Outdoor lighting is critical to making outdoor spaces fully accessible at night. It also improves the aesthetics and the safety of the external areas after the sunset.
Thanks to a good outdoor lighting system, you can easily reach the entrance of your house or illuminate some elements of your garden, such as a hedge or a fountain. However, it is good to keep in mind that outdoor lighting should not be excessive and help create a functional and comfortable space. At the same time, it is necessary to avoid light wastes, which result in increased consumption and light pollution, with negative environmental and economic effects. For this reason, it is necessary to carefully design the lighting solutions and to take into consideration the regional laws against light pollution.
Outdoor LED lighting solutions
Outdoor LED lighting are increasingly popular and widespread solutions, as they provide good energy savings. In fact, they last much longer than incandescent bulbs, they consume less and are more effective as they turn all energy into light without dispersing it into heat. To maximize their efficiency level, LEDs can be connected with proximity sensors. As a result, LED lights will light up as soon as a person is detected and turn off automatically after a few minutes.
These solutions are based on the exploitation of semiconductors that replace metallic filaments. That is why they need a minimum amount of electric current, do not emit ultraviolet light and produce cold light energy. At the same time, they are available in a wide range of models and can use colored light bulbs to create special and decorative color effects. This brings together environmental and energy benefits to the versatility of the LEDs making the lighting of an area more practical, creative, sustainable, and functional. It allows creating alternative lighting solutions that meet all of your needs.
LED solar lighting
To make LED lamps even cheaper and to further reduce power consumption, you can leverage solar power by opting for solar cell models. These solutions integrate small photovoltaic panels that transform daylight into energy to be accumulated and then consumed overnight.
When choosing these lamps it is necessary to choose lighting devices that use high quality solar panels to optimize the sunlight collection and enhance lighting. Indeed, light is guaranteed depending on the amount of solar rays stored by the panel and, consequently, by the season and weather conditions. Ideally, these solar-powered LED lamps can guarantee up to six hours of outdoor lighting at no cost. These devices are equipped with a twilight sensor that closes the circuits to use the energy accumulated during the day as soon as the nightfall is detected. These garden lights are very easy to install, it only takes a few minutes.
Many are the solutions available on the market that can be used to create illuminated walkways, landscape lighting, or to illuminate the facade of your house.
In any case, these outdoor lamps are extremely practical and functional because they do not require power cables to connect. As a result, you place them wherever you need and according to the aesthetic result you wish to achieve.
These are eco-sustainable projects that are becoming more and more appreciated. However, you have to keep in mind that the solar-LED option may have some limitations. Although LED lighting needs a minimum amount of energy to operate, it is still not possible to rely solely on solar energy. During winter there is not enough energy supply to ensure an effective outdoor lighting. For this reason, it is necessary to use a dual power supply system, to enjoy the power of the traditional electrical system when the stocked solar panel energy runs out.
Outdoor lighting and home automation
Thanks to the available cutting-edge technologies, home automation enables to implement smart lighting solutions. Many are the affordable solutions you can choose from so as you can optimize your costs and resources according to your needs. The goal is to achieve good economic savings and improve the aesthetics, comfort and functionality of the environments. Home automation systems allow a smart control of external lights and, in some cases, of all of the electronic systems of the house. Some automation projects concern the entire domestic system and also cover various household appliances. In any case, these are solutions that greatly facilitate our everyday life, improve our living experience and make it more functional. In fact, electronic systems work in perfect synergy and sometimes remote lighting can be managed, for example, through a mobile device (a tablet or a smartphone).
Among the various smart LED outdoor lighting solutions, it is important to highlight the possibility of combining them with sensors or alarm systems. Moreover, their light intensity can be modified. It is possible to make the garden functional and enjoyable while keeping the lighting at a minimum intensity. However, you can set the system in such a way as to increase the light intensity of the walkways and the home entrance when the gate opens. In this way, the most important areas of the garden are fully visible.
To save on garden lighting management costs, it is clever to design a system combined with proximity and motion sensors. As a result, lights will light up when a moving object is perceived.