Fine Homebuilding ProTalk Podcast with Light Can Help You Founder David Warfel
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/685834e9d8830d0c5cca46ed184f5eaf?s=52&d=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.greenbuildingadvisor.com%2Fapp%2Favatars%2F200x200%2Fs.png&r=g)
This is a great Youtube video from Fine Homebuilding’s Pro Talk Podcast about the proper methods to use when designing a lighting plan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1rxO4RFlRc&t=28s
Light Can Help You website.
In the resources section there are a lot of great articles on what not to do in specific rooms.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
![](https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/app/themes/greenbuildingadvisor/dist/img/modules/detail-library/thumb1.png)
![](https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/app/themes/greenbuildingadvisor/dist/img/modules/detail-library/thumb2.png)
Replies
Thanks for sharing, Rockies. David has been our guest on two BS+Beer Shows, contributed to the Pretty Good House book and I just completed my first project with him--he walks the talk and is an excellent educator!
Well! I forgot to include "Light Can Help You's" own Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@lightcanhelpyou9670/videos
I've been plowing through his blog. Boy, are there a lot of great articles! And no, I am not David Warfel.
https://lightcanhelpyou.com/blog/
Might as well learn as much as you can!
Rockies63,
About 15 years ago FHB ran a really good article on designing a house lighting plan for nighttime. It created a low light path so you could still navigate the spaces when the main lights weren't on. A mixture of small pucks near the baseboards, and at times it used the landscape lighting to illuminate the interior. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I lost my print copy, and doubt I could find it online now.
I liked the podcast, and he's got some good blog posts. Kind of frustrating that my current remodel job is a kitchen with a low, sloped ceiling (and almost no walls without cabinetry), makes it very hard to implement any great lighting plans!
I notice more and more customers are totally on board to focus on really good lighting, especially where tasks are getting done (kitchen) or safety is a concern (stairways). Related to a story that Ian mentions in the podcast about painters, I often think I should train customers to use a high quality headlamp, especially in the parts of their older houses that are not getting remodeled- it can be a shock to go from a 60 lumens/foot ambient kitchen to a steeper-than-code stairway lit by a single bulb casting lots of shadows!
Lighting is an area that would definitely benefit from more people doing a "pretty good" job, and for there to be some pretty good benchmarks. Perhaps that starts with the expectation of a certain number of lumens of evenly distributed ambient light, glare reduction, high cri lights, task lighting where appropriate, but also includes lighting vertical surfaces from more than one point in living areas, lighting pathways through the house in a safe way, etc. Finally, is there anyone that actually likes banks of 6 or more switches next to a kitchen? That seems like a failure to me, I think a guest should be able to operate the lights without a manual. Task lighting should be switched close to the task, but ambient lighting should be switched near the entries to a room.
Zak: here is a short video he did where he went back and remodelled his mother's kitchen lighting design (15 years later) to show how lighting has improved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4xKi8ssiJE&t=3s
Maybe you could try going to tape lights, like he did.
An interview with David Warfel on Youtube's Residential Tech Today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoeThjwilDs&t=1620s
And his Language of Light Blog. Have a look at his "Don't Do This" articles.
https://languageoflight.blog/
Oh, why not? More information.
Get a Grip on Lighting - Podcast 226
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmY_N2k7b9A
Get a Grip on Lighting - Podcast 265
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctDYzEsVDY0