Pathway & Area Lights

Why Pathway or Area Lighting

The main purpose of pathway and area lighting is ground illumination. Commonly, pathway lights may be used to:

• Light sidewalks.
• Accentuate and enhance the plants and floral beds around paths and patios.
• Illuminate pathways for safety.
• Cast light around patio spaces for greater beauty.
• Can be used with low or high powered long life LED bulbs

Challenges of Lighting Pathways

• Style Choice: There are many different design choices available. Many of these actually perform identically. Because of this, choosing a design can be difficult.
• Number of Fixtures: Over-placement of pathway lights is easy to do. Sometimes it is difficult to use restraint in placement of lights. However, too many fixtures can create clutter and be an eyesore.
• Spacing Fixtures: It can be difficult to space pathway lights for maximum effect. Knowing how to not overdo placement is important.
• Glare: When preparing light for a home or a landscape that is above you, it can be difficult to avoid glare. When the landscape is above the home, it is important to make sure the path lights are not causing the person looking from below to have the light source come from under the top hat straight into their eyes.
• Crooked Stems: In the course of time, the movement of the ground near a path can cause the path lights to lean over. When the path lights are taller, this leaning is more evident and can become rather unsightly.

Advantages of Pathway Lighting

• Versatile: Pathway lights are useful for a wide variety of applications, including not only pathways but patios and stairs.
• 24 hour Appeal: Unlike most other landscape lighting fixtures intended to blend in or be hidden, professional pathway lights add curb day or night.
• Variety: Fixtures for pathways come in a large number of styles to suit anyone's taste or design.
• Don't Need Mounting: Pathway lights are a good option when there is no hard surface to mount on. They fill a void and allow light to be added on walkways to allow them to be safely navigated.

Summary

Be careful of not using too many pathway lights on a project because they can mar the look of the landscape. When possible, use down lighting from trees or elevated hard surfaces so that you can light pathways and patios with a concealed fixture. That will make your design look better. Nevertheless, at times you will not have another option to light sidewalks, steps, pathways, and other areas without using pathway lights. In that case, pathway lights can be an excellent choice and can fill an important need.