Living in the freaking dark ages

http://gph.is/1p4NTxQ

Its something that you notice if you stay in hotels - there are rarely any ceiling lights, which is bloody weird and bloody annoying when you are trying to work. Or see. And I'm damn sure I'm not the only person who thinks so.

As with any query I took to the ol' internetz to find out if a) I am the only one who thinks this is weird and b) why. Well, the interwebz didn't disappoint giving me a myriad of reasons why, here's a summary:

• Ceiling lights are more expensive to install - many hotels are built with  poured concrete and whatnot and installing ceiling lights in all the rooms would be more of a ball ache than just putting in enough wall sockets to house lamps later on.
• They are expensive to replace - if you replace a ceiling light, or even a bulb, you need an electrician with a ladder. To replace a lamp you need anyone with a lamp. 
• And if there is a problem with the ceiling light you should cut the electricity to the light, meaning that you might have to cut the electricity to multiple rooms.
• Limiting the amount of stuff you've got in floors and ceilings (i.e. only sprinklers) means fires are less likely to spread vertically, which is a good precaution in a hotel.
• You can't see all the scuzz on the floor, peeling wallpaper and spunk up the walls if the lighting is poor (otherwise translated as: rooms look more appealing with atmospheric lighting).
• Lamps are more customizable than ceiling lights - long cables mean you can place lighting wherever you want (though I have never wanted to do this in a hotel room, I'm glad to know that I can...)
• Its easier to clean lamps than ceiling lights.
• People prefer the homely look of lamps versus the harsh lighting of a ceiling light.

So, I'm guessing that all of these have an element of truth, but its the preference thing that I want to explore. This is because apparently many people in the US prefer NOT TO HAVE CEILING LIGHTS? WTF?? Apparently there is a general consensus that ceiling lights have glare and are not suitable for relaxing/reading a book/watching TV/shagging. This is obviously wrong, and someone somewhere has made a terrible mistake, but it has proliferated across the US and means that most living quarters do not have ceiling lights in the living room or bedroom. 

Lamp #7

Lamp #3

And this is why we have more lamps in our small apartment than we ever had in the three bedroom detached house we had in Oxford. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, one downstairs toilet, a utility room, a dining room, a huge hallway and a lounge; five lamps (and one of those was a lava lamp). Two bedroom apartment; seven lamps, although we do have ceiling lights in both closets, and three different sets of lights in each bathroom. In case I need an atmosphere while I poop?


Aside from meaning that we are living in a permanent state of atmospheric-ness (= fucking darkness) the lack of ceiling lighting also means that you need lots of extra wall outlets for lamps. Handy, you might think. However, wall outlets do not have an on/off switch like they do in the UK - that beautiful 'murican electricity is a free as the gosh darned country. Does that mean that you'll have to hunt around in the dark for your lamp switch? Aw hell no! There are light switches next to the doorframe in all the rooms of the apartment, and its a fun game trying to find out which electrical outlet matches the switch. That means you can buy a variety of floor lamps and plug them in wherever you want to 'customize' your living room. As long as you plug them into the sockets linked to the light switch. It also means that if you mix up your PC and lamp plugs then you cut the power to your PC when you turn the frigging light on. I feel like someone at IKEA is mocking us.

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