Garden Spike Lights

LED outdoor spike lights are intended to brighten up the outdoor areas including garden paths. These LED outdoor spike lights also add a contemporary touch to the overall look of the outdoors of your home while being energy-efficient as well.

Garden spike lights are extremely useful and a cost-effective way to light up shrubs and pathways. Spike lighting can also be used near water features such as outdoor ponds and fountains.

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Ideas on Great Lighting Effects For Your Garden

Of the many different types of outdoor lights available, LED garden spike lights are quite popular. These lights are a versatile style of outdoor lighting that can be used in any number of ways. From accenting garden features to providing lighting along a path to serving as security lighting, they make a choice accompaniment to any outdoor area.

What Is a Garden Spike Light?

Garden spike lights are a type of outdoor lighting that is remarkably flexible in terms of what you can do with them. Garden spike lights can be used for any number of purposes, from simple decorative illumination to practical lighting and everything in between.

Choosing LED outdoor spike lights specifically will afford you not only the inherent benefit of spike lights but also the benefits that come with using LEDs. Their energy efficiency will allow you to shine the lights for tens of thousands of hours on end without having to worry about replacing them and with little impact on the environment.

How Long Do LED Spike Lights Last?

LED lighting is famous for its long life, and that life gets even longer when you choose high quality LED bulbs, such as LED CREE or Osram brands. These lights are rated to last a minimum of 20,000 hours, so you won’t have to constantly replace them or maintain them. You can compare this to the lifespan of other types of bulbs, such as:

  • Incandescent bulbs that last for only 1,000 hours
  • Halogen bulbs that last for only 2,000 hours
  • CFL lamps that last for 15,000 hours

To put it in context, this means you could run LED garden spike lights for six hours a day and they would last for around 10 years. If you only ran them for four hours a day, you might expect them to continue to provide light for over 17 years.

How Far Apart Should You Fit Exterior Spike Spotlights?

The decision of how far apart you will place spike lights will depend on what exactly you’re hoping to highlight and just how much light you need in any given area. If you use too few lights, it can end up looking like little more than a candle in a field; this will do nothing to provide the necessary illumination in a space, nor will it even look that appealing. On the other hand, using too many lights can make the area far too bright and harsh on the eyes.

Take a moment to consider what you’re hoping to accomplish with your external spike lighting and plan accordingly. While doing so, you could consider using spike lights as a way to layer lights outdoors. Using exterior spike lights in tandem with wall lights, taller posts lights and bollard lights will create a mixed, layered look, shining light in a general area instead of just one beam. This will keep the garden looking well balanced and prevent the eye from only being drawn to its lower level.

How Bright Are Outdoor Spike Light Fittings?

LED lights are every bit as bright as halogen lights, but their brightness is measured in other ways. When it comes to LED lights, illumination is indicated in lumens instead of wattage. Generally, the rule is that one watt of LED light is the equivalent of 80 to 100 lumens. This means that:

  • A 3 watt LED light bulb will shine the same amount of light as a 25-30 watt halogen bulb.
  • A 5 watt LED light bulb will shine the same amount of light as a 45-50 watt halogen bulb.
  • A 9 watt LED light bulb will shine the same amount of light as a 60 watt halogen bulb.

When you are trying to decide on the wattage or lumens output for your new lights, consider the item and the area you want to illuminate. Factors like size, how far away you plan to position the lights and similar factors will come into play when deciding the brightness level for the spike lights.

This type of lighting can be used to focus on a certain area of a garden like a statue or a tree or even add depth of space by extending the view down a garden path. You can create atmosphere in other ways, such as low level plant lighting that shines illumination from behind plants to create the illusion of hidden light. Because spike light fixtures are generally flexible, you can position them in any direction once they are in place. This means you can create the best visual effects as the seasons change and so do the plants in your garden.

In the end, there is virtually no limit to how you can use outdoor spike spotlights. A few of the other uses of such lights include but are not limited to:

  • Defining garden pathways
  • Outlining the edge of driveways
  • Highlighting statues in a garden
  • Lining the perimeter of a garden
  • Creating an outdoor seating area
  • Accentuating flower beds
  • Showing off small trees and shrubs
  • Shining light on a building and more

The IP rating is an indication of a light’s resistance to wet and dry particulates and changes in weather. An IP rating, or Ingress Protection rating, tells you just how much protection your lights will have against the world around them. The first digit in a rating indicates its protection against solids, while the second digit indicates its protection against liquids.

Because the lights will be outdoors and exposed to the elements, you should work with waterproof IP65 spike lights. Having an IP65 or IP67 rating will totally protect them from any water damage, including driving rain and even immersion up to one meter. The following breaks down what the second digit on each of the IP ratings indicates:

  • Level 1 lighting is protected from dripping water.
  • Level 2 lighting is protected from dripping water when it is tilted at 15 degrees.
  • Level 3 lighting is protected from the effects of spraying water.
  • Level 4 lighting is protected from the effects of splashing water.
  • Level 5 lighting is protected from damage from water jets.
  • Level 6 lighting is protected from the force of any powerful water jets.
  • Level 7 lighting is protected from immersion as deep as one meter.

Level 8 lighting is protected from immersion one meter deep or higher.

Even if you use subtle black spike lights that blend into the night, their light will still serve an obvious and important purpose: security. Lighting is believed to be among the best options for deterring burglars, as a well-lit place is one they are less likely to tread upon. Having a well-lit outdoor space can make you feel safer, since you’ll be able to clearly see what’s going on outside of your window. You can run them all night long so that even when you’re sleeping and can’t keep an eye on your outdoor space, the light will still deter intruders.

This is especially true if you have security cameras in place. Placing lights in view of those cameras will allow you to clearly see any activity that may be going on there. In cases like this, you can point the light in the direction that the security lights are covering to more easily illuminate the space.

Placing garden spike lights along paths leading up to your doors, around the perimeter of the house and in any dark crevices may be what it takes to make a burglar feel seen and less likely to try and break into your home from any angle. Small accent spike lights can be place around pools, near windows and doors or along driveways to cover all of the areas they may approach from.

It is not a good idea to install LED garden spike lights on your own; since they use electricity, you run the risk of shocking yourself if they are not handled correctly. It is recommended that you hire a professional electrician to handle the job for you. Even so, this does not mean you have to be completely excluded from the process.

Before the electrician comes to set up the lighting, you can start planning the layout and arranging them how you’d like. You could also get started digging the necessary holes where you have planned the light, so the electrician can simply come and lay the cables.

Speaking of cables, it is highly recommended that you use an armoured cable for your lights. This is because they are very likely to be buried underground, and armoured cables will more readily protect the mains supply if someone is digging in the garden and accidentally hits them. Armoured cables will stop the cables from accidentally breaking and potentially shocking you.

LED spike lights are a versatile and easy way to add illumination to your garden. Whether you want to highlight a garden feature, outline a walkway or distinguish an outdoor seating area, these lights are there to help. When you choose an LED bulb for such lights, you can expect them to perform their job for a minimum of 20,000 hours.

In this article, we explored what garden spike lights are and how to use them. We also touched upon LED lumens versus wattage as well as tips on deciding how far apart to place your lights and how many to use. Refer to this article as you begin to plan out the installation of your new exterior spike lights.

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