Lights on: 5 ideas for garden lighting
Your garden is your pride and you really want to show it off? With the right system for garden lighting, you can create an atmospheric ambience all year round. Here you can find out what you should pay attention to and what options there are for lighting design.
By Margarete Hayduk
It doesn’t matter whether your green oasis is small or large – take your time, plan your garden lighting and get down to business with a system. There will be two types of garden lighting distinguish: functional and aesthetic. The functional garden lighting is used for orientation and safety. The light should be bright so that stumbling blocks such as steps and dark corners around the house are well illuminated. Bollard lights as well as ground-mounted and ground-recessed lights are suitable for this.
The garden lighting should of course also be functional around your seating area on the balcony or terrace. But aesthetic aspects also play a role. You may also want to highlight certain highlights, such as particularly beautiful flower beds, statues or impressive stonework.
If you are planning several light installations, you can use a plug-in system for garden lighting. Many manufacturers have ready-made starter sets for this purpose. They consist of lights, transformers and connection cables. Simply place the lights outside, connect them to the transformer with a cable and plug it into the socket – done. Depending on the manufacturer, the control works with a remote control, via app or directly on the lights.
How bright should garden lighting be?
The brightness of lamps is now mainly given in lumens and no longer in watts. This is the physical unit of luminous flux. 400 to 600 lumens are enough for atmospheric garden lighting. If you want to impressively illuminate parts of the facade and use spots or spotlights for this, the value can also be several thousand lumens.
Important: When selecting the lamps, pay attention to the IP protection class (protection class classification). It consists of the letters IP and two numbers. The first digit indicates how impact resistant a lamp is. The second indicates the weather resistance. Use light bulbs that meet at least the IP44 standard for outdoor use. They are adequately protected against splashing water and the ingress of small foreign objects.
Path lights for the garden: Philips Hue outdoor floor lamps
So that you and your guests can find your way to the front door in the dark, floor lamps or path lights should be part of your garden lighting system. Make sure the lighting is even, so that obstacles don’t become tripping hazards. The following applies: the lower the lights, the closer they should be to each other.
Also note the beam angle of the light, i.e. how large the light cone of a lamp is: it should be 90 degrees on wide paths and 60 degrees on narrower ones. If not only the path but also the green area is to be illuminated, a beam angle of 120 to 360 degrees is worthwhile.
You can find smart garden lighting for outdoor use at Philips Hue, for example. the Manufacturer’s LED outdoor floor lamps can be controlled via app and offer both white and colored light.
Wall lights for individual accents: Philips Hue wall light Econic
You want to illuminate your house entrance individually? Wall lights are a good solution, especially for uncovered areas. Mount them about three quarters of the way up the door – in such a way that they do not glare. Also make sure that the house number and doorbell are clearly visible.
If you like it a little more unusual, you can use colored lights. the Philips Hue LED garden lighting Provides colorful light accents or warm white light, all controllable via app. A Philips Hue Bridge is required.
Automatic light control for more safety: Schwaiger sensor light
If you prioritize safety with your garden lighting system, you should look into automatic light control. For example, you can use lamps with twilight sensors and attach them to places that should be continuously illuminated in the dark, such as the entrance to the house. These lamps turn on automatically when it gets dark and turn off again at dawn.
It is even better if the lamps also have motion sensors. In this way, garden areas that do not need constant light are only illuminated when you actually use them. Another plus point: if garden lamps with motion sensors switch on suddenly, this has a deterrent effect on potential burglars.
An important factor in automatically controlled garden lighting: low energy consumption so that batteries last as long as possible and power consumption is kept within limits. It is best to use LEDs for this.
the battery-operated LED sensor light from Schwaiger you can attach to the wall of the house. It has two movable lamps, so you can illuminate two different areas from one spot. At dusk, the light turns on automatically. The same applies when she registers movements. You can decide for yourself how long the lamp stays on after the motion sensor has been triggered (between 10 and 30 seconds).
Creating atmospheric oases of light: LED recessed floor lights from Astro
Light does not always have to come from above or from the side – you can also embed special lights in the ground. This is an impressive idea for garden lighting, especially for terraces or seating areas.
On the one hand, recessed floor lights are aesthetic, but they also serve as a guide. You can let your creativity run free when designing: install long floor lights on stairs or on the edge of the terrace. Or choose smaller, round recessed lights to set specific accents – this works both on the floor and in the form of effect lights on the house wall or on the side of the terrace.
With the Astro recessed floor light, you can easily and artistically set the scene for your outdoor area.
Set decorative highlights: Solar light balls for environmentally friendly light
In some garden corners the power supply is difficult. A simple solution are decorative solar lamps. They do not require electricity or batteries and are also environmentally friendly. It is best to align them to the south so that they can be sufficiently charged with solar energy during the day.
Simply position a few solar flares along the path or directly in flower beds. Many models switch on automatically at dusk and provide atmospheric light.
Reference-www.turn-on.de