A Simple Guide to Outdoor Light Fittings

Outdoor light fittings serve several purposes. They can make the exterior of your home and your garden look more attractive, and can set off a garden design to perfection. Just as importantly, they can help keep people to the path and guide them to your door without tripping or falling. Where street lights don’t penetrate, this can be very important.

Weatherproof Lighting

Since lights that are out in your yard are subject to the rain, snow and wind, it’s a good idea to have them weatherproofed so they won’t burn out. This applies to the more traditional type of outdoor light fitting. Weatherproofing is essentially using a clear box that fits over the fitting itself to make sure it doesn’t get wet. It can be used with many different types of fitting.

Porch Lights

The most traditional type of light is the porch light, which can be found on the ceiling of the porch to show the steps and the front door, or as a pair of sconces on either side of the front door. These are sheltered from the weather and hooked up to the electrical system of the house so they can be switched on from inside. You can find them in different styles, ranging from colonial to contemporary.

Solar

In recent years, solar outdoor light fittings have become far more popular. The biggest advantage is that they can be placed where you need them without having them hooked up to each other or to an electrical system. They absorb power from the sunlight during the day and automatically switch on as darkness comes. In most cases, each light will also require AA batteries to supplement the solar power.

The disadvantage of solar lights is that they won’t burn all night, but only work until the power they’ve stored runs out. However, for illuminating garden paths in the evenings, they’re excellent and the variety of styles available means there’s something to fit every taste. As an extra bonus, they tend to be quite cheap and the only running costs are for the batteries.

Track Lighting

If you have a deck or patio, installing track lighting adds a great accent to the area. The track means you can have the lights wherever you need them and installation is easy and quick. With the range of styles available, they can fit in well with many types of home décor, but especially the more modern property.

LED

LED post lighting makes for excellent, bright outdoor lighting fixtures. They’re inexpensive to run and you can even buy motion sensor LED lights cheaply that only come on when they detect movement. Because of this, you are not lighting areas when it’s not necessary.

The variety of size in LED lights means they’re especially useful as outdoor light fixtures, ranging from a tiny pinhole light to something that can brighten up a whole area. There are also hidden LED lights that can be flush with pool surrounds or a wall to be completely unobtrusive, but still very useful.