heat from the LEDs to dissipate much more efficiently from the lamp. This increases the lamp life to 15,000 hours which works out roughly to be around 15 years with average use. Previous LED offerings have made similar life expectancy claims but have in reality fallen short. Philips’ large investment, combined with their enthusiasm for these new lamps, lead us to believe that they really are going to last the distance. The lamps look and feel like quality items and the light quality is fantastic too. The other massive draw for the LEDs is their energy efficiency. For instance, the 35 watt equivalent GU10 only uses 3 watts of energy. This represents a massive saving to the home owner’s energy bill over the life of the lamp.

In the past we have seen a resistance from the general public towards the different forms of low energy lighting. The low quality light levels of the early low energy fluorescent lamps put people off. Gradually over the years the quality has improved and now, at last, we have a light source that is going to outshine the original incandescents. I think 2010 is going to be the year of the LED.

To view a full range of Grossmann or LED lighting products visit The lighting Centre in Guildford or www.lightingcentre.co.uk