Adequate lighting of the home garden will certainly facilitate its use after dark, ensure high comfort of use and highlight selected parts of it, but also increase the feeling of security, as it can effectively scare away potential burglars.
How much light is needed in the garden?
In the case of lighting the garden space, a low level of lighting is recommended. The suggested value is 20 to 30 lux. Lower ambient lighting creates a relaxing and romantic atmosphere that will not disturb the neighbors. Too bright outdoor lighting also limits your ability to see details in the night sky. Also, avoid too high contrasts that can give the impression of underexposed places, and therefore subconsciously dangerous.
Types of garden lamps. What do you need to know?
In the ElmarCo offer, garden lamps are available in heights from 40 cm to 250 cm, but we can also use the so-called garden lamps to illuminate the garden. lanterns with a height of 3m. Fewer taller lamps can be used to illuminate a given area, unfortunately, if we later plant trees or larger shrubs there, they may obscure some of the light generated by the lanterns. In the case when we use a larger number of lamps with a lower height, such a probability is much lower. Often, garden lamps are placed along paths, but we can also use them to illuminate the entire garden to display some plants or a beautiful green lawn.
How many lamps to use and how to arrange them in the garden?
It is best to plan this before the final development of the garden. Laying cables requires digging up the ground, and this could damage our flowers or lawn.
There are basic rules to keep in mind. Place lighting fixtures along sidewalks to avoid accidents and to ensure safe lighting on footpaths. Stairs require additional lighting to avoid possible tripping hazards; use one or more fixtures aimed at the stairs so that you end up with at least 200 lux per step. In the garden, it is also worth considering mood and decorative lighting, which consists in highlighting plants and architectural details. Remember also about task lighting, i.e. the one that will allow us, for example, to spend a nice time at the illuminated table. Decorative lighting is used only for aesthetics, while ambient lighting allows for general lighting of the space. In order for these functions of the fixtures to be fulfilled, remember to select fixtures that have the appropriate light beam direction. It is recommended to choose fixtures where the lighting is directed downwards or the fixture covers the sides of the bulb so that the light does not cause glare and excessively illuminates the space, causing light pollution.
We have prepared several simulations of garden lighting with dimensions of 30 x 25 m using WAY LED 3m lanterns and garden lamps from the Bover LED 2m and Elew LED 1.2m series. Remember, however, that the appropriate lighting of the area is also influenced by the optics of the luminaire and the power of the light source.
Examples of garden lighting with dimensions of 30 × 25 m and a uniform lighting area of 20 × 25 m.
List of proposed solutions
Option 1 – Garden lighting with two 3m Elmarco Way lanterns.
The first simulation shows garden lighting with two WAY LED lanterns, 3 meters high and 30W each. As can be seen in the table above, the lanterns are placed on two opposite sides, in the middle of their length. In this case, you can see that the most light is in the center of the garden, the other parts will be illuminated with less intensity.
Option 2 – Garden lighting with four 2m high Elmarco Bover garden lamps.
Due to this arrangement, the area is illuminated more evenly, and thus it is possible to make better use of most of it after dark. This is the most optimal solution, which will not expose us to large costs related to the purchase of the lamps themselves, as well as the laying of a large number of cables.
Option 3 – Garden lighting with eight Elmarco Elew garden lamps, 1.2 m high.
This simulation shows that by installing eight lamps with a height of 1.2 m, we can get the entire area very well lit. Unfortunately, this involves the need to lay more cables and purchase more lamps, which will certainly affect not only the cost of the entire investment, but also translate into higher power consumption.
Summary
The correct arrangement of the lamps depends on many factors. The simulations presented above are limited to the simple illumination of the area to illustrate how it all works. The choice, however, depends on what is in the garden, whether we will divide it into zones, and we will be more concerned with lighting the seating or typically recreational area, and we will leave shaded places where we will plant shrubs, trees or flowers. It all depends on the effect we want to achieve and the compromises we are able to agree on when building a dream garden.
