Hello, looking at Volt products for my project and have some questions about the different areas I want to light up: Front of house: For the front of the house, I have a tall holly tree on each end of the house. My first thoughts are uplights on each of the hollies, uplights shining between the two windows on each side, and maybe some uplights on the two columns. I do not need pathway lighting for the front walkway. Do you think it would be a mistake to not place light on the columns? I don't want it to be overkill and I do already have porch lighting from the hanging fixture. For the uplights, which fixtures do you recommend and what type of bulb to use? Driveway: For driveway, what is best way to light up this area...pathway lighting? uplighting in the space between the boxwoods and the fence? downlighting from top of fence? The row of boxwoods are about 25 feet long. How much should lights be spaced out? When does it make sense to shine the light on the fence? Sport Court area: I have 11 hollies that run the length of my sport court. I am looking at in-ground lighting...either the Salty Dog MR16 In-Grade Light or the Salty Dog MR16 Grated In-Grade Light...how much light gets blocked by the grates? do you go brighter with bulb due to the grates? How far from the trunk should I install them? Other questions: Which size transformer would I need for all these areas? What is the preferred temperature for outdoor lighting these days...2700 or 3000? Thanks in advance for all your input!
Hi, Fred. Fellowing lighting enthusiast here. I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. I also encourage you to check out some the gallery section and how-tos on the VOLT site. Because I’m a very visual person, I find that it helps to actually see products to get a sense of the kinds of effects they produce. I diagrammed your photos to show you some possible options for lighting your home. To answer your first question, I try to avoid using words like “should” because a lot of lighting design choices are a matter of personal preference. Having said that, I strongly encourage you to uplight your columns and for a couple of reasons. First, when it’s done well, it really can transform a house. The columns are framing your entry way and it’s a phenomenal way to send a message of welcome to visitors. They also show off the architectural detail on your portico in a way that a hanging fixture or wall sconces can’t. Another thing to keep in mind is that, down the road, you may want to automate your system with smart plugs or other controllers that allow you to create different lighting scenes. For instance, on my own house, the fixtures illuminating the house are set to go off after midnight while path lights and down lights over the driveway on the side of my house stay on all night. Maybe there’s times you’ll want only your porch light on or only the column lights and the fixtures lighting your trees. No, I don’t think it would be a “mistake” for you not to light your columns. But I am confident you’ll be glad you did. On the photo of your facade, I’ve indicated where I might place light fixtures. At a bare minimum, I would place lights at each end of your house and on your columns. I think if you go with narrow beam spread spotlights and you stay in the 2W to 3W range, you’ll have a good solid lighting plan for your house. If you want to go from great to phenomenal, I think lighting the areas above your portico and your dormers would get you there and compact spotlights I think would be your best bet in those locations. Alternatively, you could light your portico, the area above the portico and your holly trees. The orange graphics represent flood lights that would illuminate the shrubbery and to some extent, part of the facade above those shrubs. There’s a million different ways you could light that pathway where the wooden fence is. When deciding which fixtures to place where, you’ll want to consider how that walkway will be used. You could illuminate the row of shrubs there with well lights or compact floods or compact spot lights (blue graphics). You could also illuminate the fence itself with spotlights or flood lights on risers that allow you to position your fixtures behind and just above your shrubs there (red graphics). You could also place hardscape lights along the top edge of your fence that illuminate the fence, shrubbery, and pathway (yellow graphics). You could even use some combination of these approaches. Consider your priorities. If safety is your primary concern, you might want to go with fixtures on the brighter side (5W). If your goal is simply to throw some light back there so that it’s not pitch black at night, you can focus more on lighting from an artistic perspective. The ideal number of fixtures is the number of fixtures that accomplishes your goal. It’s conceivable that you could get away with a couple of flood lights aimed at your fence. If you wanted to design with smaller pools of light, you might use twice as many spot lights there instead of flood lights. Hardscape lights come in different widths so, again, you can configure the lights in any number of ways. Multiple evenly spaced lights. A wider hardscape light flanked by two smaller ones. And so on. As with that pathway, there’s any number of ways to light those trees. You could uplight each tree by placing a well or spot directly in front of each tree fairly close to the base. You could also place spots or floods in line with and between each tree focused on the fence. In effect, you’d be using the fence as a backdrop for the trees. Bringing your fixtures as far away from the trunks of each tree would illuminate the foliage more from the front, creating a different effect. Yet a different approach is to place a downlight in each tree that shines light through the foliage and creates interesting shadows on the ground below. The grates reduce brightness somewhat but the fixtures still produce a significant amount of light. You can probably get away with a 300W transformer for all of the lights in both the front of your house and in those other locations. If you’re planning to position any lights some significant distance from your house (a couple hundred feet or more) and/or you anticipate adding a number of additional fixtures at some point, a 600W fixture might be a better bet. It’s hard for me to imagine you needing anything larger than a 600W transformer. Light color temperature is a matter of personal preference. I use primarily 2700K on my house. For the driveway moonlighting, I’m using the equivalent of 4000K. Because you’re still in the planning stages, I strongly encourage you to check out the VOLT site to familiarize yourself with the fixtures and the different lighting effects they produce. You’ll also find lots of helpful how-to articles and videos that can demystify a lot of the installation process. Hope this helps to get you started and that you don’t feel overloaded.
