Hey Meso, hope you’re doing well! First off, I just want to say thank you for all of the support and expertise that you provide for this website! My wife and I are in the process of completing a remodel on a colonial home and we are finally to the point where we would like to complete the outdoor lighting before winter sets in! I’ve seen in your previous posts that you also have a colonial style home so was hoping that you could help me out with an uplighting diagram for our exterior, including beam angles and wattage. I’ve attached a couple photos of our home below - thanks again for all of your knowledge and input!
Thanks for the kind words and always happy to help. You have a beautiful home and the great thing is, from what I can see in the photos, there aren’t many obstacles that would prevent you from effectively illuminating the facade of your house. I diagrammed one of your photos to indicate a very straightforward approach: Narrow beam spread spotlights (no more than 15 or 20 degrees) on the facade and puck lights to highlight your garage doors. Narrow beam spread will highlight the sections indicated with little or no trespass into your windows. Brightness is a personal preference. If I were you, I’d base my decisions on the the overall statement you want to make with your lighting, how dark it gets at night and the extent (if any) to which you want your sconces and post light fixtures to be a part of your plan. For instance, if you have low ambient light and/or you won’t be using your sconces, post light and other line voltage fixtures while the landscape lighting is on, you wouldn’t need to go brighter than 3W lamps in your fixtures, imho. Whatever brightness you choose for the facade, I’d go with a similarly bright puck light for the garage doors. With its varying brick colors, earthy green window trim and imposing chocolate wood double door entrance your home gives off something of a “masculine” vibe. Consider that when you choose light color temperature. IMO, the cooler 3000K will dial up that vibe somewhat and the faintly yellower 2700K will further emphasize the warmth of those colors. If your line voltage house lights will be on but you don’t necessarily depend on them for safety or security, I’d seriously consider choosing a brightness comparable to that of your LL fixtures. The wall sconces flanking my front door have 15w incandescent bulb equivalents. So they really add little more than “fill light” to my overall lighting plan and don’t wash out the effect of the LL. Hope this helps to get you started.
Thanks Meso - appreciate the quick and detailed response as always! In regards to the current line voltage house lights, the plan was to not use these at night since they require 4 bulbs per fixture and I believe they would wash out the uplighting on the front facade With that being said, do you think that I should add 2 more spotlights aimed towards the front door section so that the entrance would be illuminated as well? Maybe 38 degree on both sides? Thanks again!
Uh-oh. You used the “s” word in your question. I think you should do what what you think makes your house look great—even if you think you might change your mind later (and trust me, over time, you probably will). Unless you’re on a strict budget, don’t be afraid to experiment with different light levels and beam spreads, color temps and filters. Are design principles important? Sure. But breaking rules sometimes leads to surprisingly good results. The facade of my house is quite similar to the one in the top/first photo and it’s similarly lit. Including the portico columns, it looks like there’s evenly sized, shaped, and spaced vertical bands of light across the full expanse of the facade. If the facade sections immediately flanking the portico were illuminated as well, the symmetry would be altered. You’d then have one large illuminated swath of the front of the house flanked by narrower illuminated sections (if that makes sense). That’s not bad, imo. It’s just symmetrical in a different way. I didn’t light those sections on my house because shrubbery I like makes that impossible. In the end, it gets back to personal preference. I have never been crazy about the shadow created by uplighting sconces (2nd photo) which is what you’ll likely see if you uplight that section of your house. I can’t say why I don’t care for it. I just don’t. To others, it might look interesting or add character to the overall plan. We’re all different that way. I encourage you to check out the site project gallery photos, other online photos and houses in your area to get a feel for the effect and impact you want to create. There’s people who want to install their lights and be done and then there’s those of us who like to be more experimental and hands on. No one approach is superior, imo. HTH. P.S. If those trees behind your house belong to you, I think you might consider lighting them at some point, as they’d make at least as phenomenal a backdrop at night as they do during daylight hours.
Thanks - appreciate all of the ideas and input! If you were to uplight in the entrance area, would you recommend to stick with 15 degree beams then? Also, out of the spotlights that Volt offers, is there one that you prefer over the others - All Star, Top Dog, G2 Fat Boy
I’ve recommended a 15 degree beam spread in those areas because, based on my best estimate from your photos, that’d give you the best coverage while preventing undesired light trespass into your windows and your front door. The sections where the doorway sconces are appear to be the narrowest so I’d absolutely stick with 15 degree beam spreads there. Many recommendations I’ve made will make more sense once you begin installing and once you’ve lived with the lighting for a while. I think it would be helpful if VOLT had a comparison chart for some of their fixtures. All three of these lights are great but they each have strengths and weaknesses depending on available options and where they are used. All three have glare guards that can be adjusted with a thumb screw. While the glare guard on the All Star and the Top Dog can eachbe removed entirely so that the fixtures can be used without the glare guard itself the Fatboy’s glare guard and lamp cover are a unit. Removing the glare guard leaves the bare bulb and socket exposed. The angle adjustment knuckles on both the Top Dog and the Fatboy adjust with a thumb screw. They are also indexed indexed, which is helpful when you need to precisely match the aim angle of two or more fixtures. By contrast, the All Star adjustment knuckle adjusts with a hex tool,or Allen wrench and allows a wide aim angle range. The lamp guards for the All Star and Fatboy are flat while that of the Top Dog is convex. Finally, both the Fatboy and All Star have both 4’ and 25’ lead wire options. As of this writing, the Top Dog only has a 4’ lead wire option. I have some of all three fixtures and IMO the Fatboys are best on landscaping where precise aim is less crucial. Having said all that, I strongly encourage you to take some time to familiarize yourself with the specific products you’re considering. If you have any doubts or questions, VOLT customer service is always super helpful. HTH
I recommend the lamp ready fixtures for those new to lighting because you’ll have a lot more flexibility if you change your mind about brightness and other variables. For instance, I believe the least bright G4 infinity fixture is more than double the brightness of the lowest lumens LRF. The G4s are very customizable but if you want the most control over your light output, the lamp ready fixtures are your best bet, imo. Btw, there is a new integrated fixture that’s dimmable but at its lowest setting, it’s still brighter than the 2W MR16 lamp. Hth.
