Choosing lighting for the exterior your home can feel overwhelming. The good news is that once you understand a few fundamentals and ask yourself some questions, you can narrow down that seemingly endless array of choices.
Get the Right Lights for Outdoors
First, understand that you need to choose fixtures that can withstand outdoor conditions. Lights may be dry, damp or wet rated.
Forget the dry rated fixtures no matter how much you love them. Those are only suitable for indoors.
Damp rated fixtures can withstand some amount of outside weather. For example, you might be able to place them in an area outdoors that is covered.
Wet rated fixtures can take the full onslaught of rain, wind, snow and anything else that natures throws at them. When in doubt, choose wet over damp rated since in severe weather, snow and rain can blow into areas where it normally doesn’t go.
Saying Yes to LED Lights (Or Not)
Consider whether you want to use LED lights, traditional lights or a mix of both.
There are a few advantages to using LED lights in your outdoor spaces. They’re generally more durable and more energy-efficient, and they don’t require as much maintenance. They’re also more environmentally friendly, and they tend to attract fewer bugs than traditional incandescent lights do.
However, they do have their drawbacks. Two of the main ones are aesthetic. They only illuminate in a 180-degree direction, unlike traditional bulbs, which produce light in all directions. They also tend to produce a more stark light. This can make them good for security purposes but not so much for ambiance. They also tend to be more expensive than incandescent bulbs.
Know Your Purpose
What do you want your outside lighting to do? The choices you’ll make for security lighting or just to ensure that everyone pulling into your driveway at night can see to walk across the yard is not the same as the choices you’ll make if you want to highlight a feature in your garden. You might also find that you want a mix of functional and decorative lighting or that you want some lights to perform both functions.
Popular Types of Outdoor Lights
There are a lot of different types of lights to choose from. However, each type has a specific function.
For example, you’d use strings of lights to decorate for a party while floodlights would be appropriate for security or if you wanted to illuminate a large area, such as a patio.
If you want people to be able to see when they walk along a pathway or up several steps, you could use path lights. However, if you wanted to both illuminate a walkway and draw attention to certain features, such as a plant, you might choose landscape lights.
The Basics
The three basic qualities you need to consider are brightness, color and size.
If you’re looking to add atmosphere to a garden in your backyard, you will probably want less brightness than if you are choosing an outside light to leave on for security purposes and so that you can see when you get home after dark.
When it comes to color, you’ll probably want some variation on white except for string lights and perhaps landscape lighting. However, there are variations even within the category of “white.” Are you looking for a warm glow that makes people feel cozy, or is security your top priority?
Color is rated on a Kelvin scale. For decoration and ambiance, look for lights that are 2,000 to 3,000 Kelvins. For general use, a rating between 3,500 and 5,000 is usually about right, and for security, you’ll want lights rated between 5,000 and 6,500.
Sometimes it’s hard to picture how lights will really appear once they’re in your yard at night, and you might need to try several out at your home before figuring out what’s going to work for you.
Finally, what about size? This is partly about whether the light is the right size to do the job you want. However, it’s also about whether it’s in proportion to the features around it. For example, if you’re using landscape lighting to draw attention to delicate flowers, a large fixture might be the wrong choice.
Looking Deeper
Depending on how deeply you want to get into your home decor, there are a few other things you may want to consider.
When you’re looking at different lighting fixtures, consider how well it matches with your home and any fixtures that you already have. Consider the color of the fixture as well, which is different from the color of the light itself.
You may also want to think about what styles of light you’d like. You might choose a landscape light, which is generally set on top of a post or pole that is placed in the ground alongside the feature you want to draw attention to. You might want a sconce, which is usually attached to a wall. Pendant and lantern-style lights would hang from a ceiling, roof or similar structure.
Light Installations From Mister Sparky
Don’t put up with any malarky, call Mister Sparky. Whether you just want a couple of simple spotlights installed to bulk up security around your home or you’re looking to overhaul the decorative lighting in your backyard, hiring professionals to do the job is the way to go. The experienced electricians at Mister Sparky can install your outdoor lights safely and correctly.
