There are quite a few lighting options and each one has its own effect. The most common are lighting of building facades, illumination of paths and an entrance to the garage and house, children's and playgrounds, alpine slides and ponds, fountains and sculptures, various decorative elements of the garden.
Illumination of buildings can be carried out with various lamps. For facade lighting, you can use spotlights with different angles of the outgoing beam - from a narrow one of several degrees to a wide one. It is beneficial to illuminate architectural details on facades, niches, columns with a narrow beam. A wide beam will help to evaluate the whole complex as a whole and will accentuate the texture of the building.
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On the example of one of the projects, you can consider the disadvantages and advantages of this type of lighting. Before the redesign of the lighting system, the building was illuminated by two spotlights under the wall and at the level of the second floor under the roof.
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Such lighting did not reveal the beauty of the house's log structure. When designing the new lighting, it was proposed to emphasize the unusualness of the facade made of tinted rounded logs with a diameter of about 40 cm. Spotlights with halogen lamps were installed in the lower area of the base, and their light was directed upwards. As a result, all the beauty of the building was revealed.
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Approximately the same result can be obtained when using New Year's or holiday lighting of buildings.
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Lighting for garden paths is considered difficult - it requires a special approach. First of all, garden lights must fit into the surrounding landscape, both in size and design. The illumination of the tracks should help not to get lost on the site and not go in the wrong direction in the dark. The roadway must be illuminated in such a way as not to blind the eyes and uniformly illuminate the entire path of movement, without sudden changes from light to dark, as sometimes happens in the city - it is light under the lantern, and under the crowns of trees it is impenetrable darkness, although the lantern stands a few meters from you.
Using the example of the same project, the track canvas was illuminated by halogen lamps built into the surface and when walking along the track, it was practically not visible - the light from the lanterns hit straight into the eyes. When looking to the side, nothing was visible. When redesigning the system, it was proposed to use the classic scheme - low columns with matte shades at a level of 80 cm from the ground.
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Low power energy saving lamps were used. As you can see in the photo, the track is evenly illuminated and the movement along it is a pleasure. By the way, the lamps built into the track can be present, but it is better to choose them with frosted glasses and low-power lamps, the ideal option is 1W LED marker lamps. These lanterns show the dimensions of the track and indicate the direction of travel. It is better to mount such lamps in the side surface of a curb or retaining wall.
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With this arrangement of the lamps, the canvas is illuminated by side light, and the eyes are not blinded by the directional radiation. Now you can find the products of lighting companies in the form of transparent stones or sidewalk tiles, which have LED matrices inside with different shades of light. They are used for insertion into the general road surface as marker lamps. During the day, they are practically indistinguishable from the rest of the stones, and at night they illuminate the path with soft light.
The next type of lighting is the lighting of vegetation - trees, shrubs, alpine hills, etc. This type of lighting can be beneficial to highlight the beauty of plantings in the evening, since during the day you see a familiar landscape in natural light. In the evening and at night, everything changes.By highlighting ornamental plants, you create unusual living sculptures from familiar objects on your site. For festive occasions, there are options for backlighting in color - for example, green, emphasizing the color of foliage or needles.
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With a neutral white color, you can highlight the interesting texture of shrubs and other plants.
Another point of our journey is playgrounds and playgrounds. This place requires a special approach. In the evening, after a hot day in summer or early evening in winter, you want to be outside and fool around with your children. With mediocre lighting, this is unlikely to be possible. In our project, the evening lighting before the alteration was reduced to several LED rechargeable flashlights, which practically did not give good light; after the alteration, the playground was fully illuminated and the safety of the playing children was fully ensured.
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As for the illumination of water devices, here you can use many options for equipment - both surface and underwater. In a modern design, LED lights and floodlights are best suited. Most of the assortment is available in multicolor, i.e. with RGB matrices. They are controlled by controllers with remote controls for easy activation and programming. By illuminating moving water, you can get innumerable shades and lighting options. Glare from the water creates completely unique patterns on the surface of the water and in the surrounding landscape, on the walls of buildings and on trees. With the help of controllers, the LED matrix creates a moving picture from a color that flows from one shade to another without a sharp change, smoothly.
By using several of these controllers and matrices, you can create a unique color palette, especially if you programmed to turn on time-shifted matrices. Additionally, you can use devices that create artificial fog. They also have LED backlighting with a variable pattern, which additionally creates a variety in the play of light. On a quiet summer evening with the devices turned on, a fairy tale and a horror movie with a moving and illuminated fog can come to life.
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The simplest option for illuminating a pond is a set of several sealed lanterns (LED or with low-power halogen bulbs) and a step-down transformer with an illumination sensor connected in a garland. The sensor allows you to start the backlight yourself, without user intervention, with the onset of dusk. The lanterns are supplied with color filters, with which you can choose the desired color of light, or the lanterns can be of one color. In any case, the effect of such backlighting leaves a lot of positive emotions. Evening, water, glare and mysterious light ...
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As for the purchase of all these devices, then at your service are large supermarkets and garden centers, where you can find almost the entire arsenal of lighting equipment and control machines. You just have to decide for yourself what you want to get as a result, and plunge into the world of fantasy.
Photo by the author
