Electric lighting is, it has to be said, pretty important for your home. Unless you spend a lot of your time reading Victorian classics by a roaring fire or wallowing in a bath by candlelight, be it a gloomy day or an early evening, electric lighting is probably going to be illuminating your way.

And with around five per cent of the average family's spending going on fuel and lighting each year, it's a pretty significant financial outgoing.

However, despite the importance of lighting, some homeowners still get it wrong. Which is why Rebecca Weir, lighting designer at independent lighting consultancy Light IQ, is on hand to offer her advice.

As the expert notes, the first step her and her team take when they go about installing a flexible lighting system in the home is to prise off all the switches and sockets and swap them out for a dimmer switch.

"The single most important element is to ensure that all your lights are on dimmers, as this is an easy solution and ensures that flexibility can be provided very easily," said Rebecca.

Dimmer switches allow you to introduce layered lighting to the home with very little work, and it's a home improvement task you can easily undertake yourself. Layered lighting allows you to control each fitting in a room, adjusting the brightness of your LED lighting as per the task at hand. Romantic night on the sofa? Soft lighting can set the mood. Watching a new DVD on your big screen TV? Bright lighting near the screen and dark lighting at the back of the room gives the full cinema experience.

And as Rebecca notes, tailoring your lighting to the task at hand isn't a case of installing a 'one size fits all' style overhead lamp.

"The second design tip is to ensure that there is always good task lighting, whether from reading lamps or great under-cabinet lighting in a kitchen," she says. "This will reduce eye strain and create a more comfortable environment in which to live."