They’re printed on every bulb and fixture. Almost nobody explains them, so we do, before we quote a single fixture.
Low numbers are warm and orange like an old incandescent bulb; high numbers are cool and blue like noon daylight. We lean to 3000K when it’s available and 2700K when we’re matching what you already have, and once you pick one, we keep the whole house the same. (Offices get 4000K.) “Soft white” and “cool white” mean different things at different brands; the Kelvin number doesn’t.
Two 3000K bulbs can look completely different. Cheap LEDs score 80 and make skin, food and wood look flat. We install 90+ CRI in nearly every application. A garage or closet could go lower, but the price difference is negligible, so we don’t.
Watts measure power, lumens measure light. 800 lumens replaces a 60-watt bulb. People confuse color with brightness: a laundry room or kitchen needs more lumens, not a cooler color. We plan the lumens for the room, split them across fixtures, and put them on a dimmer, because it’s easier to dim a bright room than brighten a dim one.
Pick the one you came for, or call and describe the room.
Even, glare-free light from the ceiling: new installs, LED retrofits and layouts that avoid the runway look.
Details →Any fixture, any ceiling height. We source it, hang it, and add a winch if it's big enough to need one.
Details →COB LED tape under cabinets, inside glass cabinets, in coves and toe-kicks. Light you see, not fixtures you see.
Details →AMP brass landscape lighting, bistro strings, deck and step lights, floods and Ring cameras, all on timers.
Details →Lutron dimmers on every circuit, app and voice control, occupancy sensors and timers.
Details →Indoor and outdoor ceiling fans at any height, and bath fans with or without lights, heaters and humidity sensors.
Details →Track and monorail systems, picture lights and adjustable recessed to light art, shelves and walls.
Details →Flicker, dead fixtures, failed drivers, bad dimmers. We find the cause, not just the symptom.
Request a repair →A room lit by one ceiling fixture looks like a waiting room. A well-lit room has layers: ambient light for the whole space, task light where you work, and accent light on the things worth looking at. Every layer gets its own dimmer so the room changes with the time of day.
We call it painting with light: putting light on the surfaces and objects you want to see, and keeping the source out of view. Indirect lighting is the layer most homes are missing. Light bounced off a ceiling, a wall or the inside of a cabinet is soft and glare-free, and it makes a room feel bigger. It’s how restaurants and hotels get that look, and it’s mostly LED tape hidden where you can’t see it.
Recessed lights are the ambient layer in most modern homes, and the most common thing we’re asked to fix: too few, too many in a straight line, the wrong color, or old cans with mismatched bulbs. We lay them out for the room and the furniture, not on a grid.
We assess the room and give you the options at the free quote visit.
Recessed lighting photos →
Chandeliers, pendants, sconces, vanity lights, flush mounts, picture lights, track. The fixture is the part you’ll look at for twenty years, so we help you get it right before anyone climbs a ladder.
Have a brand or model number in mind? Send it. We’re dealers for Lumens and Lamps Plus, two of the largest lighting retailers in the country, and we can often get the fixture you found at a discount. Pricing changes often, so send the model numbers and we’ll check.
30-foot cathedral ceilings, 20- to 25-foot foyers, 50-foot commercial warehouses. We bring scaffolding or the right ladders for the height, and we install the box and support rated for the fixture. We once hung a 14-foot chandelier that spans three floors inside a spiral staircase. We haven’t turned down a fixture for weight yet: if they make it, we’ll hang it.
A large chandelier in a tall foyer is impossible to clean or re-lamp from a ladder. We install Aladdin chandelier winches that lower the fixture to the floor at the push of a button, so cleaning and bulb changes take minutes instead of a lift rental.
Old under-cabinet lights were a row of visible LEDs reflected in every countertop. We use COB (chip-on-board) LED tape exclusively, American Lighting’s TruLux COB, because it’s the best we’ve found: a continuous line of light with no dots or hot spots, dimmable, in the same Kelvin as the rest of the kitchen, hidden behind the cabinet lip.
We install Lutron dimmers exclusively. They make one for every application, from a single bedroom dimmer to a whole-house system, and they’re the reason our LED installs don’t flicker or buzz.
Flicker, buzz and drop-out at the bottom of the range come from the wrong dimmer on the wrong load. We match the Lutron dimmer to the fixtures and test the combination through its full range. If you’d like dim-to-warm LEDs, which get warmer as they dim like an incandescent did, we install those too; some need a special low-voltage dimmer, and we’ll spec it.
Lutron Caséta is our standard for most homes, with the Caséta Pro hub. Every light in the house then runs from the Lutron app, Alexa, Google or Apple Home: schedules, scenes, “goodnight” from bed, and lights on before you get home. More about Lutron.
Occupancy sensors turn lights on when you walk in; vacancy sensors turn them off when you leave. We recommend them in pantries, closets, laundry rooms and garages. Timers run exterior and landscape lighting without a switch: through the Lutron hub if you have one, or an astronomic or Intermatic digital timer if you don’t.
Good outdoor lighting is warm, aimed at surfaces instead of eyes, and on a timer so you never think about it. We design the layout, install it and set the controls, and if you’d like to see it before you decide, we can set up a night demo.
We install permanent lighting only, no seasonal Christmas lights.
Landscape photos →
New fans, replacements, fans where there was only a light, and fans on vaulted and two-story ceilings. Fan-rated boxes, downrods sized to the ceiling, and the wall control or remote you want.
Ceiling fan installationPanasonic WhisperQuiet and WhisperWarm exhaust fans, with or without a light, with or without a heater, vented properly to the outside. Add a humidity sensor and the fan turns on when the shower does and off when the room is dry.
Ask about bath fansAccent light is what makes a room look designed instead of lit. A picture light over a painting, a gimbal aimed at a bookcase, a track that washes a gallery wall: small fixtures, aimed on purpose, on their own dimmer.
Tap a photo to enlarge. Filter by the kind of lighting you’re planning.
Lighting jobs from our Signature Work catalogue: the details, the photos, and the electrician who signed them.
No. 011The old incandescent lights in this Coley Forest home's built-in bookshelves had burned out in several places. We removed all of it and ran LED COB tape light up the sides of the shelves for continuous, even light.
Signed by BrandonFull job
No. 008The homeowners wanted the chandelier over their two-story foyer replaced. We also priced a chandelier lift so it could be lowered for cleaning; they chose to just swap the fixture for now, and we had the new one assembled and hung in about four hours.
Signed by BrandonFull job
No. 007A brand-new Fuquay-Varina home with a 24-foot living room ceiling. We set up scaffolding over a covered floor, assembled the chandelier in place and hung it at the height the homeowners wanted, then added a kitchen outlet on the same visit.
Signed by DavidFull job
No. 003Signed by DavidFull job
Why the numbers on the box exist at all. Scroll sideways.
Edison's carbon-filament lamp burns for hours instead of minutes. Electric light enters the home.
A tungsten filament runs hotter and brighter than carbon and lasts longer. Its 2700K glow becomes the light everyone grows up with.
GE introduces the fluorescent lamp. Offices, schools and kitchens get flat, efficient light, and the first 'cool white' naming.
A halogen gas lets the filament run hotter: whiter light near 3000K, in a smaller bulb. The spotlight and the recessed 'can' era.
Nick Holonyak's red LED at GE. For decades it's an indicator light, not a light source.
The CFL puts a fluorescent tube in a bulb shape. Efficient, slow to warm up, and the color never quite matched incandescent.
A blue LED with a phosphor coating makes white light. The Nobel-winning blue LED makes everything after it possible.
LED bulbs pass incandescent on price and quality. Color temperature, CRI and lumens become the numbers on every box.
ARC Electric helps facilitate Raleigh’s Luminocity light festival at Pullen Park, painting a city park with light.
Dim-to-warm LEDs, 95 CRI, and Lutron control from a phone. Light you design instead of light you get.
4000K office lighting, LED retrofits of fluorescent fixtures, church sanctuary and stage lighting, sign and display lighting, emergency and exit lights, and parking lot poles. Scheduled around your hours.
We started ARC because nobody we met was happy with the last electrician they hired. So we set three rules and put them in writing.
Read the PromiseOne color for the whole house. We lean to 3000K when it's available and 2700K when we're matching lights you already have. Rooms that need more light get more lumens, not a cooler color. Our Light Color Guide shows the difference on screen.
Yes. We retrofit LED trims into existing cans, or replace them with slim LED wafer lights, which most homeowners now prefer for the wider spread of light. Where there are no cans, wafers fit between joists with a small hole and minimal drywall work.
We've worked on 30-foot cathedral ceilings, 20- to 25-foot foyers and 50-foot commercial ceilings. We bring scaffolding or the right ladders for the height, and for large chandeliers we install an Aladdin winch so the fixture can be lowered for cleaning later.
Usually, and often at a discount. We're dealers for Lumens and Lamps Plus. Pricing changes often, so send us the model numbers and we'll check and quote the fixture and the installation together.
Yes, on almost everything. We use Lutron dimmers exclusively and match the dimmer to the bulbs, which fixes flicker and buzz in nearly every case. Many can be controlled from your phone or by voice.
Yes. Lutron Caséta with the Caséta Pro hub is our standard: your lights run from the Lutron app, Alexa, Google or Apple Home, with schedules, scenes and control from anywhere.
AMP Lighting, exclusively. It's low-voltage solid brass, and we're an AMP dealer. We design the layout, install the fixtures and AMP transformer, set it on a timer, and can set up a night demo first if you'd like to see it.
Almost always it's the Kelvin: a 5000K 'daylight' bulb in a living room reads blue and clinical at night, and a cool bulb next to warm ones makes both look wrong. The fix is one color for the whole house, 3000K or 2700K, and 90+ CRI so colors look right. Our Light Color Guide shows exactly what's happening.
Only the Kelvin number is consistent. Soft white is usually 2700K, warm white 2700K to 3000K, bright or cool white 3500K to 4100K, and daylight 5000K to 6500K, but brands disagree. Buy by the number on the box.
Yes. Track and monorail systems, picture lights over artwork, and adjustable recessed gimbals to light shelves, walls and art. Track is the most flexible way to light a gallery wall or a kitchen without opening the ceiling.
No. We install permanent bistro, landscape, deck and security lighting, but not seasonal Christmas lighting.
Yes: Panasonic WhisperQuiet and WhisperWarm fans, with or without a light or heater, and with a humidity sensor if you want the fan to run itself.
We keep cuts small and clean but we don't patch or paint. We'll recommend local painters who do.
Yes. A free in-home quote with no trip charge, no estimate fee and no obligation, and a price in writing before any work starts.
Across Wake County and the Triangle from our shop in Fuquay-Varina: Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Morrisville, Wake Forest, Durham, Chapel Hill, Knightdale, Clayton and Angier. See the full service area.
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