Landscape Lighting A-Z:
Your Guide to Outdoor Illumination Terms
Understanding the language of landscape lighting helps you make informed decisions about your property. This glossary covers the most common terms and techniques we use to transform outdoor spaces into illuminated masterpieces.
Key Concepts & Systems:
- Landscape Lighting: The strategic placement of outdoor lights to enhance the beauty, safety, and security of a property after dark.
- Outdoor Lighting: General term referring to any lighting used outside a building.
- Low-Voltage Lighting: A safe and energy-efficient lighting system that uses a transformer to reduce standard household electricity (120V) to a lower, safer voltage (typically 12V or 24V).
- LED (Light Emitting Diode): Highly energy-efficient and long-lasting light source used in modern landscape lighting fixtures.
- Transformer: An electrical device that converts high-voltage household electricity to the low voltage required for landscape lighting systems.
- Fixture: The complete lighting unit, including the housing, lamp (bulb), and any lenses or shields. Also called a luminaire.
- Professional Landscape Lighting: Design, installation, and maintenance of high-quality, durable outdoor lighting systems by experienced specialists.
- Wired Lighting: Landscape lighting systems that use physically buried wires to deliver power from a central transformer to each fixture, ensuring consistent and reliable illumination.
- Smart Lighting System: Landscape lighting that can be controlled remotely via a smartphone app, voice commands, or integrated with smart home platforms, allowing for scheduling, dimming, and color changes.
- Permanent Holiday Lighting: A discreetly installed, year-round LED lighting system that can display a full spectrum of colors for various holidays, events, or architectural accents, controlled via an app. Amongst lighting professionals Permanent Holiday Lighting is also commonly referred to as “Residential Track Lights” or “Architectural Lighting”
Type of Fixtures & Effects:
- Accent Lighting: Lighting designed to highlight specific features or objects, such as trees, sculptures, or architectural details.
- Spotlight (Bullet Light): A fixture that produces a narrow, focused beam of light, ideal for accentuating specific elements.
- Flood Light (Wash Light): A fixture that provides a wide, diffused beam of light, used to illuminate larger areas or wash a surface with even light.
- Path Light (Area Light): A fixture typically mounted on a short stake that casts a downward and outward glow to illuminate walkways, garden paths, and low-lying planting beds.
- Well Light (In-Ground Light): A fixture installed flush with the ground, providing upward light to illuminate trees, columns, or architectural elements discreetly.
- Downlight (Moonlighting): A fixture mounted high in a tree or structure, casting a soft, diffuse light downwards to mimic natural moonlight.
- Hardscape Lighting (Step Lights, Deck Lights): Lighting fixtures designed to be integrated directly into structures like steps, retaining walls, deck railings, or outdoor kitchens for safety and accent.
- Uplighting: A lighting technique where light is directed upwards from the ground to illuminate the base or trunk of a tree, or the facade of a home.
- Silhouetting: A technique where a light is placed behind an object to create a dramatic outline against a brighter background.
- Shadowing: A technique where a light is placed in front of an object to cast its shadow dramatically onto a wall or surface behind it.
- Grazing: A technique where a light is placed very close to and aimed up a textured surface (like a stone wall) to highlight its textures and irregularities with light and shadow.
- Washng: A technique that provides a broad, even distribution of light over a large surface, like a wall or hedge.
- Cross Lighting: Using two or more lights from different angles to illuminate an object, minimizing harsh shadows and providing even coverage.
- Underwater Light: A specialty fixture designed to be fully submerged, used to illuminate ponds, fountains, or pool features.
- Bollard Light: A taller, more robust post-like fixture that casts light outward, often used for wider paths, driveways, or commercial-style illumination.
Technical & Performance Terms:
- Lumen: The unit of measurement for the total amount of visible light emitted by a light source; essentially, how bright the light appears.
- Watt: A unit of electrical power consumption. In LED lighting, watts indicate energy usage, not brightness (lumens are for brightness).
- Color Temperature (CCT): A measure of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K). Lower Kelvin numbers (e.g., 2700K-3000K) indicate a warm, yellowish light, while higher numbers (e.g., 4000K-5000K) indicate a cooler, bluish-white light.
- Warm White: Light with a color temperature typically between 2700K and 3000K, creating a soft, inviting, and traditional glow.
- Cool White (Daylight White): Light with a color temperature typically between 4000K and 5000K, appearing brighter and sometimes bluer, mimicking natural daylight.
- RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White): Refers to LED technology that allows for a full spectrum of color options, including a dedicated white diode for truer white light, used in color-changing systems.
- Beam Angle (Beam Spread): The angle at which light is emitted from a fixture, determining how wide or narrow the light cone is.
- Dimmer: A control device used to adjust the brightness (lumen output) of lights.
- Photocell (Light Sensor): A device that detects ambient light levels and automatically turns lights on at dusk and off at dawn.
- Timer: A device used to program when lights turn on and off, often used in conjunction with a photocell.
- IP Rating (Ingress Protection): A rating system (e.g., IP65, IP68) that indicates a fixture’s resistance to dust and water ingress, crucial for outdoor durability.
- Voltage Drop: The loss of electrical potential as electricity travels along a wire, which can cause lights at the end of a long run to appear dimmer if not properly accounted for in design.
- Circuit: The path electricity takes from the transformer to the lighting fixtures and back.
- Wire Gauge: The thickness of the electrical wire, with lower gauge numbers indicating thicker wire, which is important for preventing voltage drop over longer runs.
- Hub/Gateway: A central device used in some wireless or smart lighting systems to communicate between lights and your home network or app.
Design & Installation Terms:
- Curb Appeal: The attractiveness of a home and its surroundings when viewed from the street, significantly enhanced by professional lighting.
- Design Consultation: The initial meeting with a landscape lighting professional to discuss your vision, assess your property, and develop a customized lighting plan.
- Nighttime Demonstration: A temporary setup of lighting fixtures at your home to allow you to visualize the proposed design and effects before full installation.
- Zoning: Dividing a lighting system into different areas or "zones" that can be controlled independently for varying effects or schedules.
- Conduit: A protective tubing used to encase and protect electrical wires, often used under hardscapes like patios or driveways.
- Outdoor Living Space: Areas of your property designed for enjoyment and entertainment outside the home, such as patios, decks, outdoor kitchens, and gardens.
- Architectural Lighting: Lighting specifically designed to highlight and enhance the unique features and aesthetics of a home's exterior.
- Landscape Enhancement: Any improvement to outdoor areas that adds beauty, functionality, and value to a property.
- Maintenance Plan: A service offering from lighting professionals to regularly inspect, clean, re-aim, and repair your lighting system to ensure optimal performance and longevity.
- ROI (Return on Investment): The financial benefit gained in relation to the cost of an investment; professional landscape lighting typically offers a strong ROI by increasing property value and appeal.
