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Outdoor lighting
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When writing or talking about outdoor lighting, we always refer to garden, terraces, patio, swimming pool and facade.
The most important thing, though, like any
electrical installation, is that external lighting must meet a certain number of standards and security criteria. For this reason, it is often recommended to consult an electrician, because not
respecting these safety criteria can risk having your insurance policy invalidated. In addition, all cabling must be buried and each component of the installation must be completely waterproof so
that it does not suffer damage during storms and does not provoke unfortunate accidents. In all circumstances, before jumping into the installation of garden lighting, make sure to carefully check
the properties of your cables, switches and lighting boxes to make sure your equipment functions as a cohesive whole. The minimum requirement is to select lighting that offers a protection level
suited to its application - for more information, check our list of tips and tricks.
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Garden lighting
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A few tips for installing lighting in the garden
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To give your garden a more welcoming appearance, nothing quite beats using soft lighting. Light fittings on the ground or flush with the surface can even help you light
your pathways in a way that creates veritable paths of light. The sunken variety have an added advantage of being completely invisible during the day if you don't actively hunt for them. Wall sconces
and indirect lighting of your terrace can contribute to creating a calm and comfortable ambiance to your outdoor setting. As for LEDs, they have proven to be perfect for adding a modern touch,
especially if you opt for a range that is coloured and not just white.
Lighting up vegetation will deliver relief to your garden at the same time as creating a literal presentation piece out
of your flower beds. The majesty of a tree will be perfectly accentuated with a bottom-upwards lighting generated by an external flood light. For plant species with less dense foliage, the use of
internal lighting with a recessed spot close to the trunk also provides a charming effect. For flower beds, it is better to opt for diffuse and relocatable lighting methods to change the focus of
your installation depending on the seasons and flowering periods. And don't forget that lights should be neither too strong nor too close to the leaves, so that you avoid the risk of
"burning" them.
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How to illuminate your garden
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Garden and terrace lighting needs to combine utility functions like safety and comfort of users with highlighting the beauty of the floral decor and surrounding vegetation.
The various component
elements of a garden (trees, flower beds, lawns, alleys) each require varying mechanisms for effective lighting.
When installing any kind of external light sources, remember to leave
room for lawn mowers, think about any automatic sprinklers, expect to use well-insulated or waterproof equipment that meets IP67 or IP68 standards to avoid accidents, and try to minimise any sources
of light pollution so as not to upset any neighbours.
It will be necessary to try and find solutions where the light sources are concealed, either with fittings that already hide the light
source, or by using the resources available in the garden itself such as bushes and features, because any blinding effects will be sources of insecurity as they accentuate the impenetrability of the
natural darkness. Because of this, indirect lighting produces better overall results. Especially so in alley ways where lights shining on the ground offer a clearly illuminated and easily navigable
pathway.
It is certainly easier to illuminate the garden that the house itself, according to most lighting specialists, and spontaneity is the name of the game because almost "everything
works well in the garden". Garden allows you to do little but do it well, and indeed, you can light up almost any tree in almost any fashion and the effect is always positive. On the other hand,
you should be careful not to over-illuminate, maintain a certain restraint by lighting two or three smaller elements and create yourself a panorama. Don't illuminate everything but make some
discriminating choices so you can lend an air of mystery in your garden by retaining some shadowy zones.
Products which resist stormy weather are widely available, and you will only need to
confirm the protection ratings at the cash desk. All sort of light fittings are available: classic, traditional or stridently modern. In a garden, creativity knows no bounds.
The range of
available exterior lighting is vast. Your choice will be made depending on the garden's layout, the location of the light fittings and the desired luminous intensity: energy saving bulbs,
incandescents, fluorescents, halogens (strong lighting), LED and some discharge lamps with impressive luminous intensities are available with very low energy requirements.
LED, being more
resistant and longer-living than "traditional" light bulbs is the cheapest system overall. Along with CFL, these bulbs are generally used to mark out an alley or to create ambient lighting
effects.
Excepting solar-based systems, all of these lighting systems are quite technical, and require more or less substantial works for installation, as well as being subject to a large number
of safety standards. Using lighting specialists (electricians or landscape gardeners who will take care of the actual manual labour) is therefore often compulsory.
At first impression, it's
quite reasonable to ask yourself the question about how useful such an exercise is going to be anyway. Illuminating a garden at night pretty much amounts to attacking a vast never-ending darkness? Of
course, if you want to illuminate absolutely everything, you'll never see the end of the job and you'll run the risk of showing rather poor taste with the end results. But if you see your outdoors
from another point of view, you can see that there are a handful of obstacles and reliefs that only need to catch a little light to create a wondrous effect.
The whole basis behind garden
lighting is summed up there: keep things small and play with the contrasts between light and shadow. It's definitely not a question of floodlighting the district. This is why many such lighting
schemes work indirectly or with diffuse or non-aggressive light sources. Their applications can be implemented with a purely functional goal, specifically allowing you to move about your garden in
complete safety without risk of tripping over. But it's vital not to forget the decorative potential that can contribute in the creation of your own personalised atmosphere or decor, given a second
life to the outside of your home when the sun sets below the horizon.
Everything can take on a new dimension with the right lighting. Plants, trees, bushes and flower beds spring to new life
in the night, and take on the aspect of a majestic canopy of gently swaying lampshades. Alley ways, terraces and the façades of your home are adorned with fresh splendour. A fountain or pool can
become veritable shining jewels. Colour can also invite itself to the scene. With beads of lights, your imagination has no limits and manufacturers are never short of ideas to offer you solutions
that draw on your inventive playful spirit.
As for the choices of lighting methods, that depends chiefly on the type of bulb employed. There again, the range of possibilities is enormous and
as malleable to your desires as is the lay out of your outdoor zones. To make things simple, the table below summarises the combinations of usage and lighting styles.
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Alley ways
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To mark out a path, the best option is to install low border stones on each side at regular intervals, or spots sunken into the ground which diffuse a soft light without dazzling Distributed along an
alley way, such systems guide visitors by showing them the path, but most of all offer a very welcoming appearance in any season. It is also possible to recess coloured LED spots along the centre of
a pathway, using very low 0.1 Watt bulbs with even longer lives of 50,000 to 100,000 hours depending on the quality of the LED.
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The terrace
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For terraces which are often enlivened with flower beds, lighting will be both functional and decorative. Opt for multiple sources of light, low voltages and energy saving bulbs, rather than a single
wall-mounted streetlamp, giving you the option of creating your own special customised atmosphere.
To illuminate dining areas, direct lighting is better with sconces attached to wall surfaces,
naturally ones that are designed for exterior use. You can also create an impression of volume and a special ambiance with indirect lighting using spots integrated into terrace tiles, marking out the
border of the terraced zone and multiplying your light sources by scattering low-wattage point lights at various points in the garden, most probably with LED or optical fibres.
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Trees and flower beds
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For trees, it's necessary to invert the effects of natural light by directing light from below towards the sky with floodlights recessed into the ground or set directly at ground height. The various
heights and species of trees mixed in with multiple combinations of lights and colour give you an almost infinite range of decorative effects.
Small flood lights on the ground for plants,
standing garden lanterns or illuminated borders means you can take advantage in any season, day or night, of the variations in light of the flowers and vegetation in the flower beds alongside your
alleys. All along a pathway, you can install low-lying borders with wide light beams. If certain sections of the vegetation form a natural archway over an alley, you can apply the same technique as
with trees: illuminate from the ground upwards. Lamps with ratings from 70 to 150 watts are largely adequate for lighting vegetation.
In this case, the lighting choices are determined by the
height and density of the tree foliage and the volumes of the vegetation. This technique particularly benefits conifers and other very leafy trees, using a directional flood that lights up the
subject from the ground upwards. As for less leafy species, they will reveal their silhouettes to beautiful effect with lighting installed very close their trunks. For beds of flowers and shrubbery,
its best to opt for diffused lighting at varying heights to create a relief effect and shadows that emphasise the natural volume of the plants.
Often a metal halide or discharge lamp is
recessed close to plants or a tree, projecting light towards the sky and creating a myriad of silhouettes and shadows through the branches and leaves. Such lights are very strong with minimal energy
consumption, but it is necessary to use a waterproof enclosure to house the unit.
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Swimming pools and ponds
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Lighting a swimming pool and its surrounds should combine aesthetics, conviviality and security.
The first trap to avoid: the pool will behave like a mirror, so be
careful not to provoke a visual eyesore by adding to much additional light. Lighting should be done with waterproof projectors sunk into portholes in the side walls of the pool or pond. Waterproof
decorative lanterns, buried in the soil around the pool, enhance the charm of this leisure area. The locations of all the light fittings must be selected so that they are easily accessible for later
maintenance.
Besides the waterproof recessed spots, water surfaces can be animated with classical floating lights, other the traditional sphere or other more fantastical shapes to imitate
table lamps.
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Facade lighting
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Exterior façades require lighting ideas that complement the architectural features.
With traditional façades, the lighting design must take into account the following
elements: columns, doors, mouldings, windows and window surrounds as well as their depths and even possible friezes.
With all of the examples mentioned above, basic lighting can be ensured with
focussed wall flood lights in various strengths depending on the architectural zones and shadows that may be desired, for example, the effects that can be made with vertical columns.
It is
critical to always keep the desired end effect as utmost in your mind. Before permanently installing any light source, don't hesitate to test out some variations of the light yourself by altering the
directions and/or colours yourself until you're entirely satisfied with the results.
A basic recommendation: never try to illuminate a façade with a flat direct lighting, else you risk
eliminating any and all depth of focus. On the contrary, create solid intersecting blocks of light originating from several different directions, play around with different intensities and colours to
obtain a hazy effect, which means using genuinely veiled lighting overall on the façade, which will bring out the volumes and architectural features. You might similarly consider working on
accentuating columns or statues. Flower beds can also possibly be used to participate in the compilation of the whole picture, as by introducing light into such vegetation can develop detailed and/or
animated offset shadows elsewhere on larger surfaces.
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