How to choose outdoor lighting for your home

In the interior of a home, good or bad lighting can make or break a space. But few people realise that the same can be said for outdoor spaces. When you’re investing so much in your outdoor living space or in the appearance of the exterior of your home, you’ll want to consider how to integrate lighting to elevate the look of your home. 

Prolux Lighting is an expert in all things lighting, and sources a wide range of lighting for both indoors and outdoor/landscape applications. General Manager Rob Turner says if you’re looking to integrate outdoor lighting into your home, the first thing is to consider exactly what you want to achieve. 

“With outdoor lighting, it is often for the aesthetic effect rather than for the sake of illuminating an area. For example, certain types of bulkhead or floodlights on the side of a house may be to illuminate an area, such as a patio or barbeque area, but more discreet up/down lights would be for the lighting effect in itself.”

Inground lighting can be used to highlight walls or trees and the same spotlights can be used as indicator lights along paths, driveways or decks. The key thing when choosing your products, is to look at the wattage, says Turner.

“If outdoor lighting is to be used for aesthetic purposes care needs to be taken to select the correct wattage as a good installation can be spoiled with too much light.”

How does the location of the property and weather patterns factor into outdoor lighting decisions?

When selecting luminaires for outdoor use it is important to consider the environmental conditions that will impact on your installation. Coastal New Zealand is a very harsh environment for outdoor lighting and the most robust fittings are made of copper, brass, marine grade stainless steel and some polycarbonate products.  

“Salt spray is very corrosive and we would not recommend powder-coated aluminium be used in situations close to the sea. Cast aluminium can also corrode if used in-ground where the soil is acidic.”

This will impact on your choice of in-ground fittings and Turner says it’s important to check the ground spike of cast aluminium spotlights. 

Copper and brass need no maintenance, as long as owners are happy with the natural darkening of the colour and patina effect on the surface. 

“Marine grade stainless steel is a very good material but does require cleaning from time to time as a tea staining effect on the surface is often mistaken for rust and does detract from the appearance of the product.” 

Consideration is also needed to be given to the IP rating of the product: “If the installation is likely to be completely underwater on occasions then an IP68 fitting should be installed whereas on the wall of a house an IP54 may be sufficient.” 

If you’re in doubt about whether a light fitting is right for your application, check with your professional outdoor lighting expert. It’s crucial to have someone help you plan carefully, and if needed, employ a professional landscape lighting specialist for more complex installations. 

How do I light an outdoor entertainment space? 

Current landscaping trends reflect a desire for outdoor entertainment spaces that can be enjoyed well into the evening, and depending on the area to be illuminated you can use wall lighting, in-ground, deck lights or bollards. But Turner warns not to go over-the-top. 

“Over lighting an area can spoil the atmosphere, so indirect lighting or low wattage fittings should be considered. Having lights separately switched assists where plenty of light may be required for cooking, etc, but you should be able to have some switched off later when a lower level of light is required in order to maintain the atmosphere.” 

Prolux has recently added an IP65 rated LED strip to their product range (FSCOB-24V-15W), which is an ideal product for use around outdoor entertaining spaces as it can be used to provide indirect ambient light, for example, by fixing it directly (or in an aluminium channel) to the underside of bench seats, balconies, and pergolas.

The other detractor from an ambient outdoor space is glare, says Turner.  

“Glare from outdoor lighting can detract from the effect and should be carefully considered. Our range of copper, stainless steel and powder coated aluminium can all be fitted with cowls to reduce the impact of glare.” 

Other recent additions to the Prolux outdoor line up are the BL1700 and BL1600 bollards. These high quality fittings match contemporary homes perfectly. The HL3062 outdoor wall light is another great example of the effect of indirect lighting, providing a subtle ambience. 

What kind of maintenance is required for outdoor lighting? 

The same as with washing your house, all outdoor lighting requires maintenance to some degree.  

“Outdoor fittings should be periodically washed with warm water and detergent to remove the build up of dust and salt particles. Stainless steel needs cleaning to remove tea staining, and if lamps are changed then screw threads should be lubricated to prevent fusing together over time.”

If you’d like your copper or brass fittings to be brought back to their original colour, Turner says a thorough clean with a product such as Autosol will be necessary. Autosol is available from retailers such as Repco and is also a good solution for removing tea staining from stainless steel.

What if my outdoor lighting design isn’t available off-the-shelf?

That’s not a problem for Prolux Lighting, says Turner.

“As a team, we are used to assembling many of our own products, so one-off project jobs are able to be quoted on request. For example, a customer recently requested a suspended outdoor light which could be hung in a tree. We were able to adapt one of our 12 volt garden spotlights to achieve exactly the effect they were looking for.”

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