{"id":1153,"date":"2014-12-17T15:20:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/night-scenes.com\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2014-12-17T15:20:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:20:44","slug":"texas-outdoor-lighting-design-why-does-beam-spread-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/night-scenes.com\/2014\/12\/17\/texas-outdoor-lighting-design-why-does-beam-spread-make-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Outdoor Lighting Design: Why Does Beam Spread Make a Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many times I have talked with potential clients who have existing outdoor lighting that they have never really fallen in love with.\u00a0 Perhaps they have had ongoing performance problems or maintenance issues, but even more often it has to do with the\u00a0Texas outdoor lighting\u00a0design.<\/p>\n
One common deficiency in design can lead to V<\/strong> shape light patterns on their home; or tree trunks that seem to be lit in the middle without grounding or canopy highlights.\u00a0 A poor lighting scheme will also allow big dark holes between areas of intense light.\u00a0 These sorts of lighting faux pas can be easily rectified by using different lamps with appropriate beam spreads, or a more appropriate fixture that produces the right light pattern.\u00a0 A professional lighting designer would have these \u201ctools\u201d in his knowledge base and understand the importance of an even, well distributed lighting plan.<\/p>\n The beam spread most used by lighting installers is the 35\u00b0 beam.\u00a0 This is known as a flood beam, although I consider it to be too narrow for wall wash light; it does well in certain applications, particularly when lighting an object overhead.\u00a0 You can really see the definition of these beams, however, on the exterior walls of a home. \u00a0When the fa\u00e7ade of a home is lit with these lamps used in the typical \u201cbullet\u201d fixture, the result is the unattractive VVV<\/strong> across the front. \u00a0(I was going to include a photo or two here of this type of lighting but didn’t want to use photos that I didn’t have permission for and I also didn’t want to look like I was calling out another lighting person. \u00a0If you google “outdoor house lighting” and look under “images”, you will see a lot of examples) A\u00a0simple solution to avoid this distracting pattern would be to widen that beam to a more diffused 60\u00b0 beam. Better still is the use of a wide wash fixture which produces a beam of about 90\u00b0 or more.\u00a0 This provides a soft, even layer of light against the home. With the fa\u00e7ade subtly enhanced in this way, the narrower beams are put to good use at the entry of the home to draw the eye to the most important feature \u2013 the front door — and make it stand out from the rest of the design.<\/p>\n