Outdoor lighting can do wonders for your home. It can illuminate the exterior of your home, provide safety and security to you and your loved ones, and even add more value to your property.
Not only that, but you can maximize the functionality of your backyard if you install outdoor lighting. Now, you can enjoy more nighttime activities with your family within the comforts of your home.
What To Look For In Finding The Perfect Outdoor Lighting
However, there are some factors that you may need to consider when buying and selecting the outdoor lighting fit for your property. You may use the following tips to find out what outdoor lighting is best for your needs:
1. Have A Plan
It’s said that failing to have a plan in place is essentially planning to fail. Thus, you must plan every purchase, and this includes outdoor lighting. By doing so, you can have a fixed budget for the right fixtures based on your needs. If you plan to light up a landscape in your backyard, different options depend on the certain spots you want to illuminate.
Thus, you should check what locations or areas that need lighting. You don’t need to buy several lights to light up one section. There are various colors, shapes, and sizes for your outdoor lighting that you also need to consider.
If you don’t know how to plan it, you can always consult outdoor lighting experts. If you live in Portland, you don’t have to worry because you can find many outdoor lighting services. What’s great is you can request a demo or consultation so they can offer you their best services. All you have to do is visit different sites such as https://oregonoutdoorlighting.com/portland/ and others. That way, you can achieve a well-planned and well-designed outdoor lighting system with the help of experts near you.
2. Types Of Outdoor Lighting
As mentioned, there are many types of outdoor lighting you can choose from. That’s why having a plan will help you avoid buying the ones which will not be suitable for your needs.
For instance, you can use outdoor lighting to light up your buildings and facilities, storefront, office spaces, and public areas. You can also buy outdoor lighting for security purposes or make walking at night safe. Or simply for decorative purposes like landscape lighting.
No matter what industry or residences you have, outdoor lighting enhances the facade of your property. While adding security, it also gives a bright feeling during the nighttime. You can check videos available on the web like to picture out how outdoor lighting can do such a trick.
But that doesn’t mean you can proceed to buy just any outdoor lighting fixture without checking the specifications. Refer to the different types below to check what will suit your needs.
- Spotlights
Spotlights are lighting fixtures that point to only one place or location. Thus, you can use them to light a particular area outside of your property. If you want to illuminate a statue or a centerpiece, use a spotlight. They can also be used to employ a grazing effect when you direct the light towards the ceiling or a wall.
- Flood Lights
If you want to brighten up a large part of your lawn, your best option is to purchase floodlights.
Due to the wide coverage and high brightness of this type of lighting fixture, you can quickly light walkways, driveways, and patios using floodlights fixed at a higher elevation.
- Canopy Lights
As for this type of lighting, you can install it under the canopies placed outside of your house. If you’re planning to buy, you should check if these are also resistant to vibrations. You need to consider that specification if you’re living in urban areas where there is heavy traffic.
Based on these varied applications, you need to consider the beam shape, mounting height, and area to light up the areas.
- Wallpacks
This type of lighting fixture is self-contained, designed for outdoor installation, like on walls without a pole. You can use this to light immediate surroundings in the building. There are two main types of wallpacks based on the shape of the beam. First is the full- cutoff wall packs that have narrow beams concentrating lighting downwards. Meanwhile, the other type, semi-cutoff wall packs, lights the chosen area laterally.
- Landscape Lights
As for this outdoor lighting, they can vary depending on the use, design, light-emitting diode (LED) components, controls, and other additional parts to control light pollution. You can use this type of lighting fixture is for private or public landscaping like parks, verandas, or building terraces. Moreover, you can also use this for security purposes aside from beautifying such areas.
3. Figure Out The Protection Rating
When buying outdoor lighting, you should not only buy ones that are aesthetically designed. It’s best to also consider if they’re made for the rigors of the outdoors.
With the fast-growing industry, many players have decided to establish a set of guidelines to determine how well the lighting is protected from different damages caused by outside elements. In some instances, solid objects, liquids, and the like can cause the lighting to be impaired which renders it unusable. Knowing this will let you identify what outdoor lighting is best in a specific area.
Different ratings have different ways to indicate the lighting’s degree of protection. One of the most popular has two digits after its initials. The first digit means protection level from solid objects, and the second digit shows how resistant the light is to water. Scores can go from as low as 1 which indicates the lowest protection level to 6 or 8 which shows the lighting’s highest protection level against solid and liquid objects.
3. Check Quality
Homeowners are strongly encouraged to inspect the quality of the outdoor lighting to ensure that it will last for a long time. Certain factors such as the materials and parts of the lights should be inspected to see the quality of the lighting fixture. There are certain materials that are said to have good quality and improve the light’s performance.
To avoid wasting money on low-quality materials like plastic or recycled aluminum, you can choose solid brass, stainless steel, or aluminum to avoid eventual deterioration from everyday use. These can be more expensive upfront, but this will save you money in the long run.
4. Take Note Of Security Features
As mentioned, outdoor lighting isn’t only for aesthetic purposes. Lighting up your outdoor area will help you in protecting your loved ones and securing your home. A well-lighted home is less susceptible to security threats. Malicious elements are said to target homes with little to no lighting present to carry out their deed. Also, it’ll help neighbors and authorities identify mischievous individuals who want to trespass on your family’s privacy.
Thus, you may want to install outdoor lighting at the main entry point of your home. Having a functional lighting system in your property’s central entrance can be key in improving your house’s safety. You can do this through the following:
- Placing some lighting outside the garage;
- Mounting a big wall light; and
- Using spotlights on the eaves or walls on the sides of your house.
5. Examine Lights’ Energy Efficiency
Although you want to ensure that proper lighting surrounds the exterior of your property, you may want to buy energy-efficient ones. By installing energy-efficient outdoor lighting fixtures at home or for your business can help lower energy use.
Using LED or compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) lighting for commercial purposes can reduce energy costs up to 50%. With such, you can reap the following benefits:
- Helps Lower Power Bills
Using energy-efficient LED for outdoor lighting can reduce up to 75% of energy, making eclectic bills for businesses lower.
- Reduces Carbon Emission
Reducing energy usage will also reduce carbon emissions that can harm the environment. With energy-efficient lights, you can have more control over your light usage. Many light fixtures include timers, dimmers, motion sensors, and other controls to turn on or off your lights automatically.
6. Know Desired Effects
As mentioned, you can improve your home exterior’s aesthetics by installing outdoor lighting. Here are some lighting effects that you can create that are believed to leave a lasting visual impact on your property:
- For more dramatic lighting in your garden or your pathways, place some lighting fixtures inside a tree or trellis. Then, point the light downwards to focus on the area you want to be lighted.
- Achieve an illuminated path through moonlighting. Get a similar effect if you place the light fixture high up in a tree angled downward to the ground. The full flare of the lighting creates a shadow pattern that gives a natural moonlight effect.
- You can also try out doing a method known as silhouetting if you want to make a lighted backdrop. Do this by placing a spotlight behind a statue of some other fixtures to create the shadows. Silhouetting makes a dark outline that can enhance the statue you want to focus on.
Conclusion
With so many options to choose from, planning for the proper outdoor lighting is exciting. You can customize how you light up your outdoor area with different types of lighting fixtures. There are choices you can buy depending on what you want to illuminate.
While beautifying your home, you can save money by buying energy-efficient and high-quality outdoor lights. With such, outdoor lighting keeps your property secure and appealing.
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