Properly Using Outdoor Flood Lights

Flood lights are one of the most popular ways of lighting up the outside of your home. This is because one flood light can bathe an entire area in light very easily. However, most people use these lights in an almost criminal way that washes out all of the mysterious shadows and colors you could enjoy with a weaker light. While many homeowners don’t use them in the right way, there are several very good uses for outdoor flood lights nevertheless. The trick is knowing how to use them properly.

How Not to Use Outdoor Flood lights

Garden floodlights should not be used to light up a huge area or your garden or deck. This totally negates the nighttime atmosphere that you could be enjoying and can even blind you or your guests if the light is angled toward them. Instead of bathing the entire area of your deck in harsh light, consider putting in some recessed lights that cast a more subtle glow over the entire area and light up steps and other hazards as well. If you need more light in certain areas, such as where you will have a barbeque grill for a table or chair where you enjoy reading instead put single lamps there to give you more light for that particular task. This will allow you to keep the nighttime atmosphere you want to enjoy while still giving you enough light to see and cook burgers or read.

Flood lights tend to wash out all of the colors that you could be experiencing as well. Remember when lighting your garden that less is more, so make sure to use your flood lights in a tasteful way that accents your property and plants, not a way that overpowers it.

Properly Using Flood lights To Light Landscapes

Despite some of their misgivings, flood lights are still a very versatile light to use on your property when used correctly. When attached to motion sensors they make excellent security lights that can be used to deter would be burglars. They also make excellent lights light up your yard for a late night game of lawn darts or catch. They can even be used your driveway if you plan on working on your car have other tasks you would like to accomplish. Make sure when you install them however, that the lights are placed at an angle where they won’t naturally get into anyone’s eyes and temporarily blind them. The key here is that the flood lights have an aim, a task they are supposed to accomplish. When used improperly for garden light they lose much of their appeal.

There are several ways to use outdoor floodlights appropriately for garden lights however. Instead of just baking your entire garden in the light of one or two of these, try uplighting one of the larger tees in your garden by attaching a flood light to a stake at the bottom of it and directing the light upwards. Just make sure that you use a waterproof rated bulb and fixture for this as rainwater will inevitably get into the fixture. Another great way to use floodlights in your garden is for back-lighting. Place a floodlight behind a tree or shrub to bring out a new ominous side of it when the sun goes down. Both of these methods of using floodlighting will make use of different shadows and give your garden a much more subtle look than if you just washed the whole thing in light.

Outdoor floodlights can play an essential part in any garden lighting scheme, but they must be used correctly. Instead of trying to light up every inch of your property, instead focus on trying to use the floodlights to play with shadows and achieve specific effects. If you follow these simple tips, you will end up with a much better lit, enjoyable garden.