Looking for some lighting ideas for backyard? We can help with some low cost suggestions to spice up the look of your property.
There are several lighting options that you can do to make your yard look better and shed some light on the situation. Any low voltage or line voltage lights rated for outdoors are great providing they are protected by a GFCI breaker or outlet.
String lights are a popular choice when it comes to your backyard. Any low voltage yard lights are safe to install yourself. Read on to find out more.
1. Low Cost Lighting Ideas For Backyards
There are several low-cost lighting ideas for backyards that you can make your backyard look spectacular. Firstly you need to come up with a plan to figure out what you want to light and how you want to light it. There are a variety of different style outdoor lighting packages that you can purchase especially ones that are plug-and-play.
Everything from outdoor hanging lights that you see that are popular on most patios to outdoor patio lighting. There are also a number of outdoor rope lighting and you can also sent make things look attractive with outdoor Christmas lighting.
Another popular type of lighting is outdoor uplighting. In particular this is when you have an object that you want to light upwards instead of downwards. You see this more commonly on resorts in the Caribbean. They prefer to light things upward then downward.
A warm coloured soft light is the way to go things a nice affect. Even if you have rope lighting or hanging style lights you still want to go with a soft warm glow. Patios are very nicely lit in the summertime and in the evening when you wish to go outside and have a campfire or her family or friends over.
These are all things to take into consideration when lighting up your backyard.
Keep in mind that you should have your backyard well lit enough that you’re not stumbling through the dark from one area to another. Nowadays most outdoor lighting is in the form of LED which consume very little power since you do not have to worry about adding much do your power bill.
TO SEE WHERE WE BOUGHT SOME OF THIS LIGHTING
2. The Best Way To Light Up Your Backyard
Believe it or not the best way to light up your backyard is to buy a plug and play solution. Plug-and-play means the lighting package comes in a box that you just plug-in and install yourself. This way you do not have to involve a certified electrician to come and install it for you.
Be extremely careful when you make this purchase online for example, Amazon or eBay or any of the other major suppliers that sell outdoor lighting. Make sure you get a good quality light or lighting with the proper safety devices in place. If you plug into an outdoor outlet you want to make sure that it is GFCI protected to protect against any moisture issues especially where they are outside lighting.
In addition you can buy outdoor smart plugs that plug right into a wall outlet to plug in your outside lighting. This can run on an app off your phone so that you can shut them on and off or run them on a timer. This eliminates the need completely for an electrician as you can do it yourself.
If installing landscape lighting or lighting in the ground, take extra care to make sure the wires are properly buried. Even though it is usually a low-voltage wire you still do not want rodents to get the wire to chew. If you get moisture issues within the wire that it will cause your outdoor outlet to pop or stop working. A minimum of 6 inches in depth is recommended especial for flower gardens and beds. Under walking way areas you should be al least 1 foot deep.
If you are running cable under a vehicle or driveway area then you will need to be a depth of 3 feet.
3.What Type Of Outdoor Lighting Is Best?
The best type of outdoor lighting is hands-down stake lighting that you use for landscape lighting. It should be the low-voltage LED style lighting which seems to have a life of 50,000 hours or more. The other type of lighting that is very popular is the outdoor string lighting.
This is the type of string lighting that you see hanging on patios which has a very nice appeal for decks an accent lighting in the evenings.
Whichever style of lighting you decide make sure you do your homework first and your research online for you make the purchase. Lighting this can be mostly purchased at your local hardware store or big box store as they usually have good deals on this kind of equipment.
For any low-voltage voltage landscape lighting you may want to make this purchase online is to see as it seems to be more readily available at a better cost. It also comes in a number of plug and play options.
To find out more about online lighting
4.How Can I Light My Backyard Without Electricity?
The obvious method to light your backyard without electricity would be to go solar. There are really two ways you can do this. You can buy a plug and play solar system with a couple of batteries which would put a DC electricity. This could then go to a plug and play set of 12 V DC lights to run in your backyard.
It will be the safer way although more costly way to go. When we say safer way we mean lifespan. The lifespan will be much longer if you use low-voltage landscape lighting method. The other way is to go with individual solar lights. We do not we do not recommend buying cheap dollar store solar lights. You will only get less than a year of these lights.
In addition these lights do not come in a warm soft light they’re usually a brighter white light. If you were going to go with individual solar lights with no electricity and we recommend going with a higher end product that you can purchase off Amazon or eBay.
So as an example if you were to pay two or three dollars for solar stake light at the dollar store you can count on paying $15 or $20 for the same light a better quality from a better purchaser. In any case solar lights should be taken in or taken down during the winter.
A solar light is less quality than a permanently mounted light and could be subject to freezing having issues throughout the winter. So in this case it would be better to bring them in during the colder months.
5.What Are The Best Lights For Uplighting?
The best style lights for uplighting or lighting objects against a side of a home or a building is exactly that. Up lights come in a contained sealed unit. The only part of the light that is exposed is the bulb. Can also be purchased a big box stores and have several plug-and-play options. Up lights are great for lighting accident or particular areas to add an ambiance to the overall look of your property. They usually come in a white in low-voltage configuration warm white.
6.Are Led Lights Good For Use Outdoors?
When it comes to best lighting ideas for backyard, actually LED lights are good and most outdoor lighting styles have switched to LED. Additional style halogen bulb is becoming a thing of the past as you have to replace the bulb so often which you don’t run into that case with LED. LED can last from 50,000 to 80,000 hours easily.
They are usually are cheaper in price and more durable. LED landscape and backyard lights comes in a variety of shapes sizes uses and colors. You can even get LED lighting to light up staircases.
Some led lights come with a smart option to work from your phone. You can actually change color of the light.
7.What Is The Best Wattage For Outdoor Lighting?
The best wattage for outdoor lighting is to 3 to 5 white LED light range. This would be equivalent to 50 watt par20 halogen bulb. It gives a nice wide spectrum light if you get it in the 2700K or the 3000 K will give you a nice warm light. This is enough at a 3 to 5 foot range to light up a small wall of 12’ x 12’ on the side of the house. Very nice for accent lighting or use of lighting particularly objects.
8.How Bright Should Outdoor Lights Be?
Depending on the use and the purpose of the outdoor light this may vary for areas where your lighting objects you want a brighter light. However if you have a light shining in someone’s face or eyes to someone driving for example in the driveway. You want to go with a dimmer light.
Brighter isn’t often better especially depending on the application you’re going to use them for. If you want mood lighting around the patio deck you may want to go with a dimmer light, so it’s not overbearing at night time. However pathway and walkway lights shined out the walkway should be brighter so you can see where you’re going. These are some of the best lighting ideas for your backyard.
9.Where Should Uplighting Be Pointed?
Uplighting should be pointed at the object is trying to be illuminated at least 18 inches to 3 feet back from the object. Lighting will have an angled wide beam bulb which will allow you to experiment. This is something that should be done at night it’s very hard to see these lit during the day.
Each manufacture is a little bit different with the specifications on distances from the object that needs to be lit to pay close attention. Also if you were lighting a wall and you have multiple up lights and you want to watch the distance between them. Most best lighting ideas for backyard spotlights or smaller so span of 3 to 5 feet more than 6 feet between bulbs or lights. This is important not to have too much light reflection in one area.
10. How Many Outdoor Lights Can I Run On A Transformer?
Low-voltage transformer is coming to variety of different sizes anywhere from 50 V/A amps or watts right up to thousand volt amps or watts for outdoor lighting. Some of these transformers plug directly into the wall and other ones have to be hardwired.
Of your smaller transformers would be in the 50 W to 500 W range or volt amps. We refer to it as volt amps the low-voltage output side of the transformer. Are usually put out selectable voltages 12 or 24 to run your outdoor lights. If you had a 100 watt transformer just simply take the wattage of each outdoor light and add…. so as an example if you had 10 watt lights you could run 10 lights which would be 100 W.
11. What Is A Low Voltage Transformer?
A low-voltage transformer is a device that takes 120 V AC current or power and converts it to a lower voltage of 12 or 24 AC power. Usually AC power 12 or 24 volt it is a selectable voltage of the secondary side of the transformer. This is so you can run smaller loads out of the secondary side of the transformer for less of a shock hazard.
Is your common in most outside lighting installations. Low-voltage lighting has a wider array and it’s safer to use outdoors than line voltage lighting. We hope this article helped make a decision on best lighting ideas for backyard.
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