When installing outdoor lighting, you need to know the lumen rating of your lights in order to correctly illuminate your outdoor space. Lumens are the measurement of light output from lighting fixtures and bulbs and are used to determine how much light will be cast onto your landscape when using a particular fixture or bulb.
When determining outdoor lighting how many lumens you need for your outdoor space, consider these three factors: the size of your area, the type of landscaping you have, and the time of year it is installed. Read more below to learn how many lumens you need for your specific application.
What Is A Lumen?
A lumen is a measure of how much light is being emitted by a source. For example, an old school incandescent bulb puts out around 15 lumens, while halogen floods can emit as many as 1,600 lumens. It’s important to know how many lumens you need for your lighting needs because it dictates what kind of lights you should be buying. If you don’t have enough lumens, your outdoor space will look dark and dingy; if you have too many lumens, your outdoor space will look washed out and white. To figure out how many lumens you need for outdoor lighting, take into account some factors.
1. How big is your outdoor space?
The bigger your outdoor area, the more lumens you’ll need to adequately illuminate it. This doesn’t mean that larger spaces require thousands of lumens—just that they require more than smaller spaces do.
2. What activities are going on in your outdoor space?
If you’re using your outdoor space for entertaining guests or relaxing with family, then you want to make sure there are plenty of lumens so everyone can see each other clearly. However, if you just want some ambient lighting in a seating area or garden path, then fewer lumens are fine.
How Many Lumens Do You Need?
Before you start shopping for outdoor lighting, you should know how many lumens you need. These are basically a measurement of brightness. For example, your eyes can see around 6 million lumens at night. When it comes to residential lighting, though, all you really need is around 20-60 lumens per square foot. This should be more than enough to light up your garden or yard while saving on energy costs in doing so.
If you want to save even more money, consider using WATTGAE DIMMABLE OR CCT CHANGEABLE LED LIGHTS instead of traditional ones. They’re easier to suit your landscape lighting design lumen and CCT requirements, which means, you don’t need to store so many different lumens and Calvin of low voltage led lights. If you have any questions about choosing the right lumens for your property, talk with us or call us today!
Eagle Flood Lights:
These are typically installed outside of a house or garage, and they’re designed to illuminate a specific area. The term flood light is actually something of a misnomer, as these types of lights can have a broad or narrow beam angle. Flood lights are designed for outdoor use and come in either spotlights (which emit light in only one direction) or directional fixtures that shine outward, usually at an angle of 150 degrees. Our flood light WW-EG02 can be several beam angle degrees 15/25/30/60/150, let us know the one you need.
Eagle Path Lights:
Eagle Path lights are best suited for lighting up a wide, unobstructed path of the walkway. For many homeowners, these lights are meant to be purely decorative. Some models feature an automatic dusk-to-dawn sensor that turns them on when night falls and off again when daylight does. There are some models that produce enough light to illuminate a portion of your yard or garden, but for added brightness, you may want to add an additional light source, like a flood light nearby or in another part of your yard.
Atmospheric Landscape Lights:
This is one of your most economical lighting options since you don’t have to pay for power consumption. They also tend to last a long time, so they may be less costly in terms of maintenance over time. A landscape light can range anywhere from 2,000 lumens up to 30,000 lumens depending on what sort of effect you want and how far away from your home they should shine. For example, if you’re looking for more of an ambient glow around your house or yard that doesn’t require much in terms of visibility, then something like 10,000 lumens would work well.
However, if you are looking to illuminate a walkway or sidewalk outside your home at night (like security lights), then something closer to 5,000 lumens might work better.
Motion Sensor Lights:
If you want to keep your lights on at night, but don’t want to go through batteries too quickly, opt for motion sensor lighting. They provide enough light so that you can see your way around safely and are designed to shut off as soon as they sense no movement or no more activity in a certain area. The downside is that they might not be bright enough if you need more than basic lighting, but they’re certainly cheaper in terms of energy and cost when compared with their incandescent counterparts.
Eagle Hardscape Lights:
Hardscape lighting is intended to illuminate walkways, patios, and exterior structures like a pergola or gazebo. These units typically have a light source (bulb) directly attached to a fixture. The fixture hangs directly from utility lines or can be held up by an electrical stake. A low-wattage bulb is used in these fixtures because they do not generate much heat.
Eagle Spot Lights:
Traditional spot lighting illuminates a specific area. This makes it perfect for pathways and other hardscape features that you want to highlight, but not cluttered with added ambient light. In order to determine how many lumens you need for this kind of outdoor lighting, add up all of your square footage (in feet) and divide it by 12 to get the total square feet of lighting in linear feet.
Pool and Pond Lights:
12,000 to 18,000 lumens. You’ll need a lot of light if you want your pool or pond to make a big visual impact. It’s worth spending more on high-quality light fixtures, as most backyard ponds don’t require nearly as much power to illuminate as a swimming pool does. Metal halide and LED lights as outdoor lighting are both excellent choices for outdoor ponds; either will turn your water feature into an unforgettable centerpiece.
Motion Sensor Lights:
Motion-sensor lights are great for outdoor security and safety. A motion sensor will only turn on when it detects motion within its range, which means you don’t have to worry about your battery getting drained by always-on light that doesn’t need to be on. Motion sensors can also work with timers so they can automatically shut off after a certain amount of time. This is especially useful if you want them to come on at night but not during daylight hours or if you want them to stay on all night.