Downlights are practically a staple in garden lighting design these days. Embedded and recessed in deck ceilings and walls, downlights are a versatile solution because they are unobtrusive. They sit flush with the ceiling or wall and are the perfect complement to minimalist landscape lighting décor.
Because of their versatility, downlights provide well-balanced lighting throughout a home or garden, while looking sleek and neat. They play an important role in many Australian homes because they are the groundwork for good lighting design.
Let’s delve further into downlights to shed more light on why they are so useful, where you can position them and more.
What is a downlight?
A downlight is a light fitting or ‘luminaire’ that lights in a downward direction, illuminating the area below. Downlights are normally recessed within a ceiling or wall so you will see only a small section of the light fitting below the surface.
Bondilights’ team of experts recommends downlights as a flexible and popular solution to your outdoor lighting design. We can upgrade your garden deck with our deck downlight to enhance your existing landscape lighting.
Why use downlights?
The fundamental purpose of a downlight is to deliver functional ambient light to your garden’s spaces. Their subtle appearance, functionality and clever ability to blend well with other lights, like spotlights and bollards, making them the perfect lighting staple.
Downlights are not only a versatile light fitting, but they are perfect for creating zones, navigating around specific spaces and highlighting key elements such as statues or art pieces. They can also provide task lightings such as over the barbecue or in-fill light. They work well with an amalgamation of decorative and architectural fittings in a layered lighting style.
Bondilights will dig that little bit deeper to find out how your family members use your garden spaces and how these might change in the future in order to work out the best outdoor lighting option for you. The strategic placement of downlights for your day and night garden can improve a space and give you more flexibility for existing and future applications.
Downlights are ideal for low deck ceilings as they don’t impose on the area. They also use less energy than traditional and halogen lights.
What variations are there in downlights?
Downlights can come as fixed or directional downlights. They come with different beam widths which add further variations – narrow, medium or wide. Their bezel can be round, square or rectangular.
Where are the best places to position downlights?
The best place to install a downlight depends on the utilisation of the space. For example, if you were illuminating a deck, you might highlight a piece of art or sculpture, table and cooking space.
Never place downlights in grids. Position them where you most need the light. Put them on different circuits so that you can create different effects and zones in a large deck or pergola area.
Bondilights will consider many different elements when designing your garden lightings schemes, such as the deck’s dimensions, existing frameworks and possible hindrances. We will look into the size of the space and choose the most ideal sizes and proportions to deliver a well-balanced design.
We will also take into account who will use the spaces and how they will use them. For example, you will most likely use your eating and couch spaces for relaxing and socialising. We advise softer lighting and warm globes to inspire a comforting atmosphere. We suggest focused or directed lighting coupled with standard garden lights for the barbecue area. You might even want to enhance the mood by using cool white coloured LED lights.
How should I install downlights?
You should never attempt an electrical task yourself. It is always best to hire a trained lighting technician such as those at Bondilights to install your downlights.
Can downlights be put on a circuit or dimmed?
Yes, the experts at Bondilights can install your downlights as dimmers and add them to a circuit.
What are the benefits of downlights?
Downlights have many benefits as listed below.
- They use less electricity than normal globes and are far more energy efficient, so you will be saving on your monthly electricity bills.
- They are shock resistant and don’t heat up like halogen globes and are therefore much safer. Hot globes can cause fires if placed near flammable material.
- They have a long lifespan (up to 50,000 hours or 17 years).
- Easily customisable, downlights offer sleek and stylish designs. They are unobtrusive and installed to look like they are part of the ceiling rather than an attachment.
- They are environmentally friendly lighting as they use 75% less energy than the normal globe and emit less carbon dioxide. Downlights will also lower your contribution to landfill because you won’t be discarding as many globes as you would be incandescent bulbs. One LED bulb is equivalent to using approximately 25 incandescent globes.
- They are low-maintenance because you will not have to be changing your bulbs every few months. LED downlights provide a practical lighting solution that lasts for years.
Where can I get downlights from?
If you are looking at installing downlights, get in touch with Bondilights today. We have a talented team of electrical and lighting design contractors and have worked with many people and families to achieve practical but fluid and harmonious garden lighting designs.
Our excellent technicians are experts in installing downlights and are able to solve all your outdoor lighting solutions.