Solar lighting is a growing market that attracts increasing residential and commercial consumers. Despite their relatively steep prices, high-end solar lighting and similar products remain lucrative because of cost-effectivity and sustainability.
Solar lights are maintenance-free and add to your monthly energy bills, making them a long-term solution for smart buyers. Hence, even high-end solar lighting can translate to savings down the road. Like traditional indoor and outdoor lights, they illuminate and uplift the beauty of any living space and evoke a more welcoming ambiance.
Besides hiring a good landscaper, enhancing your homescape should include installing fancy lights in strategic places. Below are some suggestions for increasing your outdoor spaces’ visual appeal.
1. Identify where to place solar lights
Learning how to place outdoor lights strategically demands homeowners and designers understand the basics of landscaping and lighting designs to ensure a complementary look. Lighting positions within the outdoor sections are primarily dictated by their purpose: beautifying, brightening or making it more secure.
Check your outdoor area and identify the purpose for placing lights to know your lighting requirements. Here are some of the spaces you might want to consider:
- Entryway, pathway, or walkway
- Parking space
- Pergola or canopy
- Porch, patio, or deck
- Outdoor dining area
- Barbeque or cooking area
- Garden
- Pool
- Stairs
You can place luxury solar lights anywhere within these areas, especially in the entryways, which need illumination for safety and curb appeal. From the outside, the foyer dictates your home’s entire mood because it’s what your visitors and passersby see first when looking at your property.
2. Explore your solar lighting options and techniques
The right lighting can impact our mood, according to science. For instance, a ‘warm’ or yellow light is often associated with coziness and relaxation, which can induce sleep in some people. White-hued illuminators, usually classified as cool light, can make us more alert, making them beneficial in tasks requiring concentration.
Depending on the purpose, for instance, aesthetics and security, you can use any of the following types of outdoor lights for your homescape:
This lighting technique aims to focus on a specific object below it. Downlights are often placed on the exterior walls and hallways where illumination is vital.
Hanging solar light bulbs along your recreational areas, such as the patio and garden, is a great example of downlighting. Ensure you place the panel in a sturdy area with adequate sun exposure for optimal performance.
Downlights are often mixed with other devices, such as security lights, to detect and discourage intruders from entering your home.
This lighting method places the lamp below the desired focus area. Uplights are used to create interesting shadows and shapes from outdoor fixtures like bushes, trees, posts, and fountains, to name a few.
Solar flood light can illuminate and highlight specific targets in your yard when placed on the ground. Uplights can be angled in interesting ways to make everyday objects more attractive at
night.
This technique aims to illuminate a specific focus area, for instance, lighting the entire pathway or entryway. Most often, the lights used in this method are special lamps that cover a circumferential section, like solar pathway lights. These devices are arranged in a column to make driveways brighter and safer.
Section lighting can also be used in gardens, bushes, and other landscaped areas, highlighting the nearby structures in the yard.
As the name implies, this lighting technique is best done by professionals. If your modern home has special sections and features that need illumination, or if you want a customized lighting device, you’d need professionals to do the job.
Installing luxury lights is good if you want to mix style and grandeur in your outdoor spaces. High-quality and non-traditional materials are used in these illumination devices, which come in various finishes and geometric patterns. If you want a fancy outdoor kitchen, a solar hanging chandelier made with crystals is a great idea.
Security lights often have higher lumens to identify intruders and the object they might use for criminal activities. Since lumens are a brightness metric, a higher number indicates a more glaring bulb. Most security lights have outputs of at least 700 lumens, while ultra-bright types have a thousand or more.
Solar security lights are best installed along the entrances and other approach points within your perimeter.
3. Layering methods
When exploring the best high-end solar lighting for your home, it’s best to revisit the purpose of installing lights before incorporating other techniques for layering.
The basic layering rule involves ambient, task, and accent lights. Ambient light should draw attention to an object, while task lights help you and your guests perform specific activities at night. Accent lights make interesting spots more attractive at night with better light distribution. Creating a great balance between these elements dictates your lighting design success.
Concluding thoughts
For centuries, lights, lamps, and lanterns have illuminated indoor and outdoor areas at night. These days, though, it’s common to use such luminous devices to create a more attractive yard, especially when preparing for a home sale.
Solar lights can be placed along walkways, decks, or patios or installed on exterior walls and practically anywhere. As long as you know your options and the basic techniques, including layering, it’s easier to bring out the best of your outdoor area.