Adding garden lights to an outdoor space can be a fantastic investment for a number of reasons, increased security, extending the amount of time the...
Adding garden lights to an outdoor space can be a fantastic investment for a number of reasons, increased security, extending the amount of time the garden or yard can be enjoyed each day, and the added ambiance that illumination adds to any space. Choosing the kind of garden lights you would like to have isn’t going to be difficult or confusing once you have a better idea of what sort of lighting is available to you and what needs each kind can address for you.
Some garden lights accessible right now are a variety of solar energy lights, hanging lamps, garden lights for outside use, adornment garden lights and deck lights. Each kind has different advantages and uses you need to contemplate.
Gentle illumination can be provided by hanging outdoor lanterns. These lanterns are most often gas powered, have to refilled with fuel regularly, and that puts them on the high maintenance list a bit more than others.
Outside lighting products for the garden cost more than the other styles, but they can be used in many different ways. This type of lighting includes adjustable spotlights, low-voltage outdoor lights and colored lights. While more challenging to install, they can be placed on timers; and if installed by a lighting expert, they can really make the most of the yards features.
Adornment lights for the garden or rope lighting. This is a quick and easy way to dress up a yard or garden. One of the advantages of rope lights is the fact the LED lights are encased in a plastic tube and well protected from any elements.
Lighting for decks is intended to make the deck and outlying area appear nicer. A lot of different products are accessible including everything from recessed lighting to pole lights, which will offer additional safety on the stairs and for the deck edging, which might have been missed in the dark.
Due to the increasing popularity of green devices and energy efficient devices, solar garden lights are becoming more and more popular. There are solar items you can use almost anywhere. Due to the little solar panels in them that charge in the daylight, then automatically come on when it gets dark and are using the energy gathered during the day, they are high on the “go green” list.
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I became charmed with the drama of outdoor patio lights at an exceptionally romantic restaurant in the old part of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We sat in the courtyard garden surrounded by outdoor art sculptures while rope lights wandered up and down the trees. It was the first time I had recognized the beauty and impact of outdoor lighting and outdoor art. I was mesmerized. Since that initial night I have visited many other romantic restaurants and have admired their outdoor lighting and outdoor art but nothing makes an impact like the first night.
At my own house, I have tried to replicate the feel of bringing the indoors out which is what properly placed outdoor patio lights should do. I have met with moderate success and I love to experiment. In choosing your outdoor lights there are a number of things you should always consider. I have tried to list the 4 most important considerations below.
1. What is the purpose of the outdoor lighting? Is the lighting to be atmospheric or functional or both? A certain amount of bright lighting is necessary for general safety. This type of lighting would include lights at every door including your garage door. This lights need to be bright. Safety lights are a necessary evil of outdoor lighting. Other types of outdoor patio lights can be for effect and these lights don’t need to be bright and really shouldn’t be bright. Lighting for effect can be quite dim or use very small bulbs. This type of lighting should be experimented with.
2. Where to place your outdoor lights. Lights for atmosphere can be placed in trees shining down or at the base of trees shining up. You can high light any outdoor art you may have or a swimming pool. You can use rope lights to highlight trees or a fence in the distance or often lovely and simple white Christmas lights make a nice year-round romantic setting. As mentioned above, the lights for safety need to be by each door of your house at a minimum and it must be relatively easy to change the bulbs. If the light requires a 20 foot ladder to change, you might go months with a burnt out bulb and that is not at all safe.
3. What type of light are you looking for? There are a number of relatively new types of outdoor patio lights available these days. There are solar lights. Solar lighting has become less expensive but these lights are slightly unreliable and often give off poor light. It goes without saying that the placement of solar lights is important to their function and cannot be counted on in cloudy or rainy areas. Solar lights will likely work best as mood or effect lighting and should not be used as safety lights. Of course, the most popular and energy efficient are LED lights. These lights can be used as both safety lighting and atmospheric lighting. The price of LED lighting is very reasonable and these are the lights most recommended.
If you have been thinking about updating your outdoor lighting, there are lots of things to consider. First, what are the advantages? Exterior lights add security to your property, both in terms of protecting it from intruders, as well as making it safer for you to walk your property at night. The second biggest reason for outdoor lights is to add a nice ambiance to your home. If you plan properly, you can accomplish both of these goals with one lighting design.
Now that I’ve mentioned the security factor, you might have decided that is the most important reason in itself for you to install some sort of outdoor lighting scheme. If burglars were to case your neighborhood, there is no doubt that they would choose a poorly lit house to break-in to before a house with lots of ambient lighting and motion sensing spot lights. You could install timer lights for earlier evening, and then fall back on the motion detector lights for all night protection.
If you install security lighting on your property, in addition to lighting the perimeter of you house, you should be careful to make sure that dark corners of your property are also covered. Ensuring that any entry or exit points for your house and yard are well lit will discourage anyone from coming onto your property un-invited.
In order for your property to be safe for walking at night, you will want to light all your main pathways, steps, and doors. If you have one entrance that is only occasionally used, you could choose to install a full time motion detector light so as not to waste electricity when it is not actually in use. As for full time pathway lighting, there are plenty of low voltage and wireless solar lighting options, which will both save energy and give a nice lighted glow to your property. More and more LED lights are being used for these types of applications, as it is a great low cost way to provide minimal directional lighting.
Finally, once you have the safety issues covered, and you have made sure that your yard is safe to walk in at night, you may still want to create some extra lighting focal points in order to create a nice evening backyard mood. Different colored spotlights on your front or back door will create a nice effect, as will a colored spot light on a shrub or tree in your landscaping. Another idea is to create a row of low power LED lights along a hedge or walkway to direct attention to this landscaping element. Other backyard lighting ideas include hanging globe lights, old fashioned lamp posts, and rope lighting around tree branches.
Before you start placing lights in your outdoor areas, think about what you would like to achieve. With some careful planning, you might be able to achieve the goals of security and safety while creating a pleasant outdoor aesthetic. Consider installing or updating your outdoor lighting today.
Outdoor garden lighting will greatly enhance your outdoor area. Whether you are needing to light up your patio, back yard, deck or pool area, there are many choices at your disposal. It can be simple to install and will be a nice improvement to your landscaping. The following are some areas to consider before planning your lighting.
One important consideration when planning your outdoor lighting is the amount of space you need to light up. This will determine the amount of lights and fixtures needed to adequately light the area. You need to think about how it will fit with your outdoor area and design. Many people use outdoor lighting to increase security and to provide dark areas with lights to prevent accidents and falling.
You also need to think about what kind of lights to use. You can use a combination of solar and low voltage electrical systems. Some people use solar lights to enhance walkways and pool areas and use electric lights for additional areas. There are all kinds of recessed lights, lanterns that are mounted to sides of the house for decks and post/pole lights. You can use several types of lights to make for interesting lighting.
You can also buy theme type lighting. There are trees that light up and floating lights for the pond or pool, which will make for interesting features. Lampposts and short lanterns can also enhance patio areas and paths.
The costs for lighting greatly vary with each individual project. The amount of area to be lit will dictate the amount of lights to be purchased. The style and construction materials will also influence price. Wrought iron lights are more expensive than a unit made from a durable plastic is. Installing lighting can be as easy as pushing into the ground. The low voltage systems may require some wiring knowledge, but kits are often very detailed with the instructions to install. A landscaping company can also provide you with costs to design and install outdoor lighting.
Outdoor garden lighting will enhance and perhaps increase the value of your property. The lighting will not only increase your safety but also increase the beauty of your area. Check different designs and prices on the internet or at a local lighting or garden center store.
Before you decide on the garden lights that are right for you, be sure to check out Cain Brockman’s website about and affordable .
Outdoor solar lights have several clear advantages when compared to standard electrically powered lights, but it’s not at all a one-sided contest. This article takes a look at the arguments both in favour and against solar lighting. First, the positive side of things.
A key attraction for many people is that outdoor solar lighting is incredibly simple to setup. You don’t have to wire anything up or lay protected cables in the ground – simply position your new purchase where you want it then sit back and wait for nightfall. Also, unlike mains powered lighting that is tied to relatively static cables, solar lighting is just as easy to rearrange and experiment with
Then there’s cost. Outdoor solar lighting costs slightly more to purchase than regular electric lighting but it’s still not especially expensive and total cost of ownership is actually much less. That’s simply because they cost almost nothing to run (there’s still the cost of replacing rechargeable batteries occasionally) and require very little maintenance.
In addition to scoring well for low maintenance and ease of installation, solar lights are also highly reliable and intrinsically safe in an outdoor environment, not to mention endlessly adaptable with seemingly limitless different uses. And that’s before you even get to see range of available formats and styles.
But as ever there’s always a price to pay somewhere and with outdoor solar lighting the giveaway is in the name. Solar lights need sunlight and not all locations are ideally suited. If you have a great deal of shade for one reason or another, or are affected by seasonal changes or frequent bad weather then your solar lights will struggle to recharge properly.
Solar lights can also suffer if debris, falling leaves or snow block their solar panels. If you only have a modest number of solar lights then a simple solution is to periodically put the batteries into a regular battery charger to keep them topped up, but obviously this isn’t practical with large numbers of lights. Which leads neatly to the topic of rechargeable batteries. These are limited to a certain number of recharging cycles which effectively tells you how many days they will last before needing replacement.
On the whole, solar lights are slightly more expensive than their electrically powered cousins, but this is really only a consideration if you are planning a large installation and you would anyway then need to workout the trade-off between ongoing running and initial purchase costs.
Finally, outdoor solar lighting is typically missing two key features inherent in mains powered outdoor lighting. It’s not as bright and doesn’t retain its brightness levels over extended periods of time, and it cannot be switched on and off as required but tends to be automatically controlled by built-in light level meters.
In conclusion, if you don’t especially need very bright lighting that stays on all through the night and prefer an easy installation and instant results then opt for outdoor solar lighting. If however you are looking for more than fairly basic landscape lighting and don’t mind the extra work involved then go for mains electric outdoor lighting.
Check out this related article to discover more about the .
The route to a successful outcome in any project starts by clearly defining the objective, and in that respect installing outdoor solar lighting is no different. Ask yourself whether you want to provide an evening entertainment area, improve security and/or safe access, or simply add an extra visual dimension to your garden at night.
The likelihood is of course that your initial list of requirements will include at least some of these plus a few others for good measure. But by going through this basic planning phase and identifying various zones and possible types of light fitting you will be much better placed to understand how to balance the variety of demands placed on your outdoor solar lighting.
Solar deck lights for example won’t deter many intruders (though these highly versatile little devices will function very well in many situations such as path or drive markers). Equally you probably don’t want bright floodlights on your entertaining areas, and while low level coloured lights look lovely as decorative features in the garden they won’t help your guests see what they’re eating or drinking.
It’s easiest to install outside solar lighting where the end requirements are clearly defined (i.e. deter intruders) and this usually covers what is called task (or functional) lighting. It has an easily understood job to do such as, say, ensuring that you can safely follow a path or flood an area with light when movement is detected.
Of course quite a lot of solar garden lighting serves no better purpose than looking pretty at night, which is a highly subjective and less than rigorous requirement. However, even this aspect is not without some basic ground rules worth observing. First is the obvious fact that solar lights need daily exposure to the sun in order to recharge their batteries, so you have to consider daytime as well as night time location.
Secondly, outdoor solar lights are typically less bright than their mains powered counterparts. Even when fitted with highly efficient LED light bubs they have to provide many hours of light from a single battery charge and simply cannot run as brightly. But that can be turned to an advantage since you can pack in many more solar garden lights than is possible using regular lights to create striking yet still subdued effects.
Thirdly, one of the main attractions of outdoor solar lighting is that it is both extremely easy to install and equally easy to rearrange subsequently. You aren’t stuck with your initial decisions regarding placement and can endlessly try out various arrangements until you settle on one that looks most pleasing to you.
Finally, never forget that it is your garden and therefore you can do as you please. If you want to string solar fairy lights along a dull fence or scatter sun jars at random then go right ahead. The fact is that pretty much any outside garden lighting looks a whole lot better than none at all, and it is near impossible to make a garden actually look worse by installing solar lighting.
If you found this interesting then be sure to check out this additional article that looks at in more detail.
Making a decision to create a garden that includes garden lights can be a little daunting. However with planning and patience one can create a home and garden that will look as magnificent during the night as it does during the day.
Using a camera to take photos of the items in a garden that will be main points of attention can be very helpful. By taking the photo at the angle from which the light will be installed one can get a feel for what the visual effect of the garden lights will be in those areas. This allows one the flexibility to adjust and change the design prior to committing a lighting fixture or conduit to a particular location.
When selecting lights it is important that one include those lighting needs around the perimeter of the home. Many individuals have blind areas around their home that are completely dark at night. Using halogen lighting which connects to the electricity in the home can engulf a home in light when one desires to do so. In some cases these lights are attached to motion sensors that turn the lights on automatically when a figure crosses across the beam of the light. This security feature can also be added to other lights throughout the garden to make walking on pathways safer for guests.
The decision to use solar lighting or low voltage electrical lighting is very subjective and prices can vary greatly. One problem with solar lighting is that the battery life is often not as long as people would like. The other problem is that when the sun is not shining the battery won’t charge. So, if a person wants to use solar powered lighting in areas where there is not sun year round they may consider distributing solar lighting among low voltage lighting to assure that there is always light in the area. Another options is to use solar lighting in those areas of the garden that one does not mind go unlit on some nights.
Getting a plot map of the lot that has the details of the buildings and gardens that are on it will help you if you are going to need to install low voltage conduits for your lights. Mark the map with the areas where you want perimeter lighting to go. These lights will be brighter and are sometimes called security lights. They most probably will be mounted on the walls of the home and will be connected directly to the home’s electrical current.
Most home accidents involve slipping and falling on pathways and steps. This can be very expensive and cause homeowner’s insurance premiums to rise. By installing proper low voltage lights along pathways and steps in the garden and to the home one is reducing the danger of tripping, slipping, or falling. Low voltage lighting is very inexpensive to run and provides the amount of light that one needs to navigate pathways easily. There are also low voltage garden lights made specifically for steps which when in place are not noticeable until a person walking triggers a motion sensor which activates them.
Up lights will provide the items in your garden with the attention that you want them to have. These lights are generally low voltage but brighter than the lower lights that are used for ground shrubbery. Some individuals prefer to install these lamps with the lights directed towards boulders or other natural elements so that the lay of shadow and light provides visitors with a different look in the garden than they would see during the day.
Down lights produce a soft downward light that can be made brighter with a dimmer switch. One would want to use these lights at the entry ways as well as in areas where activities will be going on such as a patio. These lights are brighter than one uses for decorative purposes but not as bright as a light bulb.
When a plan has been drawn and a person has figured out how big the task will be to install garden lights they may choose to call a professional for assistance. For large yards there may be the need to lay electrical conduit and test outlets which should always be done by someone knowledgeable and trained in this area. For the smaller garden one may want to begin the project themselves by purchasing the necessary kits to do a small part of the garden to see if it is something they feel comfortable doing.
To help you decide what kind of outdoor lights are best for your home check out Abel Brockman’s website about and techniques.
