Types of Deck lights

As a follow up to my deck lighting page, I am including here a brief overview of the types of deck lighting available. What materials and constructions to watch out for, and hopefully you can get a couple creative ideas to apply to your own deck light application. The selection is large and you've got many options such as low voltage LED's, Halogens, and hidden lighting systems. Lets get started!

Deck lights are often a critical factor when choosing the theme for your patio or deck. Colors, diffusion, and level of light are all things that need to be considered. Keep in mind that direct and intense light can be painful for many people, it can also have adverse effects on the "mood" you're trying to set when they are on. Low level, warm lights are usually the best way to go. LED's tend to be quite intense to look at, and not all the bright, visibility-wise. That being said, there are many new LED style deck lights that offer a great diffused light that still provides decent visibility. Just don't cheap out on them and you should be okay.

Inset deck lights are a great way to spruce up your railings, steps, or edges of your deck. They offer an unobtrusive way of lighting your path and the wiring can be easily hidden underneath or inside the deck!

While this is a classy way to incorporate deck lights in your design, the wiring has potential to be complicated and tricky. replacing burnt out or broken bulbs can be time consuming and ease of access should be planned into the design and building process of the deck. This also allows for an easy way to upgrade the lights later on if and when a newer type of lighting comes along with better technology.

A fantastic use of inset deck lights are to use them on the face of any steps you have. It lights the walkway excellently for low light and night time conditions, it looks classy, and it offers a very good method for delivering indirect light to other walk-way areas.

these integrated type lights can be put just about anywhere making them an excellent tool when designing your deck. You can fit them on the top or side of a deck post to provide light for the desired area. They are low profile in most cases and offer up a great deal of light. These are the "big guns" of the deck light world and rightly so. You're getting much larger lights into these casings that you would be able to with the inset lights mentioned earlier. They're easier to fix if anything breaks or burns out, and often times the wiring job is simpler. Since the wiring is usually simpler that means most people should be able to wire in their own dimmers and controls. This is especially true for traditional halogen based deck lights. Conversely, LED's could be more complicated due to their voltage requirements. Prior knowledge with LED's and their required power inputs are highly recommended.

My advice is to avoid Solar and LED based lighting systems for this application. The real purpose of having these lights on posts or out in the open is for them to provide real amounts of warm, natural, visible light. It makes little sense to use so much space on a fixture that produces so little light. Most solar units are incapable of producing large quantities of light for long periods of time.

These types of deck lights offer a wide array of advantages over tradition post lamps or inset lights. In many cases these hanging type deck lights are easily removable, fixable, and replaceable. They come in a variety of durable finishes as well as styles, and best of all, they are super easy to install! A creative mind might even be able to adapt many of the available garden lighting type fixtures and save some money, plus have create a unique look to their deck.

If for whatever reason you need to clear everything off your deck... perhaps you're redoing the decking material... these lights are easy to move out of the way. Most simply hang by a hook and the wiring is dealt with using connectors or some wire cutters. If the bulbs ever go out, most hanging lamps use regular halogen light bulbs you might find in your house. Their flexible designs are meant to work with you, not against you. They aren't meant to be a part of the deck structure as a whole, just an addition. This means you won't need to worry too much about how you're going to change them out if your design tastes change or you're doing a renovation.

Most hanging deck lights come in durable and stylish metal finishes. Corrosion resistant, and a safe bet if you're worried about accidental fires caused by other deck lights and short circuts. Since their elegant hanging design allows them to be mounted virtually anywhere they are often out of the way but are still able to provide volumes of light to where you need it most. Depending ont he bulbs they can offer a fantastic warm glow that will enrich the mood of any night time patio or deck experience.

Installation is a snap as well! Most units run off your standard 120V house power and are a breeze to wire up. Since the wires are generally up in the awning, roof, or deck covering it stays hidden and safe from children or other hazards.

If you're trying to get hooked on the current new fad of having solar powered everything, much like the post and pod deck lights, I really don't suggest going that route with these lights. While there are smaller hanging lights that work just fine for the solar and LED application, if you want any real volume of light you're going to have to go with a halogen set up. If you're dead set on LED's though, there are still many hanging lights use them, but custom wiring jobs can get tricky if you're planning on using your house power. Lastly, if you absolutely insist on using solar and LED lights, you're going to have to use quite a few or get used to a very dim deck.