Design Tips - Pathway Lighting

Pathway lighting is considered as one of the most important lighting to be installed. Even if you are on a budget, you will surely want to walk through the pathway safely at night. When the lighting is properly designed, it is supposed to be low profile with just enough lighting to keep yourself from injuring as you walk at night. When you offset the lights, there should be a sense of balance, that’s why choosing the right lighting and placing them perfectly along the trail are the keys in order to ensure an illuminated walk without harming the looks of your yard during daytime or annoy your neighbors at nighttime.

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In Pathway Lighting Houston, the importance of path lighting is emphasized for both wayfinding and safety. Wayfinding is the process where people find their way through the landscape, especially at night where lighting is essential to guide people along the pathways of your garden.

The Path Lighting Designs to Avoid:

Lights that create a glare or shine up into the visitors’ eyes.
Placing the lights close together creating runway effects
Using the lights that are too bright. Subtlety is the answer in Path Lighting.

Things to Consider in Pathway Lighting

Chose the proper fixture to start with. You want a lamp that aims its light down in your walkway. If there are step, you need to illuminate the edge and top of each individual step. Most path lighting have top that focuses down the light onto the path. Even the recreational facilities implement these kinds of lamps and light posts. The only light you should see is the light reflected on path beneath you. For extra assurance, you can possibly use the step lighting under the top of stairs in your path. By placing simple pathway lighting underneath the steps, you will illuminate the steps without revealing the bulbs or blinding the people who attempt to climb the stairs at night.

 Implement proper spacing. Don’t crowd the entire path lights together. Give them their own spaces so that the edges of each light pool are barely overlapping or touching. You will be able to save on energy and lamps and you will be able to keep the path nicely illuminated. There is no reason to over-illuminate the path since too much lighting can only ruin the pedestrian’s night vision instead of helping them properly see the ground.
Plan where to place the cables before setting up the pathway lighting. It is highly recommended to use the low-voltage path lights. Since the cables are typically buried or laid out on the ground or surface, or along the path’s edge, the yard equipment has dangerous habit of getting close to the cables or getting them cut during work. While you need to be aware of the wiring presence around the lamps, using the low voltage wiring for the entire ground-level lights is the best safety precaution.

After considering the above mentioned design tips, you should have a pathway lighting design that is very easy to follow.