How to position outdoor lights

Let’s go over some of the basic types of outdoor lighting so you have a sense of options.

• Silhouette: By lighting a wall behind a key subject, you can make it stand out more prominently.
• Shadowing: Projecting light directly onto a subject can cast stark shadows on the surfaces behind it. Angle the light from below for a particularly spooky effect.
• Wall-washing: Pointing broad, dim lights against larger walls can brighten the whole home without highlighting specific features.
• Grazing: Running a continuous light directly at the base of a wall casts shadows upwards, which can define roughly-textured surfaces.
• Up-lighting: Lights placed close to the base of subjects can provide dramatic emphasis when pointed upwards.
• Down-lighting: Down-lighting is placed above a subject and highlights it from there to create a serene atmosphere.
• Moonlighting: mounting a light within a tree and casting it downwards produces, wide, dramatic shadows through its branches.
• Path: Walkways need lights if only for safety reasons and should run the entire length of the path.
• Accenting: Accent lights focus light on very specific subjects. This effect can be an especially impressive plant, for example.

Outdoor lights don’t necessarily need to be on their own circuit, but you may want them to be for safety and additional control. Outdoor outlets have ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI), which immediately cut the circuit when it detects that current is leaking into the ground. This action will happen when a light’s weatherproofing fails and water seeps into the circuitry. So even if your outdoor lights are on the same breaker as your indoor appliances, outdoor outlets should catch any problems before they spread elsewhere.

The needed lumen rating on your outdoor lights will depend on where you’re pointing them. Path lighting doesn’t require much since each light isn’t illuminating a huge area. With those, you can get away with 100 lumens or so. If you’re lighting up a whole patio, you’ll likely want around 1,000 lumens, depending on the size of the area and how much you want to balance a cozy atmosphere versus useful lighting. Security lights that aim for maximum distance can reach upwards of 3,000 lumens.

Outdoor sconces should be 66 inches high, measured from the center of the fixture. If you’re mounting lights on posts, they should be 7 feet high. If you’re placing lights above doorways or windows, a good rule of thumb is to take a quarter of the height of the feature and add that to the top to determine light placement.

Exterior lights should be around 6 feet apart, depending on the brightness. Some applications, like stairs, may demand more consistent lighting, in which case you would want to space them about three feet apart.