5 Common Types of Outdoor Lighting Fixtures

Outdoor lighting is an investment that returns a lot of value — from increased security and safety to improved aesthetic appeal. With this lighting solution, building exteriors now have accessibility and safety. But the best outcomes come from using the appropriate fixture for each application. Keep in mind that outdoor lighting is frequently used between sunset and sunrise as well, which presents a great opportunity to save energy with LED lamps and fixtures. And depending on the objectives you want to achieve with your lighting, you can choose from a variety of outdoor lighting fixtures, given that there are a lot of available options to install.

You can highlight the beauty of your garden, porch, patio, deck, pond, waterscape, walkways, and landscapes by knowing where to place your outdoor lighting fixtures. It allows you to customize the lighting in your outdoor area at night. With the correct selection of outdoor industrial, uplight, and other light fixture kinds, you may make it look elegant, warm, or even dramatic.

Floodlights, canopy lights, motion sensor lights, pole-mounted lighting, and spotlights are just a few of the options available. And you must be aware of the best outdoor lighting fixtures for every area of your outdoor area. Consider these options below, which might even help you identify which outdoor lighting fixtures would be the best for your outdoor patio.

Floodlights

The most effective outdoor landscape lights for lighting up huge regions is the floodlight. They are high in brightness, with wide coverage spotlights that frequently cast overhead light into patios and driveways. It involves a beam with an adjustable angle that may be turned to focus on a particular area is another feature of floodlights. They could be buried or mounted on buildings, walls, or poles.

Actually, compared to floodlights that use halogen or fluorescent lamps, LED floodlights last longer and consume less energy. Outdoor floodlights are frequently used to illuminate wide areas, such as sports fields, parks, playgrounds, and parking lots, or to direct light on a stationary object, such as a monument or flagpole. Floodlights are especially helpful in outdoor spaces where machinery or containers are continually moving in industrial environments.

Canopy Lights

Canopy lighting fixtures, as their name suggests, are made to be mounted on the underside of outdoor canopies. They will be installed outdoors, and are generally approved for moist areas. And since they are frequently used in places with high traffic, they also need to be vibration-resistant.

Gas stations, drive-through banks, drive-through restaurants, covered parking lots, and other similar locations frequently use canopy lighting. It is crucial to select a lighting fixture with the ideal beam form while taking mounting height and area into account.

Motion Sensor Lights

Any outdoor light can contain a photocontrol or motion sensor to help control lighting. When something moves through the infrared beam, the motion sensor activates and the light turns on for a certain period of time. Since the light usually only remains on for a short period of time, this is a wonderful security and safety solution, which can help people save electricity as well.

The most typical place to find motion sensor lighting is on parking lot lights, where it functions more like a timer. The lights come on at dusk or when it gets dark enough, and they go out in the morning as the sun comes up. Numerous applications for outdoor lighting also use photocells. Additionally, built-in timers can be changed in accordance with how long you want lights to stay on once the sensor detects movement.

In the driveways, garages, alleyways, pathways, entrances, and exits, motion sensor lights are frequently utilized. And those places that benefit from this kind of outdoor lighting the most are those that are rarely visited, and do not require constant illumination at night. Additionally, they can be adjusted to prevent oversensing movement and unnecessary activation. By restricting the sensor’s field of view and changing the distance range setting, this can be accomplished during installation.

Fixture placement is important as well, since a sensor must have an acceptable sensing range, which frequently depends on mounting location and operating circumstances. The proper subjects and times should be visible to the sensors. The field of view may be restricted if the fixture is installed too high or low.

Pole-Mounted Lighting

The names of these lighting fixtures are equally self-explanatory, and they are most frequently utilized in open parking lots and on streets. Pole-mounted lighting is almost always present in parking lots, so depending on where you live, you may have previously seen it.

These lighting fixtures typically have very wide beams since they need to illuminate a vast region below them. Although it can be dangerous for drivers, lateral light projection should be avoided since it can dazzle neighbors and other road users.

Pole-mounted lights also come with a BUG rating, showing how much backlight (B), uplight (U), and glare (G) the fixture produces. The best rating conceivable is B0 U0 G0, when almost all output is directed in the desired direction, while the worst rating possible is B5 U5 G5.

Spotlights

Spotlights come in a variety of brightness levels and coverage sizes. They frequently shine light on statues, flowers, walls, patios, and whatever else you can direct them at. And when used in a specific way, spotlights change into a particular kind of light. For instance, if you direct a spotlight upward at a wall, it transforms into an uplight and produces a grazing effect on the wall. 

Spotlights also offer concentrated light that highlights a particular element for safety, wayfinding, or aesthetic reasons. They enable you to shine a spotlight on a particular spot without illuminating surrounding areas broadly. These outdoor lighting fixtures are frequently placed next to signage and entrances, around swimming pools, ponds, fountains, and waterfalls, as well as along walkways, to highlight architectural and landscape features.

However, there are things to think about before you buy them. Due to the remarkable variety that spotlights provide in lighting design, they may be used to provide visual highlights both horizontally and vertically, helping to distinguish features that stand out, while leaving others in silhouette. However, if you use too many spotlights, you risk over-illuminating the area. Consider using outdoor lighting fixtures designed for that purpose if your goal is to spread wide beams of light across a significant area.

Key Takeaway

There are many various kinds of outdoor lighting fixtures, each with a different purpose. Each fixture type also comes in several iterations. You can guarantee your outdoor spaces have the best lighting coverage at the lowest energy cost by collaborating with skilled design professionals. The energy efficiency measures with the quickest payback periods typically include LED lighting installations.