With so many tasks focused on electrical repairs and troubleshooting, it's not often that a licensed Chico electrician at Experts In Your Home gets to ask, “Is your goal safety, aesthetics or both?” It's not often that a customer gets to ponder the question, either.
The goals, choices and techniques involved in outdoor lighting spark a current of creativity unlike few others – though it's sometimes difficult to say who gets a bigger “charge” out of the process: an Experts electrician or an Experts customer. It's a fun and rewarding project for both.
Outdoor lighting can enhance the beauty of your home while providing an added sense of security after dark. If you're intrigued about the prospect now, just wait until an Experts In Your Home electrician leads you through the decision-making process, which involves the issues of safety, placement and technique.
Consider Safety
Law enforcement officials are in a position to know how outdoor lighting can deter would-be burglars, who prefer to operate in darkness. If protecting your home is a priority, consider the outdoor lighting tips advocated by the Los Angeles Police Department:
- Illuminate your entire property, including the roof, from dusk to dawn.
- Install floodlights to light up rear and front entrances.
- Choose lighting fixtures with a photoelectric cell or timer to ensure that lights will be on when you need them.
- Locate light fixtures at the best location and height to maximize brightness, prevent blind spots and reduce shadows that provide places for potential burglars to hide.
- Install vandal-resistant covers over bulbs and position fixtures in such a way that they cannot be tampered with or intentionally broken.
Consider Placement
Remember that outdoor lighting can help protect your home and beautify it at the same time. The two goals are not mutually exclusive. Some places around your home probably are prime targets for outdoor lighting, including your:
- Front entrance, which can be enhanced with wall lanterns, recessed lighting or chain-hung fixtures so that you can easily identify visitors and greet guests.
- Garage, an ideal place for lanterns on either side or a single fixture mounted in the middle. (Here and almost everywhere else, installing motion sensors makes good sense.)
- Sidewalks, steps, paths and driveway, which lighting makes easier to navigate while highlighting nearby flower beds, ground cover and landscaping.
- Porch, deck or patio, which present myriad opportunities for low-voltage enhancement, including around steps, rails and benches.
- Fountains or pool, though we've met plenty of people who have inverted the process and purchased front-yard or backyard fountains because they wanted a source of illumination.
- Outdoor kitchen or dining area (and no; we have never anyone who has installed a kitchen for the sake of lighting. But there's no doubt that these outdoor areas can benefit from task lighting.)
Consider Technique
Like many Experts In Your Home customers, you might be most familiar with path lighting. While it's one of the most popular outdoor lighting techniques, it's not the only one that holds widespread appeal. Others include:
- Downlighting from a roof line, garden walls or trees to train a circle of light on walkways, sidewalks, flower beds or other focal points (like that new fountain). The higher the light, the smaller the circle (and vice versa).
- Uplighting, which relies on ground-based, low-voltage fixtures to showcase the shape and structure of tree trunks and the canopy of tree branches.
- Moonlighting, in which fixtures are placed high in a tree and aimed downward to mimic the effect of a moon-lit sky.
- Shadowing, which is achieved when a tree or statue is lit so that its form casts an intriguing shadow on a nearby wall or fence.
- Silhouetting, in which spread light is placed between a plant, sculpture or fountain and an adjacent structure so that the object is silhouetted in black against a soft white background.
If you're getting the picture that outdoor lighting portends grand opportunities to safeguard and beautify your home, we hope you'll start gathering pictures of inspiration from both print and online sources. Then schedule a consultation with a Chico area electrician. Together, we'll shed all new light on the opportunities – and your home.
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