LUCIDE

Who is behind Lucide?

Lucide is a Belgian family business with its head office in Antwerp. Ward Mertens started it in 1992; his sons Wim and Niek now run it as the second generation. According to the company, it employs more than 75 people and its lights are sold in more than 70 countries, through lighting shops, wholesalers and online shops.

The name comes from the English word lucid: clear. Lucide itself translates that into lights that are not needlessly complicated and are easy to install. An in-house team of lighting designers releases around 500 new models every year, for indoors and outdoors, plus its own light sources such as LED filament bulbs. That pace explains why you see so many versions of a single Lucide model: the same light in three colours, with one or three light points, as a pendant light, wall light and table lamp.

What is Lucide strong in?

The breadth of its range. Of the almost 1,900 Lucide lights we stock, over 440 are pendant lights, over 360 ceiling lights and spotlights, over 300 table lamps, around 200 outdoor lights and just under 200 wall lights. On top of that come two track systems and around eighty light sources. In concrete terms:

• Pendant lights with an E27 lamp base. Three quarters of Lucide pendant lights have an ordinary E27 lamp base, so you choose the bulb, colour temperature and brightness yourself. Half cost less than €195. Above €400 you mainly find larger models with built-in, dimmable LEDs.
• Ceiling spotlights for GU10. Over 130 ceiling lights work with a GU10 bulb. If you later want warmer or brighter light, you only replace the bulb.
• Outdoor lighting. Almost all Lucide outdoor lights have IP44, IP54 or IP65, most of them in black.
• Rechargeable lights. Over 75 lights with a battery, some of which can also stand outdoors.

The style is mostly modern. Black appears on more than a third of the lights, followed by white and matt gold or brass. If you are looking for a classic chandelier or a truly country-style light, Linea Verdace or Authentage will get you closer to what you want.

What do Essential, Vibes and Premium in the name mean?

Lucide sometimes puts the collection after the model name. In our catalogue it looks like this:

• Essential, over 130 lights: the cheapest group, half under €60. Mainly pendant lights, outdoor lights and table lamps.
• Vibes, around fifty: more expensive, around €200 in the middle, mainly pendant, table and floor lamps.
• Premium, almost 90: in our range mainly the LINIAL track system, supplemented by a few wall and table lamps.

If there is nothing after the name, the light belongs to the regular collection. Always read the colour temperature, lumens and dimmability in the specifications of the product itself, not from the collection name.

Is the bulb included, and which one do you need?

The Lucide product name already tells you. If it only shows a lamp base, such as 1xE27, 3xE14 or 1xGU10, you choose the light source yourself; the product page says whether a bulb is included after all. If it says LED or LED Dimb. without a lamp base, the LEDs are built in. If, alongside the lamp base, the name also mentions a wattage and a colour temperature, such as GU10 - 1x5W 2700K, that LED bulb is generally included with the spotlight.

Around fifty Lucide spotlights and LED bulbs have Dim to warm. At full power they usually give 3000 K, and the further you dim, the warmer the light becomes, down to 2200 K. That resembles the behaviour of an old incandescent bulb and works best in a living room or dining room where you dim the light in the evening. You do need a dimmer that can handle LEDs; how to choose one is explained in dimming LEDs. Which lamp base is which is explained in lamp bases explained.

Outdoor lights and rechargeable lights from Lucide

Lucide has around 200 outdoor lights: wall lights, pedestal lights, ground spotlights, lamp posts and even outdoor pendant lights. They have IP44, IP54 or IP65, a few ground spotlights IP67. The second digit is about water: 4 stands for protection against splashing water, 5 against water jets and 6 against powerful jets, according to the EN 60529 standard; which rating you need where is explained in the guide outdoor lighting. With outdoor lights that have an E27 or GU10 lamp base, pay attention to the bulb you fit: with a warm colour temperature of 2700 K, a terrace looks calmer in the evening than with cool white light.

The over 75 rechargeable lights are mainly table lamps, but there are also wall spotlights and floor lamps among them. Almost a third of them have IP44 or IP54, so you can carry them from the garden table back inside. Because there is no cable attached, they solve a familiar problem: light on a dining table in the middle of the room or on a wall without a connection point.