buyster

Outdoor Lighting Glossary

A Quick Lesson in Outdoor Lighting

No matter how great your garden is, some effective outdoor lighting can always brighten it up. A well designed outdoor lighting scheme can also turn an run-of-the-mill garden into a real stunner. Not only that, there are also practical aspects to outdoor lighting. Motion sensor lights are great for home security and also for making sure that you (and your guests) can see where you are going. We’ll go through some of the most common types of outdoor lighting and examine how your outdoor spaces can benefit from them.

First and foremost, you’ll need a plan. You may want to employ a professional landscape designer for this, but you can do it yourself as well. Make a sketch of the space you are going to be lighting; include the boundary lines, bushes, trees and other outdoor features. Measure out the distances between objects (just pace them out, it doesn’t have to be completely accurate) to give you some idea of how different light sources will interact with each other.

Once you have your plan you’ll need to spend some time thinking about what you want to achieve. Do you want the perfect outdoor entertainment space? Do you want to highlight certain architectural features of your house? Do you just want to be able to see where you’re going when you put the rubbish out at night? With a clear purpose you’ll be much better placed to choose the right outdoor lights for the job.

Bollards are short posts, usually with a landscape light on top. They’re great for lighting paths and entrances.

Deck lights are mounted on walls or inground, usually to light up a path or smaller areas of your outdoor space.

Landscape lights usually come in spikes to be put into the ground but some can be mounted on any surface. They are fantastic for accentuating specific features in your garden or just for providing path lighting.

Solar lights come in all shapes and sizes and don’t require any wiring. Just stick them where you want them and let the sun take care of the rest. Some of our solar lights can stay on for 12-15 hours without being recharged when fully charged after a day in the sun.

Floodlights and spotlights are great for when you need powerful lighting. For security, path lighting or just general lighting in your garden they can usually be mounted on walls or ceilings. Motion activated floodlights are great for security, and you save on electricity as they won’t be on all the time. You can usually set both the duration and sensitivity on a panel on the fixture itself. If you’re mounting these in your front yard close to a public road, be sure to install a visor or guard so that passing motorists aren’t blinded by the glare.

Post lanterns are great for creating an atmosphere anywhere in your garden but are usually used on entrances to paths or to light the way.

Footlights (or step lights) are great for lighting decks and paths. They can be installed in most surfaces.

Dark sky lights are a recent addition to the outdoor lighting arsenal. They reduce upward light pollution by preventing light from leaking upwards. If we had more of these we would be able to see the stars at night in our big cities!