Lighting up your outdoor spaces can increase your security, enhance your enjoyment of your property, and help raise the value of your home. Here are five tips to think about regarding your outdoor lighting.
1. Entryways
You need the brightest lights on the entryways into your house or garage. While spotlights or pot-lights will be the best here, you can have bright lights while still maintaining low power usage and costs. If you have lights by your windows, especially bedroom windows, consider putting them on a timer or turning them off at night. While this isn’t the greatest for security purposes, you still need a good night’s sleep. You could get blackout curtains, instead, which could help you sleep. Your doorways and other easy access points are the most important to be lit brightly.
2. Entertainment Spaces
The lighting you have by your fire-pit, on your patio, at the BBQ, or in your dining area should be different than the lighting at your entryways. You don’t have to have glaring lights and bright spotlights where you hang out with friends and family. The lighting should be more subtle and gentle, and because of this, you will not need to use as much energy to light up these beautiful locations. Sometimes solar lights can work well in these areas, as string lights, lanterns, or more, which will reduce your costs significantly. Focus on relaxing illumination for your entertaining and garden spaces.
3. LED Bulbs
You don’t need to get halogen bulbs that burn through energy and ramp up your power bill to light your property well. There are numerous options of LED bulbs for outdoor lighting that can stay on throughout the night and use 90% less energy than traditional or older lights. Many LED lights are also maintenance free, and so you won’t have to spend time and money replacing any bulbs.
4. Outdoor Certified
When hanging lights outside or when buying new bulbs for your outdoor fixtures, make sure you pay attention to whether your new lights are certified for outdoor use. Our exterior lights take a lot more of a beating than our interior ones what with rain, wind, dirt, and bugs. Ensuring that your outdoor lights and cords are designed for outdoor use will save you some headaches and money in the future.
5. Hanging
If you are hanging lights or attaching strings of light to your home or to other structures outside of your house, consider the methods you use to do this. For one, stay away from nails or staples which can penetrate wires and cause damage to your cords or lights which can result in shorts and other dangers. Using clips or installing hooks around your home or an archway is a great way to save your string lights. Hooks can also help to speed up the installation if you want to change lights depending on the seasons or events.
Summary
There you have it! 5 simple tips to help you light your outdoors with great, safe lights for a safer, more beautiful home!
by Carla Berezowski,
Owner of Alberta Indoor Comfort
