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- Garden Lighting
- Spike Lights
Spike Lights
Spike lights are light fixtures mounted on long, narrow spikes for easy installation. They are only suitable for lighting up soft soil, so you can easily push them into the ground with little effort.
The flexibility of spike lights makes them ideal for landscape and garden lighting. Once installed, you can move them around to illuminate different areas. Spike lights don’t require a cement base for mounting.
How to choose the right spike light for your garden? If you are interested, continue reading below.
Reasons to Choose Garden Spike Lights
Here are your reasons to start using spike lights or garden spot lights:
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Waterproof and dustproof
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The spotlights are certified
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Easy to move
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Easy to assemble
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Stylish, high-quality designs
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85% more energy efficient
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Environmentally friendly
How to choose the right Spike Light
Let's look at the most important specifications of a spike light. You need this information to choose the right lamp for your garden.
Material
Spike lights are inserted into the ground, where they will most likely remain for the rest of their lives. Your first important decision should be the material choice. The metal spikes will be exposed to water, fertilizer, and pesticides underground. It's important to choose a spike that won't corrode over time and break off in your plant beds.
Steel and aluminum are often used for spikes, but the material for the light head does not need to be the same as the spikes, as the heads will be above ground at all times.
Wattage
Spike lights don’t need high-wattage LEDs for their primary purpose of lighting nearby plants and trees, so you can use a separate lighting system for ambient mood lighting in your garden.
Remember that the LED lights come in different wattages. Higher-wattage LED bulbs produce more light, but they also run hotter. For smaller gardens, there is no need for you to think too much about energy efficiency. But if you have larger gardens with a lot of lighting spikes, the power bill can quickly add up.
We can suggest spreading them around your garden in case you wish to use higher-wattage LED spike lights. This way, it will result in the same power draw if you use brighter lights but fewer light fixtures.
IP Rating
Ingress Protection (IP) is a rating system used to determine how well devices are protected against harmful particles such as dust and water. You will always see the IP rating with two letters (IP) and followed by numbers (65). The first digit indicates the size of the particle that can enter a device and the second number indicates its water resistance.
In case you find IP65 rating on the lighting fixture that you are purchasing, the number “6” tells that the device is dust-tight and no particle can enter it. The number “5” tells you that the device is splash-proof.
We hope you are not confused but keep in mind that higher IP ratings are preferable. Outdoor lights should typically have an IP rating of 44 or higher, with IP68 being ideal.
Ease of Maintenance
Light fixture maintenance is typically not required, but outdoor lighting fixtures have a higher failure rate. LED burnout, light head damage, and corrosion are the most common spike light fixture losses. So if your spike lights came as one complete unit can create maintenance issues. If anything goes wrong, you must replace the entire light fixture. This means that you will have additional costs, than necessary. The worst scenario is there will be no options for replacement if your specific spike light model is discontinued.
It is best that you choose a spike light model that has two distinct parts. And they can be joined using standard screws and bolts.
Installation Procedure
Cable management is an important part of any lighting system, and your lights should have a simple method of cable attachment and management. The Light head should be easily attached to the shaft with as few steps as possible.
Garden Lighting Ideas using Spike Lights
Hidden Outdoor Lighting
This is probably the most basic lighting technique we will tell you here. Simply hide your garden lights behind bushes to achieve a clean, under-glow appearance. This style is ideal for anyone who enjoys lighting up their garden but isn't a fan of large light fixtures.
Another good thing about this lighting technique is that there is no need for you to get fancy lighting fixtures. You can get a set from us for starters, we introduce you to Eleanor Garden Spot Light Set with Remote Solar Panel.
Or you may get them per piece to add some more spot lights in dark areas of your garden, Eleanor Garden Spot Light with Attached Solar Panel.
Remember that these spot lights is only directed upwards and installed behind bushes or your garden ornaments to achieve the hidden light’s aesthetic.
Standalone Garden Lights
Enjoy decorating your garden with this light fixture, Decorative Tiki Torch Spike Light. It is taking advantage of solar energy to illuminate your outdoor space. Notice that it is cordless? This means that there is no need for you to connect them to a power grid and you can install them by just sticking the light fixture in your garden, as easy as that. This standalone solar spike light is an example of the future of landscape lighting.
This is cost-effective as you don’t need to buy inverters and batteries. And if you want finer control, you can opt for a more expensive model with an automated wiring system. Though there might be drawbacks to solar lighting. But we can disregard that with the ease of use and low cost.
Still, we’d like you to always be mindful of the quality of light fixtures and the factors mentioned above. The reason is there are poor-quality solar lights have flooded the market.
By reading up on this end, you should be able to choose better spike lights. We hope you find the information in this article useful when selecting spike lights. If you still have any questions about spike lights or other garden lighting fixtures, then ask us today to get professional advice. Zest Lighting is always ready to answer your questions.