I plan to have 8 spotlights pointing up to brick walls (up to 20' high) installed in flower beds about 1 foot from the wall, 1 pointing up to a birch tree, 1 to a brick wall but installed in the gutter or wall above the front porch, and 1 pointing up to a white column in the front porch. See the picture for what it would look like (except for 2 extra ones in the gutters above the very first 3 front windows - right side - that I don't plan to install since it would be hard). 1) which angle should I use for the brick walls? I was thinking around 38. 2) would it be okay to use ~38 degree angle for the birch, front column, and above-the-front-porch too? 3) planning to using MR11 spotlights (maybe ~2W) since I cannot use them too bright due to HOA restrictions. is that okay? 4) how should I run and hide the wire that will go up in the front porch for the fixture to be attached closer to the gutter? 5) I'm planning to use spotlights for all of them to keep it simple. is that fine?
Hi there. Fellow landscape lighting fan here. I diagrammed your photo to suggest an alternative approach to uplighting the facade of your home. Feel free to take my recommendations with a grain of salt. A more minimalist approach (one that’s less likely to be vetoed by a HOA, imo) would be to highlight only the sections with the quoins (where the yellow graphics are) and the gable on your garage. 38° seems like it could be a wee bit wide for the wall sections. They’d probably be just fine for the gable. Not super excited over the idea of lighting that area above your portico with the offset window. First, there will probably be sufficient spillover light to illuminate that area (from from the lighting on the section to the right of your portico) but also, light intrusion might be an issue if there’s a bedroom or sitting area there. If that’s not an issue for you or you’re concerned that section will be too dark, by all means, go for it. I included the photo of the other house to show you what highlighting those sections with narrower beam spreads would look like. If you decide to illuminate the gable and/or the area above your portico, the easiest and least intrusive approach (imo) would be to gutter mount your lights by running wire up through your downspouts. HTH
Thank you for the reply and suggestions! Regarding the HOA, I decided that I'll not ask for permission and may ask for forgiveness later I just want to do something unlikely to raise concerns by not being too bright (e.g. there is a 150-lumen max per fixture rule that I'm fine to break but trying not going beyond 250 lumens for instance. The area above the front porch gets too dark when the other areas are lit. I attached a picture to illustrate that. Since that window is only for a closet, I'm fine with some light intrusion. Do you think I should use a 60 degree for that one above the front porch? I'm planning to gutter mount the one on top of the front porch but is it safe to run even a low-voltage 14/2 wire through the gutters? I was thinking about somehow fixing the wire on the outside of the gutter (without drilling) to try to hide it while being a bit safer and maybe more "code-compliant". Not sure exactly how to do that yet but open to suggestions. Thank you!
I think it might be a good idea to buy one of the Top Dog fixtures and a 20-40-60 adjustable beam spread bulb. With that, you could get a clearer idea of which beam spreads in the regular MR16 lamps to order for the different areas you’re considering lighting. FYI, if you find that the 175 lumens lamps are too bright, you could always add a frosted lens to slightly dial down the brightness. As for running a wire through the downspout, there are ways to provide more robust protection for your cable. For instance threading your cable through some flexible pvc conduit. But before you make any major purchasing decisions, I highly recommend you contacting VOLT customer service for more professional guidance in planning your system. They can probably give you more definitive answers as far as beam spreads and the safest methods for wiring your lights. Btw, the idea of strapping your cable to your downspout (and maybe painting it to blend in) sounds like a decent alternative to running it through the downspout. HTH
