Garden Lighting Tips
Author:Make your garden magical with strategic landscape lighting. Whether you’re looking at installing fairylights to decorate, spotlights to highlight a special feature or coloured lights to create a certain feeling and ambience in your garden.
These easy tips will make it easy for you, whether you’re intending on hiring a professional or doing the work on your own.
Get Creative
Lights in your garden can be far more than functional. Consider how you can take advantage of your garden’s features with strategic lighting. There is also a huge range of light styles available, whether you’re looking for something modern, rustic, traditional or almost hidden completely. Selecting your favourite type of lighting fixture can be very enjoyable
What lights will work for you?
There are a few different outdoor lighting fixtures available, such as:
Path lights: Sitting close to the ground, these lights emit a wide spreading light suitable for running along paths or driveways
Up lights: You may know these better as spotlights or floodlights. Based on the ground, these lights direct a strong beam upwards which is suitable to highlight a feature in your garden, such as a fountain or tree.
Down lights: Placed up high, these lights are generally used for security purposes. They can also be good for mimicking moonlight and creating a different feeling in your garden.
Back lights: Opposite to up lights, these lights are positioned behind the feature they wish to highlight. Generally hidden from view, they are used to create interesting silhouettes on walls or to highlight an object’s shape.
Specialty lights: Fairy lights, party lights, string lights, post lights or patio torches all fall under this category and they are generally brought out for special occasions.
Where should the lights go?
Here comes the tricky part. Positioning lights so that they can be most effective requires an understanding of how bright the lights are and how far their light will travel. For example, if you want to create a subtle feel with soft lighting perhaps a few path lights and up lights are the key. If you have a large garden you may want some areas to be bright while keeping other areas slightly darker and mysterious. We recommend researching beforehand and consulting with a professional outdoor lighting designer to make the most of your garden.
Creating a diagram of where the lights will go and which direction they’re facing is absolutely necessary. It will also help when it comes time to work out how the lights should be wired and will enable you to be more economical in your positioning.
Being Green
It is becoming more and more important to find greener, more energy efficient solutions. This no less true when planning your garden lighting. Some older-style lights are very inefficient, emit a lot of heat and require their bulbs to be replaced frequently. If you’re serious about energy efficiency in your garden then perhaps you should consider installing LED lighting fixtures.
LED uses a lower wattage to standard lighting, and thus uses less energy. The downside is that it can be more expensive and a bright light, such as a floodlight, may ‘drown out’ the LEDs. However when you consider how much you save on energy and bulb replacement by using LEDs, the choice is made clearer.
Another alternative is the increasingly popular solar garden lights. These can be found quite cheaply and are very easy to install. They don’t require any power – they will turn themselves on when it grows dark outside and turn off when it is day again. They aren’t quite bright enough to be used in most situations, however, so are mostly used to light up paths and as decoration.
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