Outdoor pathway lighting need not be boring any longer. You can jazz it up and play with different lighting options or make it as soft and as mysterious as you want. Lights can be added to brighten the pathway leading to your home or into the garden or an outdoor gazebo or they can be added to draw attention to some aspect of your home or garden.
The lighting industry has come up with hundreds of options for outdoor lighting for your homes. Some companies who sell these lights include Kichler, Bollard, Hampton, Luxform and Hadco.You will find exquisite fixtures in myriad colors, professional designs and finishes. The choices are so many that sometimes it becomes difficult to pick one for our homes. So, first step in pathway lighting and external lighting is making a rough plan on the number of lights to put up. Look around your neighbor’s houses and count the number of light they are using. Do you think the lighting is enough or too many or too few? In certain towns and cities in the United States there is limit on the number of lights you can use for outdoor lighting. This is in support of the dark skies to help people to appreciate the stars in the night. If there are any restrictions then you would do better to follow the regulations.
You can choose the low voltage outdoor lighting for pathway lighting. The voltage used is about one tenth of the regular voltage – 12 volts and needs step down transformer. The high performance step-down transformer will take in the regular power supply, which is at 120 volts, and step that down to the required voltage and supply it to your light fixtures. As the low voltage needed by the light fixtures is low energy is transmitted. There are higher losses if transmitted over longer distances. Hence the step-down transformer as to be centrally located close to all the light fixtures. So, this is will be usually installed outdoors.
These low voltage lights have many advantages as they use much smaller and compact light bulbs. The smaller size means you can effectively conceal your light fixtures under the different landscaping elements and this will not stick out during daytime. The cost of setting up these low voltage pathway lighting is also much less than regular lighting as it does not need the wiring required by high voltage fixtures. These low voltage lights can be recessed spaces or buried under the pathway illuminating from the bottom or used to create small pools of light, be used for under water lighting, or to light up your waterfalls and ponds.
Decide on the type of pathway lighting you want. Do you want a brightly lit up path with high-voltage pedestal lights or soft low-voltage lighting coming from sources closer to the ground or a series of buried lights that throw just enough light to show you the path. Based on this buy your light fixtures meant for that particular purpose and other electrical items needed like wiring and power sources. Don’t use fixtures meant for one purpose to serve another it will only mess up your outdoors lighting appearance.
