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# Sunset moves to 4:54 on November 1. Here is how to light a Warren colonial for the months after.
- URL: https://blog.johnmangini.com/lighting-a-warren-colonial-for-the-short-days/
- Published: 2026-10-17T17:33:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T19:06:56.000Z
- Description: Sunset in Warren drops from 6:15 tonight to 4:54 on November 1. A room by room plan for lighting the colonials most of us live in.
- Author: John Mangini
- Tags: Warren Local, Home and Garden, Design, Lighting, Permits, #syn-fb, #syn-gbp, #syn-threads, #syn-nextdoor
AdviceJudgment from the brokerage, grounded in the data on this site. [What the labels mean](https://blog.johnmangini.com/editorial-standards/)
The sun set over Warren at 6:15 this evening. On Sunday, November 1, [the clocks go back an hour at 2 a.m.](https://www.nist.gov/node/430171?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), and that night it sets at 4:54\. By December 7 it is down at 4:31, by the [U.S. Naval Observatory’s table](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/RS%5FOneDay?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) for the township’s coordinates. Anyone who leaves work at five comes home in the dark from November into the new year, to a house that was not built with that evening in mind. Of the 170 Garden State MLS closings in Warren Township from October 17, 2025 through October 17, 2026, every residential type counted, 76 were colonials, 45 percent of the total, and the median detached home that sold was built in 1985\. This post is about lighting that house.
## What a 1985 colonial gives you to work with
Most Warren colonials from the late 1970s through the 1990s share the same bones: a center hall, formal rooms to either side, a kitchen open to a family room at the back, four bedrooms up. In my experience the builders put one fixture in the foyer, one over the dining table, one in the kitchen, and a switched outlet instead of a ceiling light in the living room and the bedrooms. That is an observation from 24 years of showing these houses, not a survey. The lighting plan was left to the owner, who usually added one lamp per room and stopped. In December that is why the family room feels like a cave at 5:30.
A chandelier hung high in a two story foyer. Lowering it toward the landing and adding a dimmer changes the room more than a brighter bulb. Photo: [rawpixel](https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6023239/photo-image-public-domain-house-room?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
## Three layers, and the numbers on the box
Every room gets three layers: ambient light that fills it, task light where you read or cook, and accent light on one thing worth looking at. A ceiling fixture does the first job badly and the other two not at all, which is why the fix for most Warren rooms is more lamps, not a brighter bulb.
Read the bulb box for two numbers, not the wattage. Brightness is in lumens, and the [Department of Energy’s Energy Saver guide](https://web.archive.org/web/20260101032700/https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/lighting-principles-and-terms) gives the reference point: a 100 watt incandescent put out about 1,600 lumens. Color is in Kelvin. The same guide calls 2,700 to 3,000 K warm, puts cool light at 3,600 to 5,500 K, and says 2,700 to 3,600 K is generally recommended for most indoor general and task lighting. Pick one color temperature per room. A 2,700 K lamp beside a 5,000 K lamp makes one look dirty and the other look like a garage, the most common lighting mistake I see in listing photographs.
The township’s own [Green Team page on lighting](https://www.warrennj.org/282/Lighting?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) makes the case for LEDs: a 60 watt incandescent is matched by a 6 to 8 watt LED, and over 50,000 hours you would replace the incandescent 42 times and the LED once.
Warm bulbs, in the 2,700 to 3,000 K range the Department of Energy guide calls warm. One color temperature per room. Photo: [Bigul Malayi](https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/69568e413e/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) on [WordPress Photos](https://wordpress.org/photos/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
## Room by room
**The foyer.** The fixture is usually too small and hung too high. Put it on a dimmer. A foyer at full brightness at 9 p.m. is an interrogation.
**The living room.** In the National Association of Realtors’ [2025 Profile of Home Staging](https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/profile-of-home-staging?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), a survey fielded in February 2025, the living room was the room buyers’ agents most often called very important to stage, at 37 percent, ahead of the primary bedroom at 34 percent and the kitchen at 23 percent. That is a finding about what agents said, not a promise, but it tells you which room strangers judge first, and it is the room with no ceiling light. Two table lamps at the ends of the sofa and a floor lamp in the far corner, all one color temperature, all on the switched outlet so one switch lights the room. Last week’s [staging post](https://blog.johnmangini.com/staging-a-warren-home-for-the-fall-market/) made the same point for a house on the market.
**The dining room.** The chandelier is almost always too small for the table. Add a dimmer, and a pair of lamps on the sideboard turns a room used twice a year into one used for homework.
A chandelier over the table and two lamps on the sideboard: three layers in a room that usually gets one. Photo: [rawpixel](https://www.rawpixel.com/image/5942905/free-public-domain-cc0-photo?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
**The kitchen.** The one room where brighter is right, at the counter rather than the ceiling. Under cabinet strips are the task layer most 1980s kitchens never had. Plug in strips are a weekend job. Hardwired strips and new recessed cans are not, and the permit callout below says why.
**The basement.** The one room where the township asks to see your lighting plan on paper. The Construction Department’s [finished basement plan requirements](https://www.warrennj.org/157/Decks-Pools-Basements?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) call for an electrical layout showing all receptacles, switches, exhaust fans and lighting locations, with the type of lighting identified. Draw the lights in before you call the electrician, because the plan goes in with the permit.
Pendants put the light at the counter instead of the ceiling. Hardwiring new ones is permit work in Warren. Photo: [rawpixel](https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6032916/photo-image-public-domain-wood-kitchen?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
## The daylight side of the problem
The other half of the job is letting in the light you already have. Wash the windows before the clocks change, because low autumn sun shows every streak. Mount curtain rods near the ceiling and wide of the frame so the panels stack on the wall, not over the glass. Paint the darkest rooms a warm white, which the state construction code counts as ordinary maintenance.
Then go outside and look at what stands between the window and the sky. On a wooded Warren lot it is often a maple limb or overgrown foundation evergreens. Raising a tree’s canopy so light reaches the windows is a winter job: the Rutgers Master Gardeners of Hunterdon County’s [sheet on pruning trees in winter](https://hunterdon.njaes.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-03-PruningTreesInWinter%5FRemediated.pdf?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) says late February to early March is the best time to prune many landscape trees, that oaks and elms should only be pruned in winter to avoid oak wilt and Dutch elm disease, and that low branches should come off gradually over several winters.
Removing the tree is a different matter. Warren requires a Tree Permit to take down any tree in the township. The [Zoning Permits page](https://www.warrennj.org/244/Zoning-Permits?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) says the fee is $25, that generally four trees per acre per year may be removed under the permit, and that you must submit the application to the Zoning Office and wait for approval before cutting. The [zoning and development page](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-zoning-and-development/) has more on the township’s land use rules.
Curtains stacked wide of the glass, a floor lamp in the corner, a table lamp at the other end. Photo: [Nathan Fertig](https://stocksnap.io/photo/house-interior-WDVIQZEXML?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) on [StockSnap](https://stocksnap.io/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
Before you start: what needs a permit in Warren
The [New Jersey Uniform Construction Code](https://www.nj.gov/dca/codes/codreg/pdf%5Fregs/njac%5F5%5F23%5F2.pdf?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), which Warren’s Construction Department enforces, says at N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.14 that ordinary maintenance needs no permit or notice and that other work does. The ordinary maintenance list at 5:23-2.7 includes painting, trim, flooring, a window or door replaced in the same opening, and the replacement of any receptacle, switch, or lighting fixture, or part thereof, with a like or similar item. Swapping the chandelier for another on the same box or changing a switch to a dimmer needs no permit. A new ceiling box, a new circuit for under cabinet lights or recessed cans, or added outlets are not on that list, and the township’s [Construction Code page](https://www.warrennj.org/153/Construction-Code?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) says permits are required for most work and asks you to check with the department first, at 908-753-8000, extensions 240, 241 and 242\. A finished basement needs a construction permit with the plan described above. Whether your lot or your septic system adds a condition is something only the Construction Department or the Zoning Officer can tell you from your file, not this page.
A like for like switch swap, including a dimmer, is ordinary maintenance under the state code. Photo: [Matt Bango](https://stocksnap.io/photo/light-switch-GCFFRMA9VR?ref=blog.johnmangini.com) on [StockSnap](https://stocksnap.io/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
## A lighting checklist for the clock change
- Walk the house at 5:30 p.m. the week of November 1 and note every room that feels dark.
- Count the lamps in the living room and the family room. Fewer than three in either is the usual cause.
- Make the Kelvin number match on every bulb in a room, 2,700 to 3,000 K in living spaces.
- Put dimmers on the foyer, dining room and kitchen fixtures.
- Wash every window and move the curtain rods up and out.
- Book late February pruning for the limbs that block the low winter sun.
- If a basement finish or new wiring is on the list, call the Construction Department first.
Matching lamps on both sides of the bed, each on its own switch. Photo: [rawpixel](https://www.rawpixel.com/image/5969891/bedroom-with-lamps?ref=blog.johnmangini.com), CC0.
Author’s opinion
Warren houses are under lit because they were built to be seen in daylight by people who were rarely home in it. The fix is unglamorous: more lamps, lower on the walls, all one color, on dimmers. The grid of recessed cans that goes into every renovation here makes a room bright and flat, and I would rather walk a guest into a room with six warm lamps than one with fourteen cans.
What I could not verify
I read the ordinary maintenance section of the state construction code in the Department of Community Affairs’ posted copy, but the minor work section, N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.17A, which governs small electrical jobs such as new outlets, was not in the part I could read, so I have sent those jobs to the Construction Department rather than quoting the rule. The Township Code’s glare standards in Chapter 16 are written for nonresidential uses as far as I could read, and I found no separate limit on residential exterior lighting, which is not the same as saying there is none.
Sources
1. U.S. Naval Observatory, sun rise and set for 40.6315 N, 74.5093 W, October 17, November 1 and December 7, 2026\. [https://aa.usno.navy.mil/api/rstt/oneday?date=2026-11-01&coords=40.6315,-74.5093&tz=-5](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/api/rstt/oneday?date=2026-11-01&coords=40.6315,-74.5093&tz=-5&ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
2. NIST, Daylight Saving Time Rules. [https://www.nist.gov/node/430171](https://www.nist.gov/node/430171?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
3. Garden State MLS closed sales, Warren Township, October 17, 2025 through October 17, 2026, all residential types.
4. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Saver, Lighting Principles and Terms, archived copy of January 1, 2026\.
5. National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile of Home Staging. [https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/profile-of-home-staging](https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/profile-of-home-staging?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
6. New Jersey Uniform Construction Code, N.J.A.C. 5:23-2, ordinary maintenance at 5:23-2.7 and permits at 5:23-2.14\. [https://www.nj.gov/dca/codes/codreg/pdf\_regs/njac\_5\_23\_2.pdf](https://www.nj.gov/dca/codes/codreg/pdf%5Fregs/njac%5F5%5F23%5F2.pdf?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
7. Warren Township Construction Code department. [https://www.warrennj.org/153/Construction-Code](https://www.warrennj.org/153/Construction-Code?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
8. Warren Township Construction Code FAQ, When do I need a permit. [https://www.warrennj.org/faq.aspx?qid=69](https://www.warrennj.org/faq.aspx?qid=69&ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
9. Warren Township, Decks, Pools and Basements, finished basement plan requirements. [https://www.warrennj.org/157/Decks-Pools-Basements](https://www.warrennj.org/157/Decks-Pools-Basements?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
10. Warren Township Zoning Permits, tree permit. [https://www.warrennj.org/244/Zoning-Permits](https://www.warrennj.org/244/Zoning-Permits?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
11. Warren Township Green Team, Lighting. [https://www.warrennj.org/282/Lighting](https://www.warrennj.org/282/Lighting?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
12. Rutgers Master Gardeners of Hunterdon County, Pruning Trees in Winter (PDF). [https://hunterdon.njaes.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-03-PruningTreesInWinter\_Remediated.pdf](https://hunterdon.njaes.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-03-PruningTreesInWinter%5FRemediated.pdf?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
13. Warren Township Code, Chapter 16 Zoning, on ecode360\. [https://ecode360.com/35251901](https://ecode360.com/35251901?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
14. Photographs are CC0 stock images found through Openverse, credited in each caption. [https://openverse.org/](https://openverse.org/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
15. Photos by rawpixel. [https://www.rawpixel.com/](https://www.rawpixel.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
16. Photos by Tim Wright and Matt Bango on StockSnap. [https://stocksnap.io/](https://stocksnap.io/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
17. Photo by Bigul Malayi on WordPress Photos. [https://wordpress.org/photos/](https://wordpress.org/photos/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
What this means in Warren
- [Selling a home in Warren](https://blog.johnmangini.com/selling-a-home-in-warren/)
- [Warren neighborhoods](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-neighborhoods/)
- [Zoning and development](https://blog.johnmangini.com/warren-zoning-and-development/)
- [Calendar](https://blog.johnmangini.com/calendar/)
John Mangini
Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier
[](https://www.nexthomepremier.com/?ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
Warren Township resident and full time broker, licensed in New Jersey since 2002\. Warren, Local. is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.
[732.236.1087](tel:+17322361087) [john@nexthomepremier.com](mailto:john@nexthomepremier.com) [102 Town Center Drive, Warren](https://maps.google.com/?q=102+Town+Center+Drive,+Warren,+NJ+07059&ref=blog.johnmangini.com)
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