When decorating your outdoor space, know that the eyes need less light to see patterns, shadows, and lights than indoors. It is essential to use the right lighting fixtures for your landscape if you want to create a beautiful ambience. Reputable electrical companies like newman electrical co can provide you with not only products but also valuable industry advice to help you create a quality outdoor lighting setup that can elevate your property’s aesthetics and safety.
What is Ambient Lighting?
Ambient lighting also refers to general illumination. This can refer to natural lighting from windows to ceiling and wall light fixtures required to illuminate spaces and rooms. Well-lit areas are not just safer but also make spaces more appealing for gatherings. Choose lights with wider beam angles or lighting fixtures with power to illuminate more space. Lawns, decks, driveways, and patios are excellent areas to illuminate with ambient lighting.
In general, lighting comes in three classifications according to function, whether for indoor or outdoor use:
- Accent lighting. This directs attention to a specific area or object. It typically uses floodlights or spotlights.
- Task lighting. It is installed for direct purposes, for example, to light a path.
- Overall lighting. This provides illumination for an entire space.
There are various types of light bulbs which are ideal for your outdoor space, such as fluorescent bulbs, incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs, and LED landscape lighting. You can integrate those landscape lights into your home’s wiring system if the lights are near the structure. For a green living practice, solar lighting is another method to power your lights.
View from Inside Your House
Look at your yard while inside your home and consider how the garden, pathway, and patio space look. This can help you choose what kind of lighting to install around your landscape. For example, illuminating gardens viewable from your living room can expand your outdoor view at night. For your garden areas, consider using path lighting or solar outdoor lighting.
Give Importance to Security
Besides providing an ambience, you can also use outdoor lighting to add security to your property. It is important to illuminate all the entry points of your house, to guard against break-ins and burglary. Install wall lanterns or spotlights in your garage, side doors and windows, or any shadowed areas in your home. Garage doors look best with wall lanterns on either side or a single light fixture above the opening.
Be Mindful of Light Pollution
Poorly installed lighting or putting too much light can introduce unnecessary light pollution to your landscape. Too bright lights can create glares that may cause temporary blindness, cover the view of the night sky or shine into rooms inside the house and waste a lot of money and energy. Avoid light pollution by following these tips:
- Control the light in the lighting zones with dimmers, motion sensors, or timers that only turn on lights when necessary.
- Light placement is key, so aim those lights properly and always inspect their position.
- Opt for low-wattage bulbs to provide illumination and minimise wattage use, as those with higher wattage will only give harsher light.
- Use lighting fixtures that come with shielding or reflectors to focus on illumination in areas where you want it.
Keep in mind that most outdoor lighting installations are not advisable for DIY. Safety should come first; therefore, it is best to leave the job to experienced electricians, such as professionals from newman electrical co. By doing this, you can rest assured that your personalised lighting setup does not compromise your safety.
