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Outdoor lighting

Outdoor lighting product information

Many areas outside a home can benefit from extra lighting at night. The large range of outdoor lighting available ensures that an appropriate light can be found for most home and garden styles. Outdoor lighting can be used to illuminate the exterior of a home, deck and pool areas, gazebo, garden beds, paths, and driveways. There are also solar powered versions of most outdoor lights which are easier to install and cost nothing to run. But perhaps the greatest benefit of outdoor lighting is that it allows these areas to be enjoyed at night, especially during warm summer evenings.

Lanterns and sconces placed next to the doorways are both attractive and practical. They help visitors avoid tripping on steps, and allow the homeowner to see who the visitors are. They also make it easier to find the door key after a night out. The paths running down the side of a house can be illuminated with small floodlights or recessed floor lights. The deck and pool areas also have many obstacles that should be illuminated with outdoor lights. Recessed lights can be used for the floor and walls, and small lanterns can be attached to the tops of railing supports. Hawaiian Tiki torches are a popular choice for lighting pool areas, and they also help to keep insects away. Gazebos only requires a lantern hung from it's ceiling to turn them into an inviting spot.

Driveway visibility at night can be greatly improved with outdoor lighting, much better than using headlights alone. Lanterns can be fixed to gate pillars and signposts. Bollard lights are a good choice for the driveway because the lights are high enough to clear the garden and make the whole driveway visible from inside the car. However, garage areas and turning circles are usually too large for bollards alone, and usually require floodlights as well. Driveway lighting that uses motion sensors also improves home security by allowing any suspicious visitors to be seen without leaving the lights on all night. 

Outdoor lighting is most often used to illuminate garden beds and paths. Wandering off a path at night can result in personal injury and damaged gardens. Narrow paths should have lights placed along both edges at regular interval, especially at those places where the paths change direction. The boundaries between lawns and garden beds should also be defined by lighting for the same reasons. Spotlights can be used to draw attention to interesting garden features, and string lighting can be hung from the tree canopies to create a nice effect. Solar powered lights are perhaps a better choice for garden lighting because they are cheaper to install, and they do not need to be very bright.

Most outdoor lighting products are also available as solar powered versions. These independent devices use the free energy from the sun to charge their batteries during the day, and automatically switch on when the light level drops. They can operate for years with any maintenance, except for the occasional cleaning of the solar panels. Perhaps the greatest advantage of using solar powered lights is not that they use free energy, but that they require no wiring. No part of the garden or driveway needs to be damaged to install wiring for them. They do not have the same brightness though, because they need to conserve power to operate through the night.

Choosing the right type of globe is also an important decision. Incandescent globes use the most energy and are relatively short lived. Fluorescent and halogen globes last longer and use less power for the same brightness. Solar powered lights need to conserver energy, so most use halogens or light emitting diodes (LEDs). Fluorescent globes and LEDs produce a white light that is preferred over the yellowish light produced by incandescents and halogens.

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