Does My Pool Need Lighting Features?

Your Arizona home has or is going to have a pool in it, so what about pool lighting? Pool lights can be used for functionality, for aesthetics, to create fun effects, or all of the above. Whether you have an existing pool or are looking to build a pool, adding lights is, most often, a necessity. Which lighting you need and what type of lights you choose can be as unique as your pool.

Here in Arizona, we have unique pool weather that can extend well into the late hours of the night. When it’s time to cool off in the summertime, and it’s 9:30 in the evening, it’s probably better to have your pool lit well, so that you know when you’re about to enter the pool instead of being surprised by it because you couldn’t see where you were going. That said, let’s explore the types of lighting available.

LED Lights

LED lighting has become all the rage these days. For a long time, halogen lights were the way to go, having the lesser of the two price tags. These days, LED lights are now cost effective to produce, they have a high light output, and they use just a fraction of the amount of energy as traditional lights do. In fact, LED lights are much cheaper to run, being 3 – 5 times more energy efficient than halogen lights. Really, there isn’t a downside to LED lights.

LED pool lights offer better illumination, and illuminate more evenly, than halogen lights. LED lights spread the light more than halogen, creating a glow effect, while halogen lights offer a more focused light “beam”. LED lights also offer the ability to spread light over a larger angle (150-180 degrees), or a smaller light beam to focus or highlight a feature item or area. Which you choose depends on what you’re trying to achieve with the lighting.

Placement

While there are formulas to decide how many lights are needed, it’s not the only defining factor in pool lighting. Some of the other factors are the pool size, shape, surface, and what the output of the light are. Even the color of the lights and the purpose they serve, whether you’re creating an effect or trying to light the whole pool, plays a big role. This is where a pool remodeling company’s expertise comes into play.

If you have an average sized, rectangular pool, one centrally placed LED can light the pool. Obviously, this can vary if your pool is larger than average or differently shaped. In an average pool, you want to place the light in the middle, or on one side of the pool, placed so that the light reflects away from the house. The more complicated the pool shape, the more expert advice is recommended.

Mountings

There are two different ways to mount lights in your pool; surface mounted or flush. If you’re updating your pool lighting, know that surface mounted lights will fit in where a flush mounted light is being replaced, however, the opposite is not true, at least not without some extensive renovations. If you prefer to go with flush mounted lights after having surface mounted lights, and have other renovations you’d like to do, a Scottsdale custom pool remodeling may be in order. If you’re looking into what lights you would like to put into a new build

• Flush Mounted Lights

These lights are installed inside of the wall of the pool, sometimes in a niche. The exterior of the light is either flush with the wall or very low profile.