Outdoor lighting of the building and garden | We are building a house
Functional lighting is configured with users' comfort and safety in mind. Decorative lighting emphasizes the impressive fragments of the building's architecture and small garden architecture, as well as selected plants. Thanks to it, the surroundings seem well-kept.
Since the illumination on the property has to fulfill various tasks, usually several zones are designated, to which different types of lamps are adapted to brighten. At the same time, lighting scenes are designed in such a way that they do not dazzle anyone or disturb sleep.
Lighting on and around the house
We must ensure proper light emission in the most frequently used entrance and driveway areas. Important places are the front door and stairs, as well as the garage and terrace.
Sconces work well above the entrance, because the light falls directly on the door handle and locks. Under the ceiling of the large arcade and porch, it is worth installing a plafond or hanging lamp, so that the upper light also covers the landing and stairs. When the stairs are long, better lighting is provided by luminaires or LED strips - mounted on each step.
The entrance to the garage is often illuminated with a powerful spotlight with a motion sensor (with a halogen bulb, a traditional bulb or a compact fluorescent lamp). For every movement, the light turns on automatically, and if we turn it down to the gate and driveway, it does not hurt the drivers' eyes.
It is worth providing varied lighting on the terrace. In the covered dining area, an overhead lamp with intense glare is essential. In the zone with sofas, used for relaxation, it will be useful, among others, atmospheric glow of solar lamps.
The delicate light of sconces attached to the walls, luminaires in a band around the house, or spotlights placed on the nearest flowerbeds, will perfectly fulfill the role of night decorative illumination. Directed sheaves of luminaires, falling vertically or diagonally on the walls, cornices, protruding eaves of the roof, will show architectural nuances, textures of facade cladding, structural plaster, rustication (a parallel stream of light, however, reveals imperfections of smooth plaster). Numerous "eyes" in the protruding cornices or eaves of the roof will create a light path around the building.
The light of the spotlights with a movable base can be freely directed. (photo by Paulmann)Plot lighting
Light should be intense at the wicket, entrance gate and communication routes, and subtle - in the deeper parts of the garden (its color should be carefully matched, as the blue shade emphasizes the beauty of plants, as opposed to e.g. red).
To open the lock on the gate, find the intercom and the house number, you need a lamp or a sconce mounted on a post or under a roof in the fence. Halogen spotlights, activated by a motion sensor, are modern equipment for entrance gates.
Adequate light on both sides of driveways to the garage and paths is provided by lamps on long or short poles, on flowerbeds and lawns - spotlights, and on the hardened surface of driveways - overrun luminaires.
Low bollards can illuminate paths or driveways. (photo by Spotline)Ponds, ponds and fountains are illuminated with underwater lamps and spotlights standing on the shore.
The beauty of small architecture and decorative plants is emphasized by the stream of light from spotlights mounted in the ground (if they are finished with a pin, they can be easily moved). In the gazebo, an overhead or side light is necessary.
External lighting installation
Knowing the arrangement of light zones on buildings and in the garden, you can start designing and then implementing the electrical installation supplying external lighting (it should be created before plastering the façade and before developing the property, because it prepares cables for excavations are required, and e.g. heavy lanterns must have solid, deeply embedded bases).
Electrical installation is carried out from the building. On large plots, it is recommended to use mains voltage (230 V). Its advantage is the ability to connect any number of light points and electrical devices, e.g. a lawn mower, pressure washer, saw. The system is protected by two types of circuit breakers: overcurrent and anti-shock.
For small properties, an electrical installation powered by low voltage (12 V or 24 V) with the use of a step-down transformer is suitable. The advantage of such a system is greater safety (compared to mains power supply), the disadvantages - the fact that the sum of lamp power cannot exceed the transformer power, limited choice of luminaires, the need to use more expensive, thicker and relatively short cables (up to 25 m) and quite deep digging them into the ground (at least 30 cm).
It is safer to run several separate circuits than to make one circuit. Thanks to this, users gain more room for maneuver with light illumination and savings in its operation (after all, not all lamps are always used). In addition, if one of the circuits shorts out, the rest will continue to work, and the house and garden will not be enveloped in Egyptian darkness. The number of circuits actually needed is best determined by a licensed electrician. You should not forget to ask him to add control elements to the installation, i.e. time programmers, motion and twilight sensors that allow you to achieve the comfort of residents and reduce expenses.
Only cables with appropriate insulation and YKY factory marking are suitable for the garden. They should be routed more than 80 cm from water pipes and away from foundations and large trees. It is best to place them at a depth of 60 cm, and spread a blue warning foil above them, because then no one will damage them during gardening work. External elements of the system, such as sockets and light fixtures, are exposed to weather and mechanical factors, therefore special installation boxes and lighting fixtures must be used.
Modern lighting solutions based on Bluetooth technology allow you to create various lighting scenes and control them using a smartphone or tablet. (photo by Lange Łukaszuk (Steinel))Only special luminaires for outdoor lighting
For outdoor use, luminaires with resistance to various weather and mechanical factors are required. They come in a rich design and long series, so they are easy to match the architecture of the building and garden.
Due to safety, household luminaires are not used at all, only products with a minimum protection degree of IP 44, preferably IP 65 (IP symbol together with a two-digit Arabic number determines the tightness of the luminaire, the first digit from 0 to 6 means dustproof, and the second in the range of 0-8 water resistance). Elements for outdoor lighting have an additional symbol - the letter B. It informs that the luminaire meets the Polish standard and has been granted technical approval.
Outdoor lighting: the right lamp in the right place
Popular wall lamps are produced in a wide range of designs - from traditional to very modern. They are attached with screws to the walls of the house, fence, garden architecture.
GuideDo you value our advice? You can get the latest every Thursday!Pangling lamps and plafonds work well as overhead utility lighting on porches, terraces, balconies and in gazebos.
Designed for mains or low voltage, the posts are usually placed on either side of paths and in flowerbeds. If the ground is paved, the lamps are screwed to the slabs or cubes. If the surface is earthen - they are embedded in ready bases or in foundations poured on site.
Garden lanterns are powered by 230 V electricity. Due to their size (they are 2-3 m high), they fit into large household spaces. A massive and heavy structure should be fixed on a solid foundation and the electric cable should be routed through it.
Spotlights, powered by mains voltage or low voltage, are suitable for spot and directional lighting of building walls, plants, water elements (underwater luminaires and luminaires exposed to water splashes are powered only by low voltage with a transformer). Manufacturers offer products for various types of assembly, e.g. on a blade that facilitates driving into the ground, with a housing that allows fixing with screws to hard surfaces, with elements for fixing to the wall.
The ramp luminaires are made of steel, giving them a round or rectangular shape. They are waterproof, resistant to impact and high pressure of cars or water (they can be used to highlight a swimming pool, pond).
Ramp luminaires are most often placed in the surface of the driveway to the garage. (photo by Paulmann)External lighting: we choose light sources
After having luminaires, we must equip them with appropriate bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, LED diodes (some luminaires are factory-integrated with light source).
Currently, halogens and LEDs are most often used in outdoor lighting. The former provide light with a color temperature of 3000 K, in which plants and architectural elements look good. The second - is considered more modern, because they are more resistant to weather and mechanical factors, they are powered by 12 V, which allows for cheap operation.
It's hard not to mention lamps with solar cells. If the sun charges the battery all day, after dark, such equipment emits light for 8 hours.
Lighting control devices
In the age of saving electricity, special programmers and sensors are a particularly desirable element. A switch with a timer allows you to set the working hours of the external lighting. The motion sensor reacts to the appearance of a person or vehicle in the zone it covers, automatically activating the light points. Turns them off after the programmed period has elapsed. The twilight sensor automatically activates the lighting when it gets dark. It turns them off when natural light increases in the morning.
Lilianna JampolskaIn the opening photo: When choosing garden lighting, it is worth choosing lamps that enable gentle activation and regulation of light brightness. (photo by Lange Łukaszuk (Steinel))
