Deck Lights: Combining Form and Function to Create Elegance in Outdoor living

A deck can be the perfect place for entertaining, especially after the sun goes down. For many people the main source of deck lighting is a light mounted on the house, generally right next to the door. With a high mounted light, people enjoying the deck have to deal with the glare that often occupancies this type of light. To make guests more comfortable and add a touch of style and elegance to any deck based event, outdoor deck lighting should be installed.

There are many types of decking lights and each variety adds a unique touch of style, some types even offer easy wire-free installation. The most common deck light types are low-voltage, solar, and standard voltage. Each type of decking light has a specific look and when deciding on a lighting scheme for a deck, multiple lighting types can be used to get the exact feel that the homeowner is trying to create.

Standard voltage outdoor deck lighting has been the most common type of outdoor lighting for many years and comes available in a wide range of styles and mounting configurations. The main drawback to a standard voltage lighting system is the amount of energy required to power the lights. As with a standard indoor lighting, this type of outdoor lighting will require a dedicated circuit run from the house’s electrical panel. As with any wired system, in order to mount the lights and run the wires to the lights, holes will need to be drilled and wires run from the electrical panel to each light installed on the deck. Luckily the majority of decks are elevated above ground level and the wires are fairly easy to secure to the deck supports.

Unlike standard voltage lighting, low voltage deck lighting does not require a lot of power for the system to run. There are additional components in a low voltage system, but the wire running to the lights is smaller in diameter and easier to install. The main component of low voltage deck lighting is the transformer. The transformer takes a standard house voltage and reduces it to the voltage required to power the installed lights. The main type of decking light that falls into this category is LED decking lights.

LED decking lights are extremely energy efficient, bright, and LED bulbs have a long life. LED decking lights have grown in popularity tremendously over the last few years and because of this growth, more styles of LED lights have become available to consumers. This has even come to include deck mounted lights, which are mounted flush in the deck board and are unharmed when walked on. The key component to LED lights is the small and bright LED bulb. An LED light bulb can last for many years before they need to be replaced and this can save a lot of money over deck light that uses standard bulbs that have an average life around 1000 hours.

Similar to LED low voltage deck lights, solar deck lighting, also has bulbs that last for an extended amount of time, but unlike any other Deck Lighting system, solar decking lights require no wires and even no power from an electrical panel. Each solar powered light has a solar panel that stores the sun’s energy in a battery. Since a solar decking lighting use a battery, there is no need to run wires to each light. This allows for an easy installation and the light given off from solar deck light is still fairly bright but not nearly as bright as other deck lighting. The softer light has kept some people away from installing solar lights, but solar technology is constantly changing and light brightness is one of the factors that are constantly improving.

Each type of deck lighting has its own set of bonuses and drawbacks, but combining more than one type of deck lighting system can make a create lighting system that not only adds elegance to a deck, but safety as well. Safety is something that most people neglect when it comes to preparing a deck lighting plan. Often areas leading to the deck are left out and this can create a hazard for guests. It is important to keep in mind lighting stairs and walkways so visitors can make it safely to the deck and enjoy the well lit and comfortable deck party.