As a homeowner, you would want nothing more than to relax in the comfort of your private swimming pool. The pool area of a home is one of the best spots to relax and unwind from the mundane activities of the day. Hiring a professional Tampa lighting store like Tampa Lights to install pool lights can help you create a seamless dramatic transition into the pool and the surrounding areas.
The thousands of dollars you spend yearly on pool maintenance go to waste if you can only use your pool during sunny afternoons. You can use the pool to its full potential day or night, by adding state-of-the-art pool lights. They can make swimming in the dark safer while also jazzing up the ambiance of the place.
Popular Lighting Solutions for Your Pool
Every year, lighting technology takes massive leaps in terms of innovation, making better lights to help create a soothing atmosphere in your pool. These lighting fixtures primarily use three types of lighting solutions.
Incandescent
Halogen
LEDs
- Incandescent
Incandescent lights were the most popular lighting option until CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) started gaining traction. These lights relied on heating the filament to produce yellow light, consuming more energy. This yellow light can make a pool look green. However, their lifespans are very short and need to be replaced at least twice every year. This made incandescent bulbs an unpopular choice for pool lighting and was quickly replaced by LEDs and halogen lights.
- Halogen
Halogens were the next big step after incandescent bulbs as it was a longer-lasting alternative and consumed about 20% less energy than their predecessor. However, since halogen bulbs also used heating the filament to produce light, it created a yellow haze. The critical difference between a halogen bulb and an incandescent bulb is that halogens use a gas inside the bulb that helps the filament heat up quicker in a more compact form factor. However, this also dramatically increased the bulb’s prices while it did not last much longer than its predecessor.
- LED
LEDs lead the way when it comes to lighting technology and has now become the gold standard in pool lighting fixtures. The sudden increase in the popularity of LEDs is because they produce brighter lights while consuming considerably less power than their competitors. Furthermore, This makes LEDs not only cheaper to run but also produce colored lights as they are programmable to produce five different colored lights.
LEDs produce light without using a filament, removing any yellow shadow and perfect color output. Additionally, LEDs can last up to 50,000 hours, giving them the upper hand as they last significantly longer than the competition and require less frequent replacements.
Pool Lights Offered by Tampa Lighting Stores
Now that we have discussed the various lighting options, let’s dive deeper into the pool lighting fixtures that lighting stores in Tampa provide.
Some of the most popular pool lighting fixtures are:
- Flush-mounted underwater pool light
These pool lights are fixed flush with the pool wall. This makes them seamlessly blend into the sides of your pool when not in use. These come in both halogen and LED options. If they use halogen bulbs, they might need constant maintenance compared to LEDs. However, installing these lighting fixtures can be expensive and requires a highly experienced contractor.
- Surface-mounted underwater lights
These pool lights are effortless to install and can light up your entire swimming pool. They come with the additional option of retrofitting on top of existing pool lights. However, they stick out of the pool’s surface and can be easily damaged, unlike flush-mounted lights. These, too, come in both halogen and LED options.
- Floodlights
Floodlights are excelling in lighting up large portions of your pool area, and installing an LED flood light can save you from massive energy bills. They are easy to install and move. However, suppose you want a relaxed ambiance. In that case, floodlights are not for you as they can be extremely bright and overexpose your pool.
- Pool garden lights
Most homeowners only think of lights in the pool when they think of pool lights. However, adding lighting fixtures around the pool area is also crucial. This can be done by illuminating your garden or the landscape around the pool. Doing so can help highlight various architectural and landscape features of your home to blend your pool with the rest of your home seamlessly.
- Fiber optic pool lights
These lights are very flexible and can be run around the perimeter of your pool or garden area. Additionally, they also serve as an excellent pathway lighting solution. If your swimming pool has features like a waterfall or a fountain, fiber optic lights are the perfect companion for those features.
Final Words
Lighting up your pool area does not have to be complicated. It can be as simple as hanging fairy lights on your pool furniture or tree branches. However, if you want a more professional approach to pool lighting, you can consult with a Tampa lighting store like Tampa Lights.
