What outside light do I need?

As an electrician serving Watford and the surrounding areas, I get asked a lot of questions. One of which is: What outside light do I need?

To some, this may be a simple question, however it has many answers. So, I have some questions for you.

What are you looking to achieve with the outside light? Is it decorative? For security purposes? Up lights? Down lighting? Or even up/down lights?

To answer these, you probably now, have even more questions. So let me try to answer the ones I think you may have, and by the end of this, I am hoping you can answer your original question on lighting by yourself.

Decorative lighting

A decorative light is what it says on the tin. Its looks pretty and gives a desired ambiance and aesthetic effect.

Security lighting

The main lights used for security lighting are PIR (Passive Infrared) flood lighting. The reason flood lighting is used is due to its wide spread of light and coverage of an area, and to alert you to an intruder or to alert the intruder they have been seen. Hence the name Security lighting.

Up lights

Up lights are quite self-explanatory; however, these can be lights mounted mid-level on the wall pointing upwards. Low level lights shine up your building or garden arrangements, lights can also be sunk into your patio or flower beds for aesthetic purposes.

Down lights

Opposite to up lighting, we have down lights. Down lights can be mounted on the wall, they can illuminate down a path, the side of your building and even be placed in the soffits for decorative and ambient effect. Depending on your ideal outcome, these are quite versatile and can offer a nice spread of light as well as decoration depending on the fitting you chose.

Up/down lighting

Up/down lighting is an amalgamation of the two, these are best set out mid to high level of the wall offering you a spread of light up and down the side of your building leading to a delightful spread of light. All up and down lights WILL bring out any shadows of imperfections on the wall its being installed on, so to avoid this, you will need to make sure your brick work or rendering has been completed to the best possible standard.

So, to conclude this section, I will now ask YOU, what outside light do you need?

If you are still unsure, there is no harm in giving us a call today to get our expert opinion on what we think would suit your property and fulfil your needs.