Swimming Pool Lighting Ideas for your Backyard Renovation

 A pool is obviously the place to be when the sun is out and the temperatures are hot. By employing unique lighting concepts around your pool in the evening, however, you can turn your pool into a nighttime oasis as well. Pool lighting can create a dramatic mood around your outdoor living space, and is one of the things to take in to consideration when building a pool.

Not Your Father's Pool Lighting

For a long time, incandescent in-pool lighting was really the only option, and with that came several limitations. But lighting technology has undergone a revolution in recent years. Now there are cool LED light options that can give your in-pool lighting an added flair.

LED lights are very popular, and it's easy to see why. They come in a wide array of colors, or even color-changing options. LED lights are energy efficient as well, giving you even more reason to choose them when building a pool.

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Creating a Mood

While in-pool lighting can have a dramatic effect for those in the water, lighting around your pool can also help set a mood. It can also help make the area around your pool safer. Strategically placing them around walkways, pool decks and other landscaping elements can help light a path for people. It can also help keep light-attracted bugs away from the water.

Regular white light is fine, but changeable colors create a mood. With some of the newer computer-controlled systems, you can even change that mood from party to party.

What Lighting is Right for You?

When building a pool, you should have an idea for a lighting concept before you start. As your pool takes shape, you can make changes to account for the effect the lighting will have on the surfaces around your pool, like the pool deck, pool liner and landscaping.

As the plan comes together, remember that an increased number of light sources with more diffused light is more advantageous than a few sources emitting bright, harsh light.

One of the bigger choices you'll make is among incandescent lighting, LED lighting or fiber-optic lighting. While it's cheaper initially, incandescent doesn't touch LED when it comes to energy efficiency and longevity.

Fiber-optic is typically more expensive than both incandescent and LED, but it also offers you more flexibility in color and hue. With the increased expense over LED also comes less effort to maintain.

With the proper lighting scheme, you can create an outdoor living space you want to spend time in day or night.

Originally posted July 2017