Survey results: Home lighting
We recently undertook a survey of UK residents to find out how they used lighting in their home, and we asked how important lighting is to enable them to do their daily activities.
As we are based in Yorkshire, it was inevitable that the majority of survey respondents were based in this region. There were 65% from Yorkshire & the Humber, with the remaining 35% from a wide range of regions across the UK.
About the survey respondents
To provide the group of 108 respondents with a clearer identity, 84% are homeowners with or without a mortgage, a further 14% are renting and 2% have other living arrangements. There were 85 females, 19 males and a further 4 who preferred not to disclose gender information.
68% of respondents only redecorated a room at home less than once every 2 years, another 23% redecorated one room per year and the remaining 9% redecorated more than one room per year. Those aged 18-35 redecorated the most, 17% of this age group redecorated more than one room every year. However, this isn't a surprise as this group are most likely to be undertaking renovation projects in their first homes.
Natural sunlight
Overall, 94% of people surveyed knew which side of their home received the most natural sunlight in the morning.
Out of the homeowners, 97% knew which direction the morning sun shines and of the renters 93% could state which. According to Ideal Home's blog sun mapping is the route to a brighter and happier home.
Installing better lighting
61% of all respondents replied that their home would benefit from having better lighting installed. If you think you might like some help choosing appropriate lighting for your home, workspace or business, please get in touch with the team at Studio 15 Interiors. View information about our packages.
92% of the age group 18-35 agreed they needed better lighting at home. In comparison, out of the overall group of people from Yorkshire and Humber, only 59% thought they needed better lighting at home.
Which rooms need the best light
In terms of which rooms in the home people feel that having good lighting is important, the majority stated that good lighting in the kitchen is extremely important (63%). Those aged 56 and over felt the most strongly about having good lighting in the kitchen (66%).
58% of all respondents thought that having good lighting in a bathroom was extremely important. 61% of females felt it was extremely important, compared to only 47% of males.
Looking at the other rooms in the home, 52% of people feel that good lighting is only moderately important in a dining room and 57% think it's moderately important for bedrooms too.
It was a closer division of thought regarding good lighting in a living room - with 54% thinking it's extremely important and 44% saying only moderately important. Comparing thoughts from different gender groups, 63% of males think it's extremely important to have good lighting in a living room, compared to 53% of females.
Light bulb tones
Light bulbs are available in different tones, varying from warm to mid to cool tones. Warm tones can make the space have a yellow-orange glow, mid tones are more like natural daylight whereas cool tones can add a blue look to a space.
We asked which tone of bulbs people prefer. 68% of the overall group prefer warm tone bulbs, a further 24% prefer mid tone bulbs and the remaining 8% prefer cool tone bulbs.
Smart technology in the home
Moving on to questions about technology in the home, we asked whether people used smart light bulbs in various rooms in their home. The lounge has the most smart light bulbs in use, with 20% of all respondents saying they had them in the lounge. Followed closely by the kitchen with 19.3% of all respondents. 26% of all males said they used smart bulbs in the kitchen and 32% of all males use smart bulbs in the lounge.
Smart light switches were not as popular, with only 12.5% of respondents saying they had them in the lounge, 9% of people used them in a kitchen and only 4% in a bedroom.
More people state that they use motion sensor lights within their homes, 24% of all respondents. 27% of people aged 56 and over use motion sensor lights at home.
According to GreenMatch, they expect the uptake of smart bulbs and smart light switches to increase over the next 3 years to a total of 50% of all homes using this technology. Perhaps as people renovate their rooms gradually, they may take advantage of the time saving and energy saving benefits of the new technology at the same time.
Rechargeable lamps
Finally, we asked whether rechargeable lamps were being used. 17% of all surveyed people said they did use rechargeable lamps at home. But surprisingly, this didn't include any people who rent their home! It was all homeowners. Given that the use of rechargeable lamps enables people to place lights wherever they want without needing to pay for an electrician to fit new power sockets or hard-wire wall lights, we were expecting the group of renters to be taking advantage of this new flexible lighting solution.
Conclusion
The lighting survey has highlighted a few interesting points, including the importance that lighting has in the kitchen and the bathroom for the majority of people. It is also interesting to note that lighting in the dining room is not as important as we would have thought - perhaps people don’t spend as much time in the dining room, or even don’t have a dining room at home, making it less important.
It was no surprise to find that the majority of people thought they needed better lighting installing at home - it can be something that is quite often forgotten or left to address at a later stage.
It was also not surprising to confirm that most people prefer the glow of warm tone light bulbs, compared to the cooler tones. However, warm tone bulbs can change the colour of a space quite dramatically in the evening and at night, something which some homeowners are unlikely to have considered when choosing paint colours and curtain colours etc.
And finally, the low usage of smart lighting in the home shows that many people either don’t understand the benefits of using smart lighting at home, or perhaps they’re not ready to prioritise installing the new technology in their homes yet. Hopefully this will start to change, to help save energy usage and cut household bills in the longer term.
Media enquiries: If you would like a copy of the raw data for re-publishing purposes, please send your enquiry via the Contact form and mention the name of the survey: Lighting in the home.