I have a 250 ft retaining wall at the entrance of my driveway that I’d like to light. The tallest part is 16 feet gradually decreasing to just a few feet. I was initially thinking I wanted graze lighting from the top, but I’m concerned the light won’t travel the whole way down the wall at the tallest portion. What approach/fixtures would you suggest? It would be ideal to light from the top…at the bottom there is only 2 feet of river jack between the wall and the driveway, and I’m concerned any light at the bottom might get damaged by vehicles or when snow is plowed.
Hard to give meaningful advice without seeing what your setup is, Weston. If you attach a photo or two, I will have a clearer idea of the scope of your project and your options.
Photo is super helpful. Depending on how bright you want to go and how much coverage you want, you have a number of options (all of which have have strengths and weaknesses). My first approach would be well lights (like the one shown here and linked below) placed flush along the wall. IMO, the brightest lamp for this fixture should reach your highest desired height and place close to the wall, it should be safe from traffic and plows. Possible issues? The max beam spread on this fixture is only 60°. If you want the wall fully illuminated with no dark spaces, you will likely need more of this particular fixture than you would floodlights. On the positive side, there are well fixtures that aren't as bright but have wider lamp beam spread options that will work well along the lower sections of your wall. Also, there could potentially be issues with snow and ice blocking some light during really cold snowy weather. That matters if you absolutely positively want the lights to be on at night no matter what. If you strongly prefer downlighting, you have several options (including the new LED wall wash bar fixture pictured here). Like the other fixtures shown, it's very bright and will provide excellent coverage. You might be able to use just one or two of those (to illuminate from the highest section of the wall) and then fill in the other areas with downlights that aren't as bright (again, as the wall height decreases). The great thing about the floodlights pictured is that they are all dimmable, you can choose colors (if you want) or stay within the usual warm white to cool white range. Because these fixtures can be controlled independently or in groups, you'll also have some zoning capability. Possible issues? The light bar can be installed facing up or down but you'll want to confirm with VOLT customer service (either directly or by submitting a question about the product from the product's link). The warranty for these is decent but not as generous as the lifetime warranty offered for most products. Finally, when you're placing these fixtures high on a wall, you want to be careful to aim them so that they don't create too much glare or make it difficult for people driving up or down that road to see. The fixtures I suggested should work great if brightness and coverage are your priorities. If you don't need the wall to be super bright or illuminated from top to bottom for the full length of the wall, you'll have many more options. One other thing to keep in mind is that to illuminate that expanse with lights at those wattages, you'll want a fairly robust transformer and thick cable to compensate for potential voltage drop. HTH https://www.voltlighting.com/shop/landscape-lighting/well-lights https://www.voltlighting.com/commercial-par36-in-ground-well-light https://www.voltlighting.com/shop/landscape-lighting/flood-lights
Thank you Mesodude2! This is super helpful. The more I have thought about this project and after reading your suggestions, I’m thinking I’ll do the well lights. I’m ok with some dark areas created by the light spacing and actually think that will look cool. The wall is about 200 ft long. I was thinking spacing around 15 feet apart. What are your thoughts on that?
Glad to be of help. Unfortunately, we may have reached the limit of my technical knowledge wrt choosing fixture number. What I can tell you is that you'll probably be deciding between the MR16 Salty Dog and the PAR36 well lights. You might even end up using some combination of these fixtures. The maximum lamp available for the Salty is about half the brightness of the maximum lamp available for the PAR36. MR16 lamps for the Salty are available with beam spreads as wide as 110° whereas the maximum beam spread available for the PAR36 is 60° VOLT customer service should be able to help you choose how many fixtures you need based on your desired light levels and coverage. Ultimately, it will involve some trial and error til you get the effect exactly the way you want. HTH
