As the balmy evenings of spring and summer roll in, outdoor lighting becomes more than just a practical consideration—it’s essential for creating welcoming, functional spaces. But with electricity prices climbing and light pollution on the rise, illuminating outdoor areas can be a balancing act.
For social settings, most private and commercial spaces don’t tackle outdoor lighting as they should - that’s to say, as if it were lighting an outdoor room. And when deploying landscape lighting at scale, electricity consumption is also an issue, accompanied by the challenge of light pollution - as it becomes necessary to keep more lights on for longer, as people stay out later.
At Maytoni, we believe your summer nights deserve to shine. But not at the expense of sky-high energy bills or the quiet beauty of the night sky. So, how can you keep your garden, terrace, or landscape perfectly, and responsibly, aglow?
Here are some handy tips on how to light outdoor spaces smartly, stylishly, and sustainably.
Where to start with outdoor lighting
Think of your outdoor space as another room—it deserves the same thoughtfulness in lighting design.
Maytoni’s outdoor lighting range offers versatile solutions for walls, pathways, landscapes, and more.
Light colour is a prime consideration in your choice of outdoor lighting approach. Cooler, whiter light helps people stay alert and tends to illuminate in clearer detail, so it’s ideal for lighting paths and entrances for clear visibility.
Warmer light tones, with reddish undertones, creates a relaxed and inviting mood – perfect for social gatherings. The red light spectrum even subtly increases heart rate, adding to the atmosphere of excitement and warmth.
Varying the intensity of the lighting can also help you control its pleasing effects, but as the night sky both absorbs and reflects light, there’ll be some trial and error involved.
Positioning lights effectively outdoors
As with interior spaces, the positioning of lighting in private outdoor spaces can deliver significant practical and aesthetic benefits.
We said earlier that lighting a garden or other outside social setting is like lighting a room, and wall lamps demonstrate this strikingly. Both inside and outside, they add subtle definition to the edges of the space, but also create an impression of depth, suggesting space.
Adding accented lighting into the mix, with directional and adjustable lamps, can highlight features – a pond, a sculpture, or a beautiful plant – providing visual interest. It can also serve a practical purpose as task lighting (for whoever’s cooking or serving the drinks, for example).
And although ceiling and pendant lamps are less common in the great outdoors, similar rules apply to their use in summerhouses or other seasonal outdoor structures. Choose two or three less bright ceiling lamps, spaced evenly apart, rather than one powerful central one, which will result in an island of light with dark shadow around it.
Reducing cost and consumption without sacrificing style
Of course, there’s still the issue of the electricity cost, so in private and commercial spaces how do you keep this to a minimum without spoiling the party?
- Reflect and reuse light – Surfaces like windows and water features appear much more reflective at night than in the daytime, so capitalise on this. Making use of reflected light can reduce the amount of generated light you need to use.
- Use direction – Don’t use a general spread of light to illuminate a feature or task – you’ll use far more electricity than you need to, and the result won’t be optimal. Use directional lighting for these applications; it works better, and it will typically consume less.
- Consider décor and colour – Light-coloured exterior décor, including walls, fences, and garden furniture, will, reflect more light if they are light in colour. Collectively, this will make for surroundings that need less generated light.
- Switch to LED – By using LED bulbs, you’ll cut down your outdoor lighting electricity use significantly compared to incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs. All Maytoni’s outdoor lighting is optimised for LED bulbs, offering massive energy savings over traditional bulbs.
- Reduce intensity - Choosing a lower-intensity light source (i.e. reducing the wattage of the bulbs you use) can also save on electricity and still deliver the desired lighting effect.
If you want outdoor lighting that’s completely independent of a conventional power supply, while keeping your lighting both stylish and functional, solar lamps are a fantastic option.
With outdoor solar lighting solutions like our Plet range, you can count on 12 hours of illumination on a single charge, even after sunset. These floor-mounted lights, with their attractive, organic-looking design fits effortlessly into modern outdoor spaces – it’s a smart, sustainable way to light up your evenings without relying on the grid.
The dark art of landscape lighting
For landscape lighting, particularly if it’s deployed at scale in a public space, reducing the light intensity and energy consumption can also significantly reduce light pollution.
That’s why Maytoni is proud to collaborate with DarkSky International to reduce light pollution through certification of products like our WALD model. We’re committed to expanding our range of certified models, helping urban and rural spaces alike maintain their night-time beauty.
So why not make this summer the season your outdoor lighting truly shines—beautifully, efficiently, and responsibly? Whether it’s your backyard, a restaurant terrace, or a community park, there’s a better way to light up the night.
For more information on Maytoni’s outdoor and indoor lighting innovations, get in touch today.
