As we draw closer to the winter months when the days get shorter and darkness sets in before dinner, walking to your front door or getting around the yard can be more difficult. It highlights the need to enhance safety, curb appeal and convenience with walkway and path illumiation. However, the proper utilization of a path light is confusing to most home and property owners. Consequently, we saw the need to put out few tips to help you create a well illuminated path to and around your home.
First and foremost, pathway lights should do just what they advertise, which is to offer illumination to guide you along a walkway or an outdoor path. They should provide direction without a distracting glare by giving a gentle glow downward towards your feet. Here are some tips in order to achieve this:
- Some people like to put a space of about 10 to 15 feet in between the lighting fixtures so as to create pools of light to ensure your safety while moving from one spot to another, while others prefer to overlap lighting to provide a constant stream of light.
- Ensure that the fixtures direct light toward the feet and not the eyes or sky. Seems obvious, right? But sometimes fixtures inadvertently end up pointing at your eyes instead of where it is useful. A certified landscape lighting technician has training and experience to avoid pitfalls like this.
- Unless you plan to land planes, do not pair up lights on both sides of the pathway. Either stagger the lights on both sides of the pathway or line them all along one side. It is best to avoid putting path lights in lawn turf, as lawn equipment tends to be very unkind to lights, resulting in frequent (and often expensive) repairs.
- Proper fixture height and style should be chosen. Some people prefer low lights to illuminate a path, while some like the taller spreading lights to cast glow over a larger area. If they are set in foliage, the lights should be a little bit higher than plantings (this may need to be adjusted from time to time as the plant grows).
- Do not over-light. Make use of low wattage bulbs to ensure a proper illumination. Over lighting is wasteful, and truly doesn’t make it easier to see—our eyes adjust to the dark, and light that is too bright simply creates glare (Hello, garage corner floodlight! Now I can’t see anything, thank you!)
- Power your pathway lights with the properly rated low voltage transformer which changes the electric current from 120V to 12V. Outdoor lighting systems are specifically created for outside use, and are especially resistant to the damp and wet conditions that can exist (and we all know the end result of a water and electricity combination!).
Located in Summerfield, NC Southern Lights- Architectural and Landscape Lighting serves properties and property management companies throughout the state of NC including Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Burlington, Reidsville, Oak Ridge, Brown Summit, Winston-Salem, Clemmons, Raleigh, Charlotte, Kannapolis, Salisbury, Gastonia, Matthews, etc.
Southern Lights has installed hundreds of outdoor landscape lighting systems and carries more certifications than anyone in the state. We specialize in lighting designs and service everything we install as well as lighting systems installed by others. With attention to detail and a solid knowledge of design, Southern Lights is the leading outdoor landscape lighting firm in the state of NC and beyond. See why our clients choose us. Contact us today by web (online form) or phone 336-451-4969.
