Glossary
Landscape Lighting Glossary
The terms designers and electricians use — in plain English. From uplighting and moonlighting to color temperature and voltage drop.
Electrical & Controls
Astronomical Timer — A timer that uses your location to follow sunset and sunrise as the seasons shift.Halogen — An older incandescent bulb technology now largely replaced by efficient, long-lived LEDs.Hub-and-Spoke Wiring — A wiring layout where home-run cables fan out from a central hub to keep voltage even.IP Rating — A two-digit code rating how well a fixture resists dust and water intrusion.LED — A solid-state light source that is efficient, long-lasting, and the modern standard outdoors.Line-Voltage — Standard 120-volt household power, higher voltage than typical low-voltage outdoor systems.Low-Voltage — A 12-volt outdoor system, stepped down by a transformer, that is safe and flexible to install.Photocell — A light sensor that switches a system on at dusk and off at dawn automatically.Transformer — The device that steps household power down to the safe 12 volts a low-voltage system uses.Voltage Drop — The gradual loss of voltage along a cable run that dims fixtures farthest from the source.
Design Concepts
Beam Spread / Beam Angle — How wide a fixture throws its light, measured in degrees from narrow spot to broad flood.Color Rendering Index / CRI — A 0 to 100 score for how truthfully a light source shows the real colors of what it lights.Color Temperature / Kelvin — The warmth or coolness of light, measured in Kelvin, from amber-warm to blue-white.Lumens — The measure of total light output a fixture produces, the true gauge of brightness.
Fixtures
Bistro / String Lights — Strands of small bulbs hung overhead to create a warm, festive ceiling of light.Bullet Light — A compact, cylindrical directional fixture, the workhorse for uplighting trees and walls.Flood Light — A wide-beam fixture that washes large surfaces, facades, or hedges with broad, even light.Path Light — A fixture that casts a soft pool of light downward to guide and define a walkway.Spotlight — A narrow-beam fixture that focuses a tight, punchy beam on a single feature.Step & Hardscape Light — Low-profile fixtures tucked into steps, walls, and caps to light hardscape edges safely.Well Light — A fixture installed flush in the ground so only its beam shows, hiding the source.
Techniques
Downlighting — Aiming fixtures from above to cast light downward over paths, patios, and plantings.Grazing — Placing a light close to a textured surface to rake across it and exaggerate relief.Moonlighting — Mounting fixtures high in a tree to cast soft, dappled light like natural moonlight.Shadowing — Lighting an object from the front to throw its shadow large onto a wall behind it.Silhouetting — Backlighting an object against a wall so it reads as a dark, dramatic outline.Uplighting — Aiming fixtures upward from ground level to dramatize trees, walls, and architecture.Wall Washing — Lighting a surface evenly from a distance to bathe it in soft, uniform light.