Exterior Lighting near you

Controls decide whether exterior lights are useful or simply on. The electrician wires them at the fixture or at a wall switch, and a manual override inside the house is worth having for evenings when you want the lights on regardless.

Bright, unshielded fixtures create glare that makes it harder, not easier, to see into shadows, and light crossing the property line into a bedroom window is a common source of neighbour complaints. Some municipalities regulate it: Calgary's Community Standards Bylaw says you can't let outdoor lights shine directly into your neighbour's home, and other municipalities have their own nuisance-lighting or dark-sky rules. Check yours before installing floodlights.

For security lighting, placement does more than brightness. A floodlight mounted high and tilted down toward your own driveway lights the ground you want to watch, while one aimed out across the yard throws glare into the street and leaves deep shadows behind it. Full cut-off fixtures, which let no light escape above the horizontal, are the usual answer to dark-sky rules, and motion control keeps the light off until something is actually there.

Any fixture that rain, snow or spray can reach must be rated for wet locations, and the mounting deserves the same care. The fixture sits on a weatherproof box sealed to the siding so meltwater can't run into the wall, and on vinyl, stucco or stone the electrician adds a mounting block that gives the box a flat, sealed surface. Sealed fixtures also keep insects and ice out of the socket.

Exterior lights often burn for hours every night through a long winter, which makes efficient LEDs the obvious choice. Natural Resources Canada keeps a list of ENERGY STAR certified lighting, including bulbs and fixtures, that makes it easy to compare models before you buy.

Lights on the house are usually fed from inside: the electrician extends a nearby circuit or runs a new one, then brings the cable out through the wall to each box and seals every penetration against air and water. Lights at a gate, a detached garage or along the driveway need an underground circuit. The cable or conduit type, the burial depth and any protection above it are set by the electrical code for that wiring, so they're the electrician's call and the inspector's to check before the trench is closed.

Before any trench is dug, buried utilities have to be marked. In Ontario, Ontario One Call locates are free and legally required at least 5 business days before digging, and ESA's outdoor safety advice points homeowners there first; in Quebec, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec asks that a free request go to Info-Excavation at least 4 business days before work starts. Public locates don't cover private lines, such as an existing feed to a shed or a gas line to a barbecue, which have to be found separately.

Most exterior lighting runs at household voltage, so the usual rules apply: in Ontario, a Licensed Electrical Contractor notifies ESA before starting; in Quebec, a contractor licensed through the CMEQ does the work; in British Columbia, the installation needs an electrical permit from Technical Safety BC or the local government. Buried circuits are inspected before the trench is backfilled, so coordinate the digging with the electrician rather than letting a landscaper close it early. Even plug-in low-voltage kits depend on an outdoor receptacle and a transformer that need proper protection, and ESA reminds homeowners never to take for granted the importance of working with a Licensed Electrical Contractor.