At one time or another many of us will be trying to decide upon some new outdoor lighting for our houses. There are a few different reasons you might be installing exterior lights. Some times it is just to light up your landscaping so you may enjoy it at night. Other reasons are for your own safety when walking outside at night, and lastly, more light means less chance of a break-in. If you think about which goals you want to achieve before designing your lighting plan, you can probably cover all aspects with one single design.

Likely the most important function of outdoor lighting related to the security of yourself, you home and your family. Nothing deters unwanted intruders than a well lit location. One of the best and easiest ways of achieving security lighting is to install motion detector flood lights. These can be installed at each corner of your home. These lights can be set at such a level that the odd neighborhood cat will not set them off.

The installation of motion detector spot lights aimed at the back or darker portions of your property are also a good idea. You needn’t worry about your guests being put under the spot light at parties. When you have guests simply adjust the motion detector to not register motion. Just remember to turn it back on when the party is over.

In order for your property to be safe for walking at night, you will want to light all your main pathways, steps, and doors. If you have one entrance that is only occasionally used, you could choose to install a full time motion detector light so as not to waste electricity when it is not actually in use. As for full time pathway lighting, there are plenty of low voltage and wireless solar lighting options, which will both save energy and give a nice lighted glow to your property. More and more LED lights are being used for these types of applications, as it is a great low cost way to provide minimal directional lighting.

Finally, once you have the safety issues covered, and you have made sure that your yard is safe to walk in at night, you may still want to create some extra lighting focal points in order to create a nice evening backyard mood. Different colored spotlights on your front or back door will create a nice effect, as will a colored spot light on a shrub or tree in your landscaping. Another idea is to create a row of low power LED lights along a hedge or walkway to direct attention to this landscaping element. Other backyard lighting ideas include hanging globe lights, old fashioned lamp posts, and rope lighting around tree branches.

As you are designing your outdoor lighting design plan, remember that you can include lighting to serve more than one purpose. If you are primarily designing for aesthetics, some of your ambient lighting could be put on timers or motion-detectors and will serve double duty as security lighting. Keep in mind the purpose of each light as you are designing your outdoor lighting plan and you will end up with a beautiful and functional lighting design.

To find out more about outdoor lighting & lights go to exterior lighting.

Tags: exterior lighting, exterior lights, garden, gardening, home security, home-and-garden, house, lighting, lights, outdoor lights

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 6:10 am and is filed under backyard, decorating, garden design, garden lighting, gardening, outdoor lighting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.