Designing Outdoor Lighting
If you took the time to landscape your yard, it’s a good bet that you took a lot of time and consideration in designing that yard. The same consideration should be taken in designing the lighting that will accent that landscaping. Also keep in mind that if your selling your home, correctly designing outdoor lighting can increase the home’s selling appeal.
Uplighting is a popular option with outdoor lighting for a good reason, its subtle. Uplighting can create a very soft glow of light all around your property and never reveal where the light is coming from. You can also use it to highlight certain points of your yard like the home or a garden and call special attention to it. There is a similar version of lighting called moonlighting. This only lights the treetops but creates a similar effect.
It is an essential safety issue to have well lit walkways to your home. Path lighting comes in any style and variety you light, but isn’t quite as subtle as uplighting. Closely designing outdoor lighting is important here since you don’t want to be responsible for any visitors to your home injuring themselves on a dark walkway. If you design the lighting exactly right its still possible to use uplighting for your paths, but you’ll have to be especially careful that it gives off enough light.
Another thing to consider is a programmable system or an automated lighting system. This will allow you to determine how the lights are used based on your schedule. The lights can be programmed to turn on automatically at a certain time of day and turn off at a certain time. This can be great if you go out of town, as it will give the appearance that you are still there. This can be a great safety tool. Another option is a motion sensor system on the lighting system. That way you use the minimum amount of energy, as the lights will turn on as needed and turn off after a few minutes
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