Guiding Principle
The best outdoor lights are those that cannot be seen – highlighting an architectural element, an ornamental tree, a pathway, a waterfall, or a landscape artifact without calling attention to themselves.
Doors
Position light fixtures near a door so they do NOT shine in the eyes of someone entering or leaving.
Fixture Balance
Balance and a little restraint are very important. Everything doesn’t have to be symmetrical but the number and the intensity of light fixtures should be relatively balanced. Even though you may have one interesting landscape feature, a single light by itself can be very distracting. Do NOT place too many path lights in a straight line; it will resemble an airport runway. Do NOT try to light everything; it will begin to look like a “carnival”.
Fixture Quality
Buy high quality, heavy duty, outdoor light fixtures you can afford. These fixtures will last longer, perform better, and provide the lighting effects that will truly enhance your outdoor setting.
Fixture Spacing
Be aware of spacing. If you have several interesting features close together, do NOT try to light them all.
Future Lighting
Plan for future lighting. If you will be adding paths or steps to a landscape, install 2-inch plastic conduit underneath so wiring can be added later.
General Illumination
Lights placed high on the house can gently illuminate an entire yard for parties. But such lights also can create a glare for guests looking back at the house from the yard.
Grazing
Sometimes angle the light so it just grazes a wall, an evergreen, or a tree trunk, highlighting its texture.
Safety
Place lighting under railings, benches, and stairs to increase safety. Lights sometimes can perform double duty; for instance, an uplight on a tree can help light a walkway as well.
Silhouettes
Sometimes shine a light on a wall BEHIND shrubs or a statue to silhouette them.
Timers
Use timers on the transformers in order to automatically turn the lights off at around 11 PM.
Transformer
Buy a large enough transformer to handle all of the lights you will need PLUS a couple of extras. Make sure the transformer has enough terminals to do multiple runs; you do NOT want all of your lights on one wire.
Water
If the water is clear, use submersible lights to dramatically illuminate a pond of water feature. If the water is not clear, uplight a tree or architectural feature nearby and it will be reflected in the still water.
Windows
Direct lights so that they do NOT shine in windows, especially bedroom windows.
Wiring
When you’re finished leave all of the wiring above the ground for few nights so you can easily make changes. Use wire that is 10 or 12 gauge – NOT 14 gauge.
Visit the Pegasus Lighting website to view all of our outdoor lighting products.
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by Tom Farin
Tom Farin is founder and President of Pegasus Lighting. Dr. Farin has been in the field of lighting for over 20 years. He has extensive training and experience in lighting, physics, mathematics and education, acquired at the undergraduate level, in graduate school, and in the field. It is Dr. Farin's interest and expertise in education that drives the overall design of the www.PegasusLighting.com site - with its heavy emphasis on lighting terminology, lighting techniques, and thorough information on each lighting product.
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