If you have an area outside your home that needs both ambient light, but also needs some spotlighting, look no further than a light fixture that has been popular for use in kitchens for years, track lighting. That’s right, track lighting has been used inside many houses for years to provide light in kitchens and other areas of the house, but it can work equally well outside to light up things like decks and patios. If it’s done right, installing outdoor track lighting can add a great deal of visual appeal to your garden lighting plans.
If you’re not familiar with it, traditionally track lighting has involved putting light bulbs inside of something that resembles a soup can on a metal track. These lights provided a great deal of good light, but they also were not much to look at. However, track lighting fixtures have come a long way in recent years with many different attractive styles and designs being available and some even incorporate new LED lighting technology.
The biggest advantage to having track lighting installed is that because the lights are installed on a track, they can be adjusted at will. This allows you to change the direction of the lighting and even the light bulbs and fixtures themselves to suit your whims. You can even add or subtract the total number of lights that are on the track. With other more fixed lights, especially with fixtures like recessed lights, changing the direction and style of light can end up being a long, drawn out affair. But with track lighting these days are long gone. On top of this, track lighting all offers a combination of providing both ambient and focal light, making installing outdoor flood lights for highlighting and then other lights for ambient lighting unnecessary in many circumstances.
If this weren’t enough, installing track lights is a snap. First, and most importantly, make sure that the outdoor track lights you are installing are made to be used as outdoor lights and run on a low voltage current. If they are not, you could end up with a fairly big safety and shock hazard on your hands. Once you have bought the actual track and light fixtures, you need to find a base board that you can mount the track on. This can be purchased at nearly any home improvement store. Mount the track onto the base board and mount the baseboard to where you would like the track lighting to go. All that’s left to do is stick the light fixtures into the track and you’re all done. It’s as simple as that.
Most track lighting is installed on the underside of roofs; however there are instances where it works very well when installed vertically on walls. Because of this, outdoor track lighting works best when lighting decks, patios and pools, when it can be installed either in covered ceilings or up in your eves that overhang a portion of your patio. Around pools, it will even keep your family safer, preventing people from falling in when your solar swimming pool covers are on.
Track lighting is a great addition to any landscape lighting plan. It helps to give as much light as you want, when and where you want it with a minimum amount of hassle. It may not be the absolute sexiest option on the market today, but it is one of the most practical and useful.
