DESIGN/BUILD: Designing Light

Landscape lighting design isn’t rocket science, but it also isn’t a matter of sticking a few fixtures in the ground and calling it a day.

Before designing any lighting system, Eric Borden, vice president of Ambiance Lighting Systems, Sea Gull Lighting, Riverside, N.J., suggests contractors ask themselves three things: What do I want to light? How do I want to light it? What do I want to light it with?

The answers to those questions can serve as the basis for the system’s design. But for a little extra help, here is a list of tips and tricks for successful landscape lighting designs.

DON’T OVERLIGHT. The key with low-voltage landscape lighting is to keep it simple. “In outdoor lighting, less is more,” Borden says. He recommends that contractors lighting a home with low shrubbery and plant material “use 12- to 18-watt Xenon lamps for path lighting. For shrubs and smaller trees, they can use 10- to 20-watt halogen lamps.”

The less-is-more philosophy also includes fixtures. Professor Joe Rey-Barreau, University of Kentucky College of Design, suggests that contractors use a limited number of fixtures, such as two or three that offer universal appeal. This keeps the design simple, as well as reduces inventory.

DO PICK A FOCAL POINT. To avoid overlighting, contractors need to decide what they want to light on a property. Mike Southard, national sales manager, Kichler Landscape Lighting, Cleveland, Ohio, says he looks at the house first, noting any architectural features he or the customer may want to highlight. Next he looks at the property for other items he can light, such as decks and patios, a tree the customer likes, or a water garden. “If there is a beautiful statue in front of the house, I’ll light it,” he says. “But you have to be careful about what you’re lighting. You need to make sure the focus is where you want it.”

The first item Rey-Barreau suggests lighting is the house. “My rule of thumb for lighting a house is to keep it very low,” he says. “I think the key is to do a very soft glow on the house.”  

The second thing he suggests is uplighting trees and vegetation. Next, he recommends lighting the special features of the property, such as an outside sculpture or an interesting accent on the house.

DO MIX UPLIGHTING WITH DOWNLIGHTING. There are two basic techniques: uplighting and downlighting. Installing uplights is the easier of the two, making it a popular choice with new lighting contractors. Downlighting, on the other hand, requires more skill and is more often used by experienced contractors, Southard says.

Each technique delivers a different effect. Uplighting is dramatic, Southard says, adding that he usually puts uplighting on the house. “It’s for people who want the wow and punch,” he says. 

According to Rey-Barreau, uplights work well on the walls of a house and on interesting features such as a chimney. Trees, too, often get uplights. Rey-Barreau recommends putting at least two uplights on trees. “You don’t want to put just one light on trees because that can give you an unbalanced light pattern,” he says.

Downlighting, also called moonlighting, offers a softer look. “The effect is that it looks more like natural moonlight, which is why a lot of homeowners like it,” Southard says, “It can set you heads and shoulders above other contractors.”

Downlighting is also good for contractors working in colder climates that get a lot of snow. Downlighting avoids issues of snow covering the lights or burying a fixture, making it more susceptible to being hit with a snowplow or other vehicle.

But quality design should include “a combination of up and down lighting for contrast,” Borden says, adding that mixing techniques, such as path lighting with up and down lighting is also good. “Mixing light sources that portray different colors is another option,” he says.

DO PROPERLY SHIELD THE LIGHTS. The key with any landscape lighting design is to see the effect, not the fixture itself. This means contractors must properly shield the lights. Rey-Barreau recommends using fixtures that conceal the bulb. “If the bulb is visible in any way, your eye is not going to go to what you’re lighting,” he says. “It will go to the fixture. Try to conceal the bulb as much as possible.”

DO GET THE CUSTOMER’S INPUT. Contractors should remember that they are more than a lighting system installer. “Contractors have to act as the design consultant as well,” Borden says. But this doesn’t mean taking off on a design without any input from the customer. The homeowner needs to be involved so they can tell the contractor what they’re trying to achieve with the lighting system. Is it to extend their outdoor living space? Is it for aesthetic reasons? Is it for security? The answers to these questions should move the contractor in the right direction.

For example, say a homeowner comes home late at night. If that’s the case, Borden says contractors may then want to light the pathways. “You can light the porch or deck,” he says. “You can light the backyard to extend the living space outdoors.”

It’s important for contractors to talk to the customer about the lighting system first, Southard says. “Customers will help with the design,” he explains. “They’ll ask you to light their deck, pathway or stone on the house. Be sure to ask if there is any specific thing they want to highlight.” Southard recommends asking the customer how they entertain. If they have a pond or deck, they should be lit. If they like to entertain outside in their back yard, contractors will know where to include lights.

DO UNDERSTAND THE TECHNOLOGY. It may not be rocket science, but there is a science involved with landscape lighting. It isn’t simply a matter of pointing a light at a tree. Contractors need to understand foot candles, beam spread, and other pertinent photometric information on lamps, often provided by manufacturers. “For example, if you want to light a 15-foot-tall tree with an 8-foot canopy, look at the manufacturer data to find a light bulb that will reach 15 feet or more,” Borden says.

With uplighting, the main objective is to try to get 1 foot-candle of light at the top of the tree, says Rey-Barreau. A foot-candle is a measurement of how much light reaches a surface. “When you turn off all the lights in a space and light a candle, the amount of light you have 1 foot away from that candle is one foot-candle,” he explains. “That may not seem like a lot of light, but at night, it’s very bright.”

The amount of light actually being produced by the light bulb is called candle power. According to Rey-Barreau, there is a fairly simple formula called the inverse square law that says 1 foot-candle multiplied by the distance squared equals candle power. Distance is measured from the ground to the top of the tree.

Therefore, a 40-foot tree would be 40 squared, which equals 1,600 feet. One times 1,600 equals 1,600 candle power. “So you would need to find the bulb that gets you 1,600 candle power in order to get 1 foot-candle at the top of the tree,” Rey-Barreau says. “This shows a contractor that he has to understand and dig a little deeper into the foot-candle and candle power aspect.”

Part of a good design also requires that contractors know the bulb. “You don’t want it to be too bright or overpowering,” Southard says. “You need to know the wattage and whether it’s a flood or spot effect.”

For instance, Southard says the MR16, one of the most commonly used fixtures, has an 8-degree spot beam or 60-degree flood beam. “Narrow spot lighting is good for a statue, but a tree with a large canopy should be lit with a flood.”

And if at first contractors don’t succeed, lighting is easy to try again. If something looks off when the lights are turned on, it’s easy to move a fixture to better light an object. “The good thing about landscape lighting is the flexibility,” Borden says. “If you’re 2 feet off, you can pull it out of the ground and move it.”

No matter how good a design, as time goes on it will need to change, which is a definite bonus to contractors who want to increase sales. By offering a service program, contractor can replace the lamp and adjust fixtures for a fee, Borden says. “You design a system based on the angle of the fixtures and using the proper lamp in that fixture,” he says. “But as trees and shrubs grow, the angle will need to be changed and bulbs will burn out. A service program lets contractors replace the lamp and adjust the fixture.”

Keeping up on education can also benefit a contractor’s designs. New technology does arise, so it’s important for contractors to attend classes or seminars offered by manufacturers, distributors or organizations such as the Low Voltage Lighting Association of America. LEDs are one emerging technology, offering lower wattage and longer life, that contractors should stay educated on. “But they’re still new,” Southard says. “The fixtures are expensive, and there are some issues with light output. Technology in landscape lighting doesn’t change too rapidly, but it does change.”