Just installed 8 G4 RGBW Fixtures and wrapping up burying cable. Could use some help on placement tweaks now and what beam lens to use / move fixtures closer or further. They are all still on 60° stock lens but I have the 38° inserts ready to go. I have 3 home runs broken up by each concrete path/driveway for future upgradability (300w slim transformer) The walkway will also soon be lined with volt 3" Cap Mini rgbcw pathway lights. I am not opposed to buying more equipment if needed.
I don’t have a lot of experience using colored lights but I think what you have so far is pretty good, at least in terms of coverage. The only tweak that comes to mind is perhaps introducing some light to the dark area directly above your porch. Others may have different ideas.
How would you set this up for 2700k light? (I can take another picture and post it back tomorrow if that helps) Majority of the year I'm going to be using 2700k Would you do anything differently in terms of the 60° versus 38° lenses in certain areas and or moving things around? That's where I struggle a little bit on where to use the 60 versus the 38. You do amazing mock-ups with lines and I would love to get your input. These g4s are also dimmable but at the brightest setting, 650 lumens @2700k If I were to put a light at the dark area above the arch, would I attach it to the gutter so it shines upwards towards the roof? Or would I install it above the window and have it shine downwards?
Thanks very much for your kind feedback. So, I diagrammed your photo to demonstrate a lighting plan I might use, based on the perspective and level of detail in your photo. If you installed lights only where the yellow graphics are, I think you'd have a decent and coherent lighting plan that illuminates the majority of your facade. If you include fixtures where the orange graphics are as well, you'll eliminate any dark areas. The thing to keep in mind is that depending on how bright you go and what landscape features you choose to light, you might find that the first approach provides ample light to show off your home. OTOH, you might find those additional fixtures (again, orange graphics) to be overkill. Really depends on how subtle or pronounced you want the overall effect to be. I'm partial to lower lumens lights (3w max) because I like the idea of highlighting the house in a way that makes it look classy but dramatically different than it appears in daylight. Others prefer a little more bling. We're all different that way. Now to your questions. After you've experimented often enough and you can see which fixture types, lenses, shields, etc. produce a desired effect, choosing beam spreads/angles will become intuitive. The sections of stonework flanking your arched portico are relatively narrow. Fifteen degrees would probably work well there. I don't think I'd use anything wider than 20°-25° there. On that far left section of your house, 60° beam spreads would probably be so wide that they'd overlap in front of that arched window. A beam spread of 38° (plus or minus) would probably be ideal for the fixtures there. For that aforementioned dark area, either of those approaches would work. You could flank the window with a couple of puck lights to shine light downward. Alternatively, you could gutter mount a couple of narrow beam spread fixtures and focus them to either side of the window. If light intrusion isn't an issue there, a single fixture with a wider beam spread (in the 38° degree range) should work there. I might use 60° beam spreads on some of your trees with wider canopies. Depending on how wide the canopy is, the 60° beam spread would nearly or totally illuminate the canopy of most of the trees I see in your photo. I hope these general recommendations are helpful.
You’re welcome and I didn’t explain that very well. When you asked about 2700K, I diagrammed your photo based on the assumption you were talking about the house only. What I had in mind was illuminating (at a minimum) that farthest left section of your facade. But with your colored lights, you’re actually demonstrating an alternative way of introducing light to a home’s facade. IOW, if you were to simply change that green light there to a 2700K, you’d still illuminate the tree while projecting its shadow onto that section of the house. Alternatively, lighting both the house and the tree (you could light the tree from the sides, for example). As I suggested earlier, ultimately you will have to make decision about the overall effect you want to create and how much light you want to have focused on your house and yard. Btw, if you have never tried 3000K lights, you might want to try that on some of your trees and shrubs that are some distance from the house. I find that the 3000K on greenery can make the the foliage look crisper and cleaner (for lack of a better way of putting it). It’s also a good way to add complexity to your lighting plan (with 2700K on the house and 3000K on trees some distance from the house. HTH
