This chandeliers guide is a general guideline for purchasing a lighting fixture that will properly suit a given room.
Choosing a chandelier to decorate a room in your home should be thought out carefully to prevent from making a choice that just doesn’t look right.
Where it will hang dictates some general rules of use. For instance, if it will be used in a dining room over a table, it should be approximately one foot smaller in diameter than the width of the table. It should also hang no lower than two and a half feet from the table top so no one bangs their head on it.
As a general rule for other rooms take the dimensions of the room into consideration.There is no hard and fast rule, but smaller rooms for example, ten by ten feet should have a chandelier diameter ranging in the area of eighteen to twenty one inches with a plus minus of approximately two inches. As your room moves up in size by a couple of feet just add the length and width together to give you the approximate diameter.
Chandeliers should hang down thirty inches for an eight foot high room. Add around three inches to the chain or hanging apparatus length for each additional foot of room height.
Smaller diameter tier clusters should use less bulbs of higher wattage to produce enough light. The bigger the cluster the more bulbs involved so you can tone down the wattage of each bulb and still create the amount of light you need. Typically a couple of hundred watts for the whole assembly should be sufficient. Remember if you use incandescent lights there will be heat generated.
Each bulb socket will have a recommended maximum bulb size. Don’t go over that limit or you may have a fire safety issue.
If you use a dimmer switch make sure it is rated for at least the total wattage of all bulbs added together.
Be sure to check for the safety certification certificate from the Electrical Safety Association in your country. For the United States it will be a UL (Underwriter’s Laboratory) and CSA (Canadian Standards Association) for Canada.