Guide to Outdoor Lighting Types and Features
Learn about the most common types of outdoor lighting and their special features.
Design: SLC Interiors
Outdoor lighting can highlight your home's architecture and landscape, and it also provides safety by deterring intruders and making paths navigable at night. Maxim Lighting gives us a look at the most common types of outdoor lighting, shares tips for enhancing your outdoor space, and lists a few special features to consider.
Outdoor Lighting Features
- To reduce energy bills and be eco-friendly, install Energy Star-rated lighting outside. All Energy Star certifications are given out by the U.S. government. Lights with an Energy Star rating are generally equal in price to those without.
- Motion sensors are often found on flood lights, wall lights, and path lighting and only turn on when they sense motion. Motion sensing lights can be used to deter intruders.
- Solar powered lights are eco- and budget-friendly. This option is frequently found on landscape lighting, post lights, and flood lights.
Outdoor Lighting Types
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Wall lanterns and sconces enhance a home's curb appeal and landscaping by providing a source of indirect uplighting and downlighting. Try using dimmable LED-powered wall sconces in pairs over an outdoor seating area, on either side of the garage door, patio door or exterior windows. Also consider installing a single wall lantern on the front of the house to illuminate the street address.
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Landscape lighting showcases plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers. Small spotlights and well lights (which require digging a hole so that the light will sit flush with the ground) are common for landscape lighting as they do not compete with plants for attention. Landscape lights can also be used to highlight architectural features like columns. Most landscape lights can be used in both capacities.
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Pendants or hanging lanterns are usually used to illuminate the front door and enhance curb appeal or a porch. Pendant lights add an interesting design element and provide task lighting as well. They are available in a wide variety of materials, colours, and styles to add a dose of charm to an outdoor living space or front entry.
To make a dramatic statement, place post lights close to the street or at the end of a driveway to enhance street-side visibility. Post lights are also commonly found around pools, patios, and in backyards that are used for entertaining.
Ceiling lights also known as outdoor flush mount fixtures work well in an entryway, porch, patio or overhang. Usually hung above a door or patio dining table, ceiling lights come in the form of pendants, which offer a dramatic look, and flush-mounts, which are best for low ceilings.
Deck or step lights illuminate walkways, sidewalks, driveways, and pool edges. Installed low to the ground, path lights literally light the way for safety and security. Ideally you should choose a path light that is covered on the top so that the light will spread evenly along the ground, rather than create a glare.
Offering maximum safety and security, flood lights cast light across a wide area, discouraging intruders and making the yard well-lit for nighttime outdoor fun. Place flood lights about 9 feet high so that they cannot be easily accessed. Mounting flood lights up high also assures a wide field of light.
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These festive outdoor lighting elements can add a wow element to your yard. Consider an open flame torch for a romantic vibe or go with a flameless LED variety for a safe family-friendly option.
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Cove Lighting
Cove lighting can be used to highlight swimming pools, fountains, outdoor living areas, landscaping, outdoor architectural features, signs, and outdoor walkways. Hidden strips, often containing long-lasting LED bulbs, allow for endless possibilities.
10 Outdoor Lighting Tips to Consider
1. See the light . Identify the areas of your yard and house you want to illuminate and then create a lighting plan. Walk the property at night with a flashlight to see how light will interplay with your home's exterior features and landscaping. As you walk around the property, make note of areas you would use more frequently if they were well lit and identify dark areas that compromise your safety.
2. Layer the light . There are three types of lighting: ambient, task, and accent. Good lighting design layers all three types. Ambient light provides general illumination setting the ambiance and overall light level in a space. Task and accent lighting contributes to ambient lighting. Task lighting provides enough light to get work done, such as a pendant light above an outdoor grill. It is a secondary source of illumination. Accent lighting is decorative, such as a table lamp, and interplays with ambient and task lighting to reinforce the overall style of a space.
3. Do the math . To determine how much light a space requires, try this quick calculation: multiply the square footage of the area you want to light by 1.5 to get a rough estimate of the total wattage required.
4. Opt for energy saving fixtures . To conserve energy and save money on electricity, look for outdoor lightingwith the Energy Star logo. LED bulbs are another energy-efficient option, providing the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs with an energy savings of up to 75 percent. The average life span of a well-made LED light source exceeds 40,000 hours or more than 12 years of average nightly use.
5. Control the light. Consider installing lighting controls such as dimmers, motion sensors, or timers that save energy by controlling the amount and use of light. Timers and photocells, which run on solar energy, turn outdoor lights on at dusk and off at dawn. A motion sensor turns on light when it detects motion and turns off automatically after a certain amount of time.
6. Protect the dark sky. Be a good neighbour and do not let your outdoor light trespass on the property next door. Select Dark Sky Approved fixtures that reduce light pollution. Dark Sky-rated lights minimize glare and protect the nighttime environment because they are fully shielded without wasting light. The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) has a Fixture Seal of Approval (FSA) program that identifies responsible outdoor lighting. Check to see if your community has a Dark Sky ordinance that limits light pollution in the sky from light fixtures. If so, then you will need to select fixtures that direct light downward.
7. Select weather-resistant materials. Make sure all of your outdoor lighting fixtures are made of the highest quality, weather-resistant materials. Maxim Lighting's proprietary Vivex material sets a new standard in outdoor fixtures with its non-corrosive, UV resistant finish that performs well in all climates.
8. Select the right size fixture. The ideal size of an outdoor fixture strikes a balance between proportion and light output. A single light fixture for the front door should measure 1/3 the door's height. When determining the appropriate fixture size, consider how it will look from the street. Typically, a lighting fixture tends to look half its size from the street as it does up close. If illuminating either side of your front door with wall lanterns, the fixtures should measure 1/4 the height of the door. The same rules apply for the garage door. If in doubt, always go larger.
9. Know your bulb. To create a warm, soft glow that does not cast a glare, avoid "over lamping." An overly bright yard can happen when you use bulbs with the maximum wattage in multiple fixtures. If using multiple outdoor lights, consider dropping down in the fixture's rated wattage. The ideal amount of light for most decorative exterior wall fixtures
Design: Maxim Lighting
Lighting Techniques to Enhance Curb Appeal
You have probably put a lot of time, money, and effort into making your home look its very best in the light of day; and after the sun sets, your home should look just as fabulous. Outdoor lighting amps up your home's curb appeal in the evening, extends the social hours of your outdoor living space, and provides safety and security. Maxim Lighting and ET2 Contemporary Lighting have a wide range of outdoor lighting fixtures to make your home safe, social, and stylish. There are many outdoor lighting techniques to highlight your home's best features and landscaping. Here are the top seven outdoor lighting techniques for curb appeal.
- Nightscape Your Yard
As the sun sets, show your landscaping in a different light by nightscaping your trees and plants. Outdoor lighting adds drama and visual interest to your lawn and makes your property appear expansive. Start by choosing a few focal points to highlight such as a tree, sculpture, or some hard landscaping feature that will look good all year long.
For trees and shrubs, lighting can create a moonlight effect when it points up or down through a tree or canopy casting shadows on the ground. To create this effect, hang a wide-angle, low-intensity light fixture high in a tree, trellis, or eave to illuminate a wide area. Highlight your flowerbeds and shrubs with low-level path lights that spread circular patterns of light. Consider downlighting the driveway from the trees if you have pavers or stone textures to highlight. Make your property appear larger at night by lighting trees at the far end of your yard. Ideally, you will want to light an odd-numbered group of trees for visual interest and avoid lighting every tree in your line of sight. Do not forget to light a few plants to complete your yard's nightscaping.
* Light the Way
Use path lighting along a sidewalk, pathway, or steps leading to your front door, a subtle source of illumination that can make a stylish statement or blend in with the yard. Post lights also enhance your front yard lighting by casting a soft, atmospheric glow.
- Make a Grand EntranceIn the evening, lighting becomes your home's first impression, extending a warm welcome to your guests with a well-lit front entry. Consider wall lanterns on each side of the door and a hanging pendant or ceiling fixture above the front door if you have an overhang. Maxim Lighting has a huge variety of pendant styles and ceiling fixtures with coordinating wall lanterns that will help pull together the look of your exterior lighting.
- Highlight Your Home's Best Features
Outdoor lighting emphasizes textures, sculpts, and highlights architectural features and creates focal points. There are four simple techniques to showcase your home's architectural features at night: uplighting, downlighting, cross lighting, and silhouette lighting.
Uplighting shines light up on the focal point from below and downlighting shines light down on the object from above. Both lighting effects add dimension and drama with a wash of light. If your home has dormers, uplighting can enhance the height of these features. To avoid light pollution when uplighting, aim the fixture so that light is captured by the eaves or overhang if possible. Downlights mounted from above can visually graze a feature wall or cast pools of light below on surfaces such as water. Downlighting also works well as security lighting. Cross lighting aims the light at an angle on both sides of the object. This low angle light source picks up surface texture and creates shadowing. Silhouette lighting directs light behind and below the object to create a silhouette. This type of lighting works well in gardens.
- Swimming PoolsTurn your water fountain or pool into a glowing focal point at night with Maxim Lighting's LED tape. The colour of the pool liner and tile will determine how much light is required to prevent the pool from looking like a murky pond at night. Lighter colours reflect light while darker colours absorb light.
- Security LightingFor safety and security, make sure all entry points of the home are well lit. Outside the garage, mount a wall lantern on each side of the garage door or install a single fixture above. For added security, illuminate any side of the house in the shadows with spotlights installed on your eaves or use wall lanterns at side doors, windows, and garages.
- Outdoor Entertainment AreasOutdoor entertainment areas require a mix of ambient, task, and accent lighting to keep the party going at night. For the outdoor cooking area, install task lighting on both sides of the grill. Provide soft lighting around seating and conversation areas with wall sconces, pendants, or ceiling mounted fixtures. To extend the sense of space, consider lighting a tree or a focal point in the backyard to immediately draw your eye outward.
Design: Maxim Lighting
