Outdoor lighting for house wall, path, garden and patio

What task should the light do outdoors?

With outdoor lighting, it is worth starting not with the lamp but with a question: where do you walk in the evening, where should the light switch on automatically, and where should it simply be pleasant? Outdoors there are no walls or ceiling to reflect light back. A large part of the light disappears into the dark, and a lamp that looks bright in the living room often covers only a small area in the garden. Conversely, every unshielded light source is a glare point, because the eye has adapted to the dark.

A division into three tasks makes sense. Orientation light accompanies paths, steps and the front door and does not need to be strong, but well placed. Security light switches on with movement and lights up the driveway, yard or area in front of the garage. Atmosphere light belongs to the patio, balcony and garden and should be warm and glare-free. By zone lighting we mean exactly this separation by task here. A single lamp that fulfils all three tasks hardly exists, and separating the zones avoids unnecessary permanent lighting.

How much light which area needs depends on mounting height, beam angle and surface. The lighting calculator offers some guidance, and the knowledge page on lumens per room explains the basics of brightness. The same terms apply outdoors, except that you distribute the light across individual zones instead of flooding the whole area. You will find an overview of further lighting zones in the house under home lighting.

Mains or solar power: what suits which place?

The first decision is the energy source. Mains-powered lamps are either hard-wired to 230 volts or connected to a socket via a power adaptor. They deliver light regardless of the weather and the season. The price for this is the connection: where there is no supply cable, a hard-wired connection needs a qualified electrician, and outdoors you should not improvise here.

Solar lamps manage without a cable but depend on charging yield and rechargeable battery. An example of the calculation: the spqment solar wall light with motion sensor states in the listing a rechargeable battery of 1,800 milliamp hours. At a cell voltage of 3.7 volts that is roughly 6.7 watt-hours by calculation, and this amount limits how much light is possible per night. The listing says nothing about the panel output and the voltage, and on the detection angle it contradicts itself with 270 and 120 degrees. We did not find a manufacturer document.

The GIGALUMI solar lights for outdoors are supplied as a set of six according to the listing, switch on at dusk and run for up to eight hours according to the listing. Such ground-spike lights trace the edges of beds and paths; they do not light up a path. For the dark half of the year, when the panel charges little, you should not expect a reliable running time. If a solar light no longer lights at all, the page Solar light not working helps with troubleshooting.

Reading the IP rating and connection correctly

The first digit of the IP code describes protection against foreign objects and dust, the second protection against water. The system is standardised in BS EN 60529. IP44 stands for protection against splashing water from all directions, IP54 is additionally dust-protected but not dust-tight, and IP65 is dust-tight with protection against water jets. None of these levels is waterproof in the sense of immersion. More on the logic of IP ratings is on the page about the IP rating.

This matters with listings, because retailers sometimes write waterproof next to an IP44 or IP45. For the GHUSTAR LED string lights 30 metres, IP44 is stated by the seller, and the waterproof line does not fit with it. The HeiPard outdoor string lights with 15 G40 light bulbs states IP45 in the listing; that is protection against water jets and not clearance for continuous rain in every location. The EGLO Calpino 3 outdoor wall light has IP54 according to the manufacturer, that is, splashing water, not water jets. For an open wall without a roof overhang, a higher IP rating is the more cautious choice.

For the connection: a 230-volt hard-wired connection belongs, if in doubt, in the hands of a qualified electrician. The Comely outdoor wall light 24 W recommends installation by an electrician according to the listing. String lights with a 24-volt power adaptor and a plug for the socket do not need this intervention, but they do need a socket within reach.

House wall and entrance: lamps with a PIR motion sensor

At the front door the light should switch on automatically so that you do not have to look for the key in the dark. When choosing a model, what counts is less the lumen figure than the question of where the sensor is looking. According to the manufacturer, the Steinel XLED home 2 S detects over 180 degrees, tangentially, that is across the sensor, up to 10 metres and radially, that is directly towards it, up to 5 metres. According to the manufacturer it delivers 1,550 lumens at 13.7 watts, the IP rating is IP44, and the connection is to the 230-volt mains. The listing gives only 10 metres and so conceals the difference between across and head-on.

According to the manufacturer, the Steinel outdoor light L 12 S works with a 180-degree sensor with a range of up to ten metres, IP44 and an E27 lamp holder. According to the listing, the light bulb is not included, so you choose the colour temperature yourself. Steinel gives the recommended mounting height as two metres. According to the manufacturer, the Oktaplex Rio outdoor light with motion sensor detects 140 degrees up to 9 metres at a mounting height of 1.8 to 2.5 metres and is connected to 230 volts. The IP54 rating appears only in the listing. On luminous flux, the listing and the manufacturer page contradict each other with 750 and 800 lumens, and there are also differing figures for the dimensions, so check them before buying.

The Comely outdoor wall light 24 W is an alternative to the Steinel models with a built-in LED. The listing states 24 watts, 2,650 lumens, 3,000 kelvin, IP65, a detection angle of 120 degrees and a range of 3 to 5 metres. There is no manufacturer document for this model; all values are listing information. The EGLO Calpino 3 outdoor wall light, by contrast, is not a sensor light: according to the manufacturer it shines upwards and downwards with 840 lumens at 3,000 kelvin and is suited as an accent on the facade, but according to the product page it is not intended as path lighting with a motion sensor.

Use sensor light sparingly. A short light duration is enough for orientation; all-night continuous light costs electricity and disturbs neighbours. How to estimate running costs is explained on the page about LED running costs.

Patio and garden: string lights and light strips

String lights are usual for patios, pergolas or fences. What matters is length, power adaptor and IP rating. The GHUSTAR LED string lights 30 metres states in the listing 35 bulbs on the strand at 1 watt per bulb, so roughly 35 watts at 24 volts, plus an extension cable of 3 metres. Whether the 30 metres is the lit length or strand plus supply cable, the listing leaves open. The power adaptor output is not stated there, and we did not find a manufacturer document.

The HeiPard outdoor string lights with 15 G40 light bulbs has, according to the listing, a total length of 10 metres, of which 3 metres is supply cable, leaving 7 metres with 15 bulbs. According to the manufacturer, the colour temperature is 2,200 kelvin. According to the documents for the series, the string runs on 24 volts via a plug-in power adaptor. On luminous flux, the data sheet and the EU product register contradict each other, and a model with exactly this identifier is not clearly documented. Therefore expect decorative light, not light to see by.

The Philips Hue Flux Outdoor LED light strip 10 m is a light strip for an edge, pergola or wall. According to the manufacturer, the strip is IP67 and the power adaptor only IP55; the length of 10 metres is fixed, and shortening and extending are ruled out. The manufacturer states 3,000 lumens at 6,500 kelvin, which is the maximum value in the coolest white; the data sheet gives no value for warm white. The power adaptor needs a dry socket, and the supply cable is 1,500 long according to the manufacturer, presumably in millimetres.

For atmosphere, several small warm points of light at different heights look calmer than a single bright source. Warm tones around 2,700 to 3,000 kelvin are regarded as inviting, cool white around 6,000 kelvin as functional. What kelvin means is explained on the page about colour temperature in kelvin. This is a classification by design and common lighting planning; we have not measured anything.

The models compared

The table summarises the models named. All values come from the respective product page, according to the manufacturer or according to the listing; empty fields mean that no information is given there.

This gives a simple assignment by task. For the house wall and entrance, the models with a sensor come into question, chosen by connection and mounting height. The Calpino is intended for accent light on the facade, string lights or a light strip for atmosphere on the patio, and the solar lights for path edges without a cable. No ranking results, because the tasks are different.