Figure 1. Old, high-glare fixture.
Tom Burrows
December 5, 2006
This article describes the upgrading of my house's existing high-glare exterior lighting to use low-glare fixtures that actually do a better job of illumination.
The old fixtures at the front of the house were of the type shown in Figure 1. A pair of these were located on either side of the front door. The purpose of fixtures here is to illuminate the entryway and the couple of steps leading up to it, as well as to indicate the location of the front door to visitors looking for the house.
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Figure 1. Old, high-glare fixture. |
The main problem with the fixture shown in Figure 1 is that most of the light is directed not toward the subject (i.e., the steps) but sideways into people's eyes. This glare can knock out the night vision of people hundreds of feet away and make it difficult to see the ground they are walking on; and it can also reduce the peripheral night vision of a passing motorist for some time after they have driven by. In addition to this safety hazard, fixtures of this type brilliantly illuminate the bedrooms of neighbors who are trying to sleep. This type of fixture also shines a lot of waste light into the sky; and this particular fixture has substructure below the bulb that actually prevents it from shining straight downward - toward what it is supposed to illuminate.
I replaced both of these fixtures with new ones of a glare-free design, shown in Figure 2. This one is from Minka-Lavery and is model 8281-61. The cost was about $80 for each. This is a "full-cutoff" fixture whose bulb cannot be seen unless you are underneath it. (For this to work properly, they recommend an "appliance" bulb instead of a regular lamp bulb, which would protrude down too far.)
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Figure 2. New, no-glare fixture. |
In order to provide a good before-and-after picture of the improvement, I took some night photos after replacing just one of the two fixtures, so that the old and new could be seen side-by-side (and photographed using one camera setting). The result is shown in Figure 3. It should go without saying that the new fixture is the one on the right.
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Figure 3. Old and new fixtures at night, for comparison. |
The tremendous glare produced by the old fixture is obvious. Looking more closely at the photograph, notice that the new glareless fixture actually casts more light on the walking surface so that the step can be seen more clearly. This is because it has no structure below the bulb to interfere with the illumination of the subject. Notice also that the new fixture shines no useless light upward. The glare off the entryway ceiling above the old fixture is light that would go up into the night sky if the ceiling weren't there.
The next photo in Figure 4 was taken from the street to show what a passing motorist would see (again with the old and new fixtures side-by-side). The new fixture is perfectly adequate for marking the position of the house and front door without producing blinding glare.
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Figure 4. As seen from the street. |
Minka-Lavery also makes some fixtures that produce stronger illumination but are still full-cutoff. An example is the model 8101-138 shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 5. New low-glare fixture for the garage. |
I used one of these on each side of the garage. Each one was about $40. They are not as fancy as the new fixtures for the front door; but they provide stronger light for activities like loading a car parked in the driveway. This illumination is properly confined to just the driveway and, as with the other fixture, the bulb is tucked up inside and cannot be seen from the street.
It was somewhat dismaying that all of the fixtures I saw in the local hardware and lighting stores were of the high-glare variety. The new low-glare fixtures discussed in this article had to be special ordered; and I only learned of their existence after an extensive internet search. I began this search at the International Dark-Sky Association's web site (www.darksky.org). Many of the low-glare fixtures I found had a rather "industrial" look; but Minka had some that looked like they belonged on a house. Their web site is at www.minkagroup.com. (Click on "Great Outdoors" and then "Dark Sky".)
I hope these notes will encourage more people to install neighbor-friendly lighting and that the information provided will save some time deciding what to do.