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Simplifying Life Through Technology
SoundVision LLC is a lifestyle technology company located in Mooresville, North Carolina. We interview vendors, clients and staff with the purpose of demystifying the capabilties of new technologies for your home or business and sometimes highlighting local content that is important to our community.
Simplifying Life Through Technology
Lighting Upgrades: Quick Questions, Real Answers
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On this episode of “SoundVision Tech Talks,” Eric, Sydney, and Andrew sit down to discuss lighting questions centered around upgrading an existing home.
If you could upgrade the lighting in your home, where would you start? Do you really need that many recessed lights? Is warm dim worth it? Are smart bulbs overrated? And when is lighting automation actually useful?
We’re putting our Eric and Sydney on the spot with a round of rapid-fire lighting questions all centered around one goal: helping homeowners understand what actually makes good lighting and what to consider when upgrading the lighting in an existing home. We cover everything from the rooms people tend to overlook, like primary closets and bathrooms, to the lighting choices that can completely change how a space feels.
We also tackle some of the problems homeowners run into every day. Why do LEDs flicker when they dim? Why do some fixtures shut off before others? Why can two lights labeled with the same color temperature still look different? And how do you know whether the problem is the fixture, the bulb, the dimmer, or the control system?
Then we get into lighting control: keypads vs. traditional switches, scenes, apps, automation, smart bulbs, and how much technology you actually need. Because while there are plenty of things you can automate, that doesn't necessarily mean you should.
The questions are quick, but the answers give homeowners plenty to think about. Whether you're considering a full lighting upgrade or simply trying to improve one room, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you understand your options, avoid common mistakes, and make smarter decisions about the lighting in your home.
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Welcome And Life Updates
SPEAKER_02Welcome to Sound Vision's Tech Talks, where we dive into trending topics and expert advice to help you make informed decisions about your home entertainment, automation, and more. Whether you're planning a new project or just curious about the possibilities, Tech Talks is your go-to source for staying updated on all things technology. Joining me in the podcast studio today, we have our design engineer Eric.
SPEAKER_00Hello.
SPEAKER_02And our lighting designer, Sydney. Hi. Welcome, guys. So, what's new, guys? What's going on in your life? Anything new or exciting happening?
SPEAKER_01Nick and I just bought a house, so that's so exciting. So exciting!
SPEAKER_02Congratulations. That is huge. Thank you. It's a big year for you.
SPEAKER_01Very engagement. Now a new house. Yeah, moved here, moved to a new place, started a new job, moved in together, got engaged, bought a house. Getting a dog. It is the biggest year.
SPEAKER_02Record year. This is your year.
unknownLiterally.
SPEAKER_00How am I supposed to follow that?
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say, what about you, Eric?
SPEAKER_00My wife and I have been together for 27 years. We already have a house. We already have two dogs. We've been living together for a very long time.
SPEAKER_02That wins. You had your year. Now you're just living it. It's not a competition like a dream. No.
SPEAKER_00I'm also like 30 years older than you.
SPEAKER_02This is true. This is true.
What Good Lighting Should Feel Like
SPEAKER_02All right. Let's just do some rapid fire. Questions about lighting. So finish the sentence. Good lighting should make you feel comfortable.
SPEAKER_00Agreed.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say comfortable too. At ease, relaxed. Welcomed. Yeah. The most underrated room for good lighting is it's not underrated, but the primary bathroom.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go even smaller than that, and that's the primary closet.
SPEAKER_01Ooh.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01That's underrated. Mine wasn't underrated. Yours was the underrated one. Right.
SPEAKER_00Nobody thinks about that. I mean, if you're picking, this is not really my area of expertise, but if you're picking an outfit and you have terrible lighting, you technically will not know the actual color of your outfit until you get out into better lighting. Once you walk outside in the sun, then you're gonna be like, oh my god, who dressed me? Are they colorblind?
SPEAKER_01It's less enticing if you're standing in your closet with bad lighting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Most walk-in closets have like, you know, a couple of can lights, and it's like that's not appropriate for the number picking clothes.
SPEAKER_02Literally, mine. Just one center. Mine, it's horrible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I love the linear lighting on the shelves. Yeah. The closet niche kind of say, how you do all those little individual shelves and light that. Because every room should feel intentional.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Exactly. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02The first lighting upgrade, or as of today, the upgrade you'd want to make in your own home.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I definitely raise my hand and none of you guys can see that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, Sydney.
SPEAKER_01Swapping out the recessed down lights to a DMF product instead of your just typical Edison light bulb. I'd swap it out to a dimmable bulb.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say warm dim, all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_01Warm dim DMF 100%.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna take that just a step farther in my house. I would get rid of, and I'm going to explain this. I would get rid of all down lighting. There would be no can lights. And that's within reason. There would be some can lights, but they would be washing the wall. But I would have no straight down light cans anywhere in my house. The whole house can be lit purposely. And there's another word in there. Not purposely, but purposefully. There you go. That's the word intentionally. With linear lighting, accent lighting, you can light your entire house without having light just beaming down on your face.
SPEAKER_02Especially with your glasses. You don't want the glare.
SPEAKER_01No, it sucks. Okay, I agree with that. The only reason I said the downlights is the house that we just bought, it has maybe a total of 20 recessed downlight fixtures in the whole house. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00There's usually just like one center fixture, and I'm like, well, downlighting has its purpose if it's used correctly. I just don't like it. And now that I've been working in this business for a very long time, and this is the first company out of seven that I've worked for that is really intentionally designing lighting, I've now realized that I can light my entire house without having a single light in my face.
SPEAKER_02For sure.
SPEAKER_00Four cans and a fan.
SPEAKER_02Classic. Yes. Shouldn't have known that was coming.
SPEAKER_00Four cans and a fan, you know, that's most bedrooms. The other thing is there is a purpose to having all your lighting be straight down a hall. That's fine. But if you go into every room and every single light is symmetrical, it looks cool, but how often are people staring at your ceiling? Like I mean mine went down there. You have to have task lighting. So the one light over the stove should be pushed so it's lighting the stove, not lighting the back of your head. So if you see everything symmetrical, it's it was just no one put thought into that.
SPEAKER_02That was check check on the build or the electricians.
SPEAKER_01Oh, got it. Straight line. I was gonna say something that I don't see if I walk in the house and I'm like, ooh, definite work to be done is gonna be tape lighting, linear lighting. If it doesn't have any of it, I'm like, oh, we miss such a big point here.
SPEAKER_02Yes, miss opportunities. Well, especially with like toe kick, under cabinet, like just architectural anywhere. Like you can literally put linear lighting like anywhere nowadays. Yes.
Dimming Problems And Bulb Mismatches
SPEAKER_02Okay, is this a red flag or is this no big deal? When I turn my lights off, say some of them have dimmability, some lights shut off before others when I dim the room. They're not shutting off at the same time. Red flag, or is that just part of the core? Red flag.
SPEAKER_00Red flag. We're walking into a house that they want to do lighting in. We have not touched the house, so the lighting just is what it is. And you walk into a kitchen, let's say, and yeah, you shut that light off, and four of the six cans go down together, the other two don't. My first thought is they're different bulbs. Somebody replaced the bulbs at some point, did not put any thought into whether they dim, what their color temperature was, any of that stuff. And so they look different, they dim at a different rate. So that's an easy fix to fix the bulbs, but at that point, we're gonna want to change the fixtures and everything. But if there's a control portion of it, even the control portion, you wouldn't get a different dim rate of a different bulb. No, let's say you had a kitchen and a dining room right next to each other in a great room scenario. Those are two different legs of lighting. And so, yes, if the control was off, those would dim at different rates. But if there's six cans in a kitchen, they're all one leg of lighting. So if one dims differently than the other, it's got nothing to do with the control, and it's got nothing to do with the wiring because they are all wired exactly the same. So it has to be the fixture or it has to be the bulb.
SPEAKER_02I never even thought about that, but that's so true. Like, even I mean, I don't have controllable lighting in my bathroom, but I did replace two of them, and even just the simple flip of a switch two dim a little slower.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00People replace bulbs, not realizing that not all bulbs are the same. It's you know, 300 Kelvin or it's 60 watts versus 70 watts, they're going to be different.
SPEAKER_02It's so funny. We talk about that all the time here, but like anytime I'm going to replace, say, a bulb at my own home, I go to the store, all of that is out the window.
SPEAKER_01It's why is it so stressful when you have to go replace a bulb? It is like say that you don't have controlled lighting in your house. When you go to a Home Depot or a Lowe's or whatever store you're going to to get light bulbs, it is so confusing. Like before I stepped into this role and before I had the knowledge that I have, I was lost in the light bulb aisle. I was like, What do you mean? What does this number mean? I don't know what that does. So to a lot of people, it's intimidating to go get a replacement light bulb. They just grab the first one they see.
SPEAKER_00Well, and it's exploded in the last, you know, five to ten years. It used to be, yeah, you just go and you get a bulb. And yeah, there'd be different wattage, but most people don't care about that.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00But now, again, there's different color temperatures that people don't understand. And, you know, it's like this mimics sunlight, or this does what, or whatever the case may be. And now you have LEDs versus non-LEDs, and you have dimmable versus non-dimmable. And so before there were six choices. Now there's 85 choices. And it's intimidating. Yes. And of course, you can also buy all that DIY smart lighting where I can change this with my iPhone or whatever the case may be. And it's like, that's all well and good for like a room, but if you're gonna do the whole house, it's just not gonna work.
SPEAKER_02I see short circuiting happening.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
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Mystery Switches And Half Hot Outlets
SPEAKER_02don't know what two of them actually control.
SPEAKER_01Are we saying what we think that they would control or just red flag that they don't know what they do?
SPEAKER_02So I guess not as much as red flag. Say someone came and they're like, okay, I need to upgrade my lighting. These are my switches, but you know, this switch in the kitchen, I don't know what they actually do.
SPEAKER_00Not a red flag. That is normal.
SPEAKER_01Very good.
SPEAKER_00I right now have a switch in my house that I have no idea what it does. No, mind you, it is a rental house, so I don't care. It's never something that I've needed. So it's like I tried to find it one time and I was like, don't care. Moved on with my life. If you have a house that does not have lighting control and engraved keypads, every person on this planet has a switch somewhere in their house that they don't know what it does. Yes.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, if the homeowner doesn't know what that switch does, my two best guesses would be one, an outlet that they don't know it's controlling, or two, a fixture that was never installed but wired for.
SPEAKER_02Yes. That's a good point. The outlet thing. Because I feel like that was something growing up, like, oh, if I want to use this room, got to turn on that outlet. But I feel like that's been going away.
SPEAKER_00Am I it's still there, but you're generally only going to have they're called half-hot outlets. And the reason why it's called half-hot is one of them is switched and the other outlet is full power all the time. So the thing is you could plug in there but be plugged into the wrong one. And that's usually only in living rooms and bedrooms, and that's for lamps. And generally, if the electrician is done it correctly, you will notice if you look around at your outlets that they're upside down.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So there'll be one normal looking outlet and the other one will be mirrored of thought.
SPEAKER_02I'm learning new things.
SPEAKER_00So if you find something in your kitchen or something like that, that it's not a switched outlet, it's most likely a light that's outside, or exactly what Sydney said, there is supposed to be a chandelier or something, or a pendant that was never installed because they went from four pendants to whatever, you know, or bathroom specifically because you cannot put in the fixture prior to inspection because it will fail because it's electricity around water type situation. So they will add the bath chandelier after the house is complete. And so if they decide not to do it, yeah, you're gonna have this random switch that goes to nothing.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
Too Many Recessed Lights Plus Automation
SPEAKER_02Agree or disagree. I feel like you cover this, Eric, but uh most standard built new construction homes have too many recess lights.
SPEAKER_00Agree.
SPEAKER_01I 1000% agree.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Nothing to the home builders out there, but it's just a check on the checklist.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Put recess lighting in the room, boom, done. Four cans and a fan, move on. Next room.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and need to get this house built.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep. By a certain deadline, yeah. You have a timeline to stick to, check the box.
SPEAKER_02Agree or disagree, warm dim lighting is one of those features you don't appreciate it until you live with it or experience it.
SPEAKER_01Agree. Agree. However, I don't live with it. I just work with it every day, and I want it so bad, and I cannot unsee it.
SPEAKER_02I agree with that. Okay, agree or disagree. You can have too much automation on your system. True.
SPEAKER_00100%, 1000%. Million percent. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Like you don't need to automate your coffee maker in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Or you don't need to automate I think people would disagree with that. I was gonna say, I disagree. I wish. I know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01I'm not on a regimented schedule every morning. I don't want my espresso to brew at 7 a.m. every morning. My mornings look different.
SPEAKER_00I technically could. You could. I don't, but I could.
SPEAKER_01I don't want my toaster on my automation schedule. Like there are things just because you can doesn't mean you should.
SPEAKER_00Agreed.
SPEAKER_02That is a great statement. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
SPEAKER_01Think of other things that you can do.
SPEAKER_00Less is more. Yes. Well, okay. These you wouldn't automate them, but refrigerators and stoves can be on your system, be on your Wi-Fi. And so technically, yes, if you're on your way home, like this would actually work for me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm on my way home. I know that I have to preheat the oven. I'm already running late. So by the time I get home, now I gotta wait another 30 minutes for it to preheat. I could hit a thing on my phone that says preheat my oven to 400. So by the time I got home, it's preheated and I can just throw the thing in the oven. Okay, that's fair. That's not like an automated, like I have it scheduled every night at you know 4 30 to preheat my oven.
SPEAKER_01That's just remote control.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Like control from your phone away from the house.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, automation, everybody thinks it's cool. Like, okay, yeah, I can come home and I can press this one button, and this radio station will turn on, and this light will turn on, and then the TV will turn on. And it's like, okay, do you listen to the same radio station every single day at the same time? No, you don't. So it's probably not. You know, we honestly in our houses, surprisingly, unless the customer wants it, have very little automation.
SPEAKER_01There was one button that was called the signature Sydney button when I worked at partner, and it was called the Nightcap button. I think I've touched on this before. But I'm waiting for the correct project to use it here. I'm waiting for like a speakeasy room or like a really cool bar lounge situation. But I would put nightcap on and it dimmed the lights, real all recess lighting cut off, and it was just all the accent lighting turned down real dim. And then Ella Fitzgerald Radio on Pandora would come on. So it wouldn't necessarily be the same song, but same mood, and it would come on, and it was just such a good mood. It was such a vibe. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00Speak easy. And again, to be the other side of that. That is really cool. But again, are you doing the same thing and listening to the same thing every single night? So therein lies the problem of automation with something like that. That is a great scene, very specific to you. And again, very specific to like, okay, maybe I feel like going in there tonight and I want the lights, but I don't want the music. So for sure. You know, automation, you can get too specific, and you are not going to want to do that exact same thing every single night. And so is that button truly necessary? To some people, it is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I've had a customer who I come home every day, I turn on ESPN and I turn on this radio station, and I want to hit this button and I want that to happen every single day. Okay, cool, man. Like perfect. We can do it. I can 1000% do that. And you know that you do it every single day. So yeah, I can make that happen.
SPEAKER_01For sure. I mean, most things are possible here.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Most things are possible. But for every client that that button was put in their home or whether it was a hotel situation, it was such a fun party trick for them to show off to their friends. And they'd be like, oh my gosh, come over here and watch this. And it was really cool to see that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'm gonna go and go a little uh not personal here, but it we had a customer who had a sexy time button. Oh you can I'm not gonna explain it. You can imagine what a sexy button. No, I want to know what the button does. And it was engraved. It said sexy time.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Well, I'm okay. That's awesome. That's really funny. But I that's lifestyle. Yeah, that's lifestyle for you. I am waiting so bad for the right client to come in for us to put like some funny name for the bathroom. Like, have some fun with it. It's not all serious. Like, we're not like let's have some fun with the buttons.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_01Nightcap was a funny one. Like, okay, that's cool. It's out of the ordinary, but like something funny for like a bathroom, for example. It's not a laboratory. Like, come on. It's not a water closet. Like, come on.
SPEAKER_00It's the king's three. What else do you call it though? A bathroom. Right, but the water closet within the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01There are some choice words I'm going to choose not to say. That'd be funny. But say would be really funny. I'm like, oh, that'd be fun.
SPEAKER_02Say it, I can cut it out.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm not gonna do it. It's gonna be a good thing.
SPEAKER_00Water closet has always been a struggle because what else do you call it?
SPEAKER_01I know. It's formal on the plans, but like, can we come up with a cooler name? I can't right now, but the contemplation room. Yeah, but that won't fit on a keypad.
SPEAKER_02You're talking about my bathroom?
SPEAKER_00You never name anything on a keypad, anyways, as far as rooms are concerned. It's only what the button does. So naming a room something cool, nobody would ever know.
SPEAKER_02Bringing sexy back.
SPEAKER_00Sexy time makes sense. It's a specific mood. Oh, that's a mood, all right. Yeah. We used to have a party button, which we've now renamed Entertain. And again, I think the problem with what Sydney is talking about is yeah, that's cool, but people nowadays are always thinking, like, well, when I sell this house, people are not like getting their forever home. That's true. Like, we literally have people who will go through all the effort to build a home and then they're selling it like six months later, and I'm like, what's exactly right?
SPEAKER_01It's personalized until it's not right.
SPEAKER_00You know, and so like, well, if I do this, I'm gonna have to change it, or will it affect my resale value if I have all these fun buttons? I agree.
SPEAKER_02I think that's why you don't see them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so everyone's very like, let's be vanilla for this purpose. Keypad engravings are easy to change. I was about to say just some money.
SPEAKER_01That's just a button.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can just slap that out real quick. Just like everybody looks at a paint color in a house and goes, that's terrible. Yeah, you can paint it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's got good bones.
SPEAKER_02Come on, we can work with it. Right.
Why Most People Live With Bad Lighting
SPEAKER_02Okay, agree or disagree. Most people are living with bad lighting and don't realize it. So 100% agree.
SPEAKER_00Yes, agreed. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna call out the retail stores. Let's start there. Well, not even retail. Any storefront you go into, whether you're going in to pick out your cabinetry or your countertops, that's not what they look like in real life. Like put it under the sun. That's what it looks like. When you're under bad lighting and you put it in your house and you're like, well, that's not what it looked like in the store. And then you have these unhappy clients. Why don't like high-end, and maybe they're starting to do this and I'm not aware, why don't high-end fashion retail stores have good lighting in them?
SPEAKER_02Especially with like some of the price tags and the price of the beautiful pieces that have been curated for this store, you would think.
SPEAKER_01They have good lighting placement. Let's not frown on that. They've got good lighting placement, but the light itself is awful. Terrible.
SPEAKER_00Because they don't have a lighting designer.
SPEAKER_01Exactly right. I'll go over there and introduce myself.
SPEAKER_02Hey, I'm Sydney, lighting designer, and I see.
SPEAKER_00And it's all money. Like, people don't grasp the concept that, oh, you want me to spend fifty thousand dollars on lighting? Like, I just needed to light my house. I just need to be able to navigate my house. There's so much more to it that. Again, the closet, the bathroom, if you're doing your makeup, if you're getting dressed, if it's horrible lighting, to go back to what Sydney said about if you go into one of those big box stores to buy cabinets, go to the paint department and go to their what are those called? Samples, the swatches or whatever.
SPEAKER_01The paint swatches.
SPEAKER_00Notice that those areas have different lighting above them. But when you go back to the cabinet area, is there different lighting above that? No, it's all just the giant shop lights. Because when you're looking at that sample, it's under a specific light.
SPEAKER_02So it would be what would be true in your home.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
Keypads Versus Switches And Final Takeaway
SPEAKER_02So I'm going to throw out some scenarios where a homeowner says this to you. How do you respond? Why would I need a keypad when I already have these switches on my walls?
SPEAKER_01I would approach it from an aesthetics standpoint. Like if they're redesigning the room, I'm like, okay, are you putting wallpaper on the wall? We don't want to take up all the space of your gorgeous wallpaper that you spent a large amount on. Like, let's slim it down. What functions do you want? We can slim that down to one junction box. I would approach it from aesthetics. Eric, what about you?
SPEAKER_00That honestly is the only way. There's no other reason to swap out a four bank of light switches that work perfectly for a keypad, except for aesthetics. It's wall clutter, it's just cleaner. There's not really a functionality aspect to it. Like, because six switches versus a keypad, they all do the same thing. It just looks different. That's all. So aesthetics is the only way to go at that one. But it's the right way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm gonna jump back in. It can be from a functionality standpoint. You're like, okay, I want my room to be bright all the time. Instead of flipping four switches, it's a one button press. Or instead of curating, like, oh, I like this light at 60%. I like this lamp on. Let me go over and turn it on. One button on the wall.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's what I was saying. The programming ability.
SPEAKER_00True. I don't know if somebody would spend the money based upon that, though. Because if you've lived in the house long enough and you know what the switches do, literally I can walk up and hit four switches at the same time I could hit one keypad button. That's just me. So yes, functionality, but I don't think that's what's gonna sell it.
SPEAKER_01No. And that wouldn't have been my first response.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01To a client if they were to bring that up.
SPEAKER_00It's 98% aesthetic and 2% functionality. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Well, if there's anything we want listeners to take away from this episode, is that having an existing home doesn't mean that you're stuck with lighting that's already there. You don't have to renovate your home to rethink how it's lit. Anything else you guys want to add before we get out of here? I don't think so. I think I'm good. No, all good. All right. Well, thank you guys for joining me, and we hope you listeners enjoyed. Thanks for joining us for Simplifying Light through technology. To learn more about Sound Vision, visit our website at SoundvisionLakenorman.com. You can follow us on X at Soundvision LKN. Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Soundvision LLC.
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