going to install uplighting for the front of the house and was wondering if anyone can give me any pointers of which fixtures to install and where? thanks in advance
Start with MR16 spot lights placed adjacent to, rather than in front of, the ground floor windows. You will have a greater selection of bulb options with the MR16s. You may need some 5 or 7 watt bulbs for light to reach all the way to the top the of second story of the relative non-reflective brick work. Two areas where shadows will be an issue are the right side of the highest gable and the second story brick wall over the right door. These can be lit with gutter mounted spot lights aimed at an angle across the front of the brick work, assuming you don’t have a problem with climbing up a tall ladder to install the left, upper gable light. The wires to the gutter mounted lights can be run down behind or inside adjacent down spouts. An alternative for lighting the second story brick work over the right door would be one or two gutter mounted wide angle wall wash flood lights. Another issue is the porch area of the right door. When the spot lights are on you will be left with an unlit cave effect which you can address by incorporating any house lights you have around or over that door. The same goes for any lights over the main entrance door on the left. You can light these areas with dimmable smart bulbs, dimmable bulbs on smart switches or even low wattage dusk-to-dawn bulbs. However, before you order anything for your project, I would highly recommend laying out how and where you will run the mainlines from the transformer and where you will install the hubs. Sketch out a plot plan of the front of the house and measure everything to the foot so you can estimate how much wire you will need and which lights can be best attached to the hubs with the 25 foot lead wire option when ordering the spot lights. Also think about what wattage transformer you will need, especially if you may want to expand to installing lights in the back yard in the future. Finally, give some thought as to how you will control the transformer. Options are a smart plug, a Volt dusk-to-dawn sensor or the Ring bridge controller. Hope this helps. Bob
