How to Use Floodlights

Floodlights are a wonderful way to enhance both landscaping and home safety. Thoughtfully placed, they can highlight a pond, patio or deck, extending entertaining or other outdoor activities into the evening. Create a dramatic welcome with floodlights that illuminate the approach to your front door. Mounted in motion-sensing or timed receptacles, floodlights add to overall home security and provide safe navigation for those returning home after dark.

Instructions

1. Select areas in your yard that you want to illuminate. To test the effects that new lighting will produce, attach a funnel-shaded work light to an outdoor-grade extension cord that's long enough to reach the desired area. Screw an outdoor floodlight into the work-light socket and check out your plan.

2. Check the placement of your test light from different perspectives. Flooding your deck with light is a great idea, but be sure that guests sitting on the deck don't have to look into a glare. Placing lights on the ground to illuminate the trees around your patio creates a great effect--so long as lights are high enough that guests don't look as though they're attending a seance.

3. Determine that you have adequate circuit capacity to add floodlights. Give some thought to the placement of switches. Adding floodlights to existing circuits may mean that your outdoor lighting means front-hall lighting at the same time. Separate circuits for your outdoor floodlights for more convenience.

4. Consider the effect of floodlights on your neighbors and neighborhood. Illuminating your trees is a great idea, so long as it doesn't result in lighting up the master bedroom or the baby's nursery next door. Considerate placement of your lights will enhance your neighbors' security as well as yours. Good lights, like good fences, make good neighbors.

5. Seek the help of a licensed electrician to install your floodlights, unless you are experienced in electrical work. Outdoor lighting involves exposure to weather conditions that can create safety issues ranging from shock to fire. Most residential lighting is regulated by codes that can affect both your safety and the insurability of your property. Your electrician may also have strategies you have not considered that will help make your lighting more attractive and effective.