Looking for some advice from the Volt experts! I currently have Philips Hue Lily XL spotlights on the exterior of my home, and I use Philips Hue throughout the inside of the house as well. I really enjoy the ability to change colors for holidays and special occasions, but I’m considering switching my landscape lighting over to Volt. I already have Volt path lights in both the front and back, but I’m struggling with what fixtures to use to highlight the house and landscaping. Right now, my spotlights are positioned out in the yard, and I’d like to move toward a more professional, high-end lighting design. We also recently planted two small Japanese maples on the far left and far right of the front landscaping. They’re still tiny, but I’d like to account for their future growth in the lighting plan. If this were your home, which Volt fixtures would you recommend, and where would you place them? I’d love to see fixture recommendations, beam spreads, mounting locations, or even photos of similar projects. My goal is to create a clean, elegant look that really makes the house stand out at night without over-lighting it. Thanks in advance—I appreciate any suggestions!
Long time VOLT customer here. I highly recommend you check out some of the dozens of previous posts offering guidance on lighting placement and beam spread, etc and also check out the gallery of projects on the VOLT site as well. I'm sure there are a number of houses similar to yours that you can refer to for guidance on how best to approach lighting your own home. I will say that because you have a light colored house, I would start out with fairly low lumens to start with. The light colored paint will amp up the brightness of your bulb output somewhat (especially if you have a dark night sky where you are). Two of my favorite fixtures are the Top Dog (a super versatile spotlight) and puck lights or soffit lights (which you can install under your soffits if you want to add down lighting in certain areas of your house). If you're really particular about the overall look you want on your house, I think it would be a good idea for you to first experiment with a couple of different lamp types, to get a clear idea of brightness levels and beam spreads. For instance, color changing bulbs are dimmable and this is a good way to see how much light a 1.5 W or 2W bulb produces vs a 3W or 5W bulb. Another product I recommend is the mr16 adjustable beam spread bulb (which allows you to switch from among 20,40, and 60 degree beam spreads. After you've seen what different brightness levels and beam spread look on different sections of your house facade, then you can proceed to buy all of your fixtures and lamps and other accessories with confidence. Alternatively, the good folks at VOLT customer service are tremendously helpful and can give you meaningful feedback and advice on many of the questions you've asked here. Hth
