As the summer slowly moves on and the days start getting shorter, outdoor lighting becomes more noticeable — especially if you live somewhere without much street lighting.
I’m currently away on holiday, staying in a rural area with my mother-in-law, and over the last few evenings I’ve been reminded just how important good outdoor lighting can be. In a town, we often take streetlights, neighbours’ lights and passing cars for granted. In the countryside, once it gets dark, it can get properly dark.
And when you have a large garden, a smallholding or a farm, the areas you need to see may be 50, 100 metres or even further away from the house.
A Real-Life Reminder from the Farm
There is a chicken area here which is quite a distance from the main house. After around eight o’clock, as it starts getting darker, there is very little useful light around there.
Last year, my mother-in-law asked me to install lighting around this area. One of the important requirements was that she wanted to be able to switch the light on from a distance. If she hears noises around the chickens at night, she doesn’t necessarily want to walk all the way there in the dark just to find out what is happening. It could be nothing — or there could be a fox or another animal around.
So I installed a remote switching arrangement that allows her to operate the light from closer to the house and see what is happening around the chicken area before going outside.
This year, when we came back, the layout around the chickens had changed slightly and some additional areas were being used. That created a few new dark spots, so she asked me if I could improve the lighting again.
I added lighting to these areas with a combination of local switching and security lighting. In places where she actually needs to walk through after dark, sensor-controlled lights now come on automatically as she approaches. It’s a relatively simple improvement, but when you are actually there and walking around a rural property at night, you realise how useful it is.
Security Lighting Doesn't Have to Mean One Huge Floodlight
When people think about security lighting, they sometimes imagine one extremely powerful floodlight attached to the house. That isn't necessarily the best solution.
For a larger property, it can make more sense to have several strategically positioned lights covering entrances, paths, gates, garages, sheds and other important areas.
PIR motion sensors can be useful where you want a light to come on automatically when someone approaches. In other locations, however, you may want to control the lighting yourself — particularly if you want to look across the garden or land before actually going outside.
The positioning of the lights is important too. A badly positioned powerful light can create glare and very dark shadows, while a sensibly designed system can illuminate the areas you actually need to see.
Remote Switching Can Make a Huge Difference
This is where remote switching systems become particularly useful, and they are something I install regularly.
Imagine that there is a shed, gate, garage or another part of the property 50–100 metres from your house. Instead of walking outside in the dark to operate a switch, the lighting can be controlled remotely.
You could be standing in your lounge or bedroom, press a remote switch and illuminate an area some distance away. You can then see what's happening before deciding whether you actually need to go outside.
Depending on the installation and equipment being used, wireless switching can avoid the need to run additional switch cables all the way back to the house. This can be particularly useful on larger properties where traditional cabling routes would otherwise be difficult, disruptive or expensive.
If you have a large garden, outbuildings or a rural property and you're unsure how best to control your outside lighting, I can assess the layout and suggest a practical solution for the areas you actually need to illuminate.
Timers, Scheduling and Automatic Control
Remote control isn't the only option.
Modern outdoor lighting can also be designed around timers, dusk-to-dawn sensors, PIR sensors or smart controls. Certain lights can be scheduled to operate at particular times, while others only need to operate when movement is detected.
Often, the best arrangement is a combination — exactly like the solution I used here. Some areas benefit from local switching, others from remote control, and pathways or darker corners can work better with motion sensors.
This gives you convenience without unnecessarily leaving powerful outdoor lights running throughout the night.
Large Gardens Need the Same Thought as Rural Properties
You don't necessarily need to live on a farm to benefit from this type of setup.
I've worked at properties where the garden itself is large enough that the end of it feels very remote from the house. There might be a garden office, garage, workshop, summerhouse, shed or simply a long pathway that disappears into darkness.
In these situations, good outdoor lighting isn't only about security. It makes the property more practical and can make walking around outside much safer, particularly around steps, uneven paths and entrances.
Of course, outdoor electrical equipment also needs to be suitable for its environment. Correct IP ratings, appropriate cabling, electrical protection and sensible installation methods all need to be considered rather than simply fitting an indoor-style light outside.
A Small Improvement That Can Change How You Use Your Property
Doing this work while I’m away has been a useful reminder that outdoor lighting isn't just decorative. When you're standing near the chickens after dark, hearing a noise somewhere around the enclosure and wondering whether it was a fox or just something harmless, good lighting suddenly feels much more important!
As the evenings become darker again, now is a good time to look at the parts of your property that disappear into darkness and think about whether the existing lighting is actually doing its job. If you're considering new security lighting, remote-controlled outside lights or improved lighting for a large garden or rural property in Wokingham, get in touch on 0118 430 0038 and I’ll be happy to discuss the options and find a solution that works for your property.
