Outdoor lighting is an essential part of developing your home. It is just as important to light up the outside of your home as it is the inside. Whether your home looks great inside or not, guests may feel less than welcome if your outdoor area isn’t well lit.
Luckily for you, we’ve prepared for something like this. Correcting your outdoor lighting isn’t as complicated as it may sound. We’ve prepared six steps that you can follow to do so on your own. Once you’ve read through all of these steps, you’ll know enough about setting up outdoor lights that it won’t seem difficult at all!
Read on if you would like to learn more about how to set up your outdoor lighting perfectly!
#1 – Use Different Kinds of Outdoor Lights
Using a whole bunch of the same lights would be quite boring, wouldn’t it? Not only would it be boring, but it also wouldn’t light everything up very well. There are three main types of outdoor lights that you should look into using:
- Ambient Lighting (Hanging Lights, Post Lights, etc.)
- Task Lighting (Pathway Lights, Security Lights, etc.)
- Accent Lighting (Spotlights, etc.)
Using a combination of these three types of lights will keep your outdoor lighting scheme interesting and efficient. This way, people will feel welcome in your home and you will have the security of knowing if anyone is sneaking around in your backyard.
#2 – Measure Out the Area Requiring Lighting
You’ll need to know how much land you have to light up before you can determine how many lights you will need. The estimated wattage level needed per square meter is 1.5. So, you can multiply the area in which you need lighting by 1.5 and that should give you a general idea of how many watts of light you will need.
Let’s say you want to use a 60-watt bulb in one of your outdoor lights. 60 watts would be able to light up an area of 40 square meters. You can use this knowledge to determine how far apart you should place additional lights to cover the whole outdoor area.
Obviously, there are times when you may need more or less than the average amount of watts. It really depends on how you want it to look.
#3 – Save Power with LEDs
LEDs have two major advantages over other lights. Typical lights, such as halogen lights or incandescent bulbs, consume a fair amount of energy and require heavy maintenance.
LEDs, on the other hand, require less energy while shining brighter than other lights. They’re also much easier to maintain, requiring very little of your time and energy at all.
#4 – Take a Look from Indoors
It is quite important to see how your outdoor area appears from inside your home as well. Take a look during the night with various lights on and off to see how everything appears. It is important that you try all the lights to see how they work on their own and amongst other nearby lights.
If you notice that any of your lights cross over one another, you may need to reduce the wattage from one or the other of them. This will help you save power. It will also reduce the possibility that your outdoor lighting is too strong that it overwhelms any guests that visit.
#5 – Ensure You can Regulate the Lighting Level for Various Situations
Changing the level of your lighting is an essential aspect of your outdoor lighting as well. You won’t necessarily want your lights on the same level all night long.
For example, you might want to dim your lights when guests are coming over. On the other hand, it is best to have your lights ramped up when you plan to sleep in case someone was considering trespassing.
Your neighbors are another factor that must be considered. You don’t want your outdoor lighting to reach their land or bother them in any way. While you do need to light up your whole area to make sure everyone is safe, you should also be considerate toward your neighbors.
You can use the wattage method mentioned earlier to ensure that your lights do not shine too brightly near your neighbor’s property. Focus your stronger lights near your home and some dimmer, nicer lights near your neighbors, if needed.
#6 – Consider the Security of Your Home
You should make sure that your entire outdoor area is covered with lights at night. Not only does this dissuade people from attempting to trespass, but it also allows you the peace of mind that you would be able to see a trespasser from anywhere on your land.
If you live in a rural area, having plentiful outdoor lighting would also keep you safe from nocturnal wildlife, such as bears and coyotes. If you mean to go outside for any reason, the lights should dissuade these animals from going near you. (Or at least give you advanced warning of their presence)
So long as you consider and follow all six of the above factors, you should be able to light up your outdoor area perfectly. Now that you know how to set up your outdoor lighting perfectly, check out our outdoor lights and start setting up some lights!
