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This weeks featured guest blog is from Focus SB
Spending time choosing suitable lighting for your home is an opportunity to create atmosphere, drama or calm. Beautiful lamps and lighting products coupled with expert design ideas will enhance your living space, throwing clear light where you need it and enhancing mood when required. To complete the look, it’s also possible to select sockets and switches to complement light fittings and interior decor.
New home?
Many new build properties are fitted with basic plastic electrical wiring accessories. Unfortunately this is not limited to less expensive homes, surprisingly many executive or luxury properties still fit white plastic ‘plate fix’ light switches and sockets, likely due to speed and simplicity of installation.
Compare an electrical installation in a typical domestic property today with one carried out only ten years ago, and expect to see a significant change not just in the total numbers of accessories installed, but also the complexity and overall scale of the electrical installation.
Today's householder typically expects far greater numbers of switches, sockets and associated electrical items within their properties facilitating operation and control of all the additional electrically connected products. Installation flexibility is required by contractors, or users of increasingly complex and sophisticated domestic electrical products.
Consider secondary fix
The use of 'secondary fix' switches and sockets in this rapidly changing and expanding market allows far greater flexibility for both specifier and installer alike to select and mix differing types of switches on any one face plate suiting the specific requirements of the particular application. The selection of 'secondary fix' electrical accessories will have significant benefits for both installer and end user alike for the demands of today's (and tomorrow's) increasingly complex and technical world.
Image:Ambassador Square four gang dolly switch finished in Jordan Bronze.
Replace and add sockets and switches
Redecorating your new home can be the perfect time to replace and add sockets and switches to reflect your taste and suit your lifestyle. Finishes for metal switchplates can be chosen to match and enhance interior design style, and it’s possible to opt for a range of finishes such as stainless steel, bronze, brass, or paintable for your very own colour choice. Choose a flat plate style for a contemporary look or a more traditional raised plate for a country cottage or period feel.
Image:Horizon Square in Bronze Antique with matching dimmer switches.
Smart Homes and LEDs
The last twenty or thirty years has seen the growth of high performance alternatives to the traditionally specified incandescent and fluorescent lamps and luminaires. In more recent years the very latest LED alternatives to these have become predominant in the market place. With the expected phasing out of incandescent light bulbs, and halogen due to happen in 2018, LEDs are soon to become the norm. With similar growth in demand for lighting control products to provide solutions that work in today’s‘smart home’, combined with no official industry standard for LEDs, there’s a whole new set of potential problems.
Whilst accepting the fact that today's modern household will typically require far more switches, sockets and associated products, increasingly householders may look to use simple, contemporary solutions to their needs, preferring to control even sophisticated lighting installations with rotary, pushbutton, rocker or dolly switch operated controls.
It’s important to find out if your chosen LEDs will function with your planned lighting controls, or whether you need to opt for an alternative dimming solution, so it’s always advisable to consult a lighting designer or electrical industry professional - saving you an unnecessary headache in the long run!
Image:Rako lighting controls featuring Morpheus plates by Focus SB.
About Focus SB electrical wiring accessories manufacturer
Focus SB Ltd® is a British company dedicated to manufacturing quality electrical wiring accessories for almost 40 years. Its sockets and switch-plates are highly sought after for prestigious interiors projects, both in the UK and globally. Unique to Focus SB, electrophoretic lacquering of polished brass plates provides durability, offering a hard wearing finish to ensure products keep their appearance over time,and obliviating the need for an unsightly gasket behind the faceplate.
It is one of the only UK manufacturers able to match its rocker and toggle switches to all its plate finishes. Product innovations have seen Focus SB develop the UK’s only totally flush-fit faceplate, the Focus SB Smoothie®, in collaboration with SHH architecture and interior design practice. Its USB socket is one of few products in the UK with dedicated amperage for faster charging of tablet and mobile ‘phone and a total output of 3.1 amps.
Image:Prism clear acrylic integrated USB socket with black interiors and satin chrome rocker switches.
Contact Focus SB for a free designers swatch book of finishes.
Tel: 01424 858060
Email: sales@focus-sb.co.uk
Website: www.focus-sb.co.uk
