You may hear outdoor lighting people use the term “bullet lights” from time to time and wonder, “What the heck is that?” Quite simply, it’s usually a directional fixture that some people would say is shaped a little bit like a bullet. That is actually truer for some manufacturer fixtures than others though. This fixture is the workhorse of most outdoor lighting designers and contractors.
As you can see in the photos here there are lots of different shaped “bullet” fixtures out there.
The bullet light fixture usually holds an MR16 lamp (light bulb) and is aimed at an object that is to be accented with light. The lamp may have a very narrow 10 degree spot beam, or a very widely diffused flood beam, or something in between. It may also have a low lumen output lamp or a very high lumen output lamp depending on the object to be illuminated. Keep in mind the beam is largely determined by the lamp inside the fixture, especially when talking about halogen, though the fixture can be modified with a shield if necessary to reduce glare.
Now, there are integrated LED fixtures for this purpose, where the lamp and fixture are designed as one unified element. The term “directional fixture” or “accent light” has been used more recently to describe this same fixture instead of bullet light. Some of these newer directional (bullet) fixtures don’t look anything like a bullet, but still have a very defined beam of light and specific lumen output.
My only beef with bullet lights is that they are way over used. There are many times when a softer, wider wash fixture, or other type of fixture/beam combination is more appropriate for the task at hand.
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