Fibre optic decking and paving lighting projects
Fibre optic lighting works well in the garden since the fibres allow you to distribute lighting without worrying about the safety issues associated with outdoor electrical installations or corrosion in light fittings - although of course the normal safety and maintenance issues have to be addressed in installing the light source itself.
Optical fibres can be installed in paving or decking, safe in the knowledge that once the fibres are there they will give many years of life without needing to dig up paths or disassemble the deck to replace failed components. And, as with all fibre optic installations there is always the prospect that advances in lighting technology will allow your display to actually improve in coming years.
We expect LED technology to continue to improve, so it's a safe bet that at some future date you'll be able to replace your halogen or metal halide light source with an LED unit which will be cheaper to run, require even less maintenance and offer a wider range of colour options.
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| This is one of our favourite customer projects. Trouble has been taken to actually drill holes in the pavers, rather than simply put the optical fibres in the gaps, and the end result is a magical glittering path in the garden. Since the path is quite long, it made sense to use two light sources - one at either end - to reduce the overall fibre length required. |
A key thing to bear in mind when you first start to think about fibre optic garden lighting (or indeed any fibre optic project) is that a single light source can provide the light to a "harness" consisting of several different fibre sizes. Thus, for instance, a harness might consist of 100 x 1mm or 1.5mm fibres used as "star" points, half a dozen lengths of 6mm light guide used to illuminate large uplights or spot lights and a length of sideglow fibre to create a glowing line around the perimeter of the deck or to mark the side of a path.
One Starscape customer in the summer of 2010 asked us to make up a harness which included some lengths of bundled 0.75mm fibre (50 strands per tail) to illuminate some of our EFO4 deck fittings, some sheathed 1mm fibre to create stars in a stone circle and some 2.5mm sheathed fibre to illuminate some EF01 fittings used as step lighting. All three types of lighting are illuminated by a single 100 watt halogen light source.
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| The star points in this deck are Starscape's optical fibres, although the brighter lights in the foreground are LED deck lights. Fibre optic uplights could have been used, although of course if they were in the same harness as the stars, then they'd also show the same colour. |
In that project the light source was located in a garage, as close as possible to the central point of the overall scheme, so as to minimise the total amount of fibre required. In any fibre optic lighting project the selection of a suitable location for the light source is a key to managing costs.
If the light source is going outdoors, then a weatherproof enclosure or a purpose-built IP-rated light source will be needed. Both of these add to the cost, so in smaller projects it may make sense to have longer fibre runs if this means that the light source can be installed in a garage, summer house, conservatory etc.
We always recommend sheathed fibre for outdoor projects. You pay a premium for the sheathed versions of the fibre, but there are important benefits. The sheathing protects the fibre from mechanical or chemical damage and, in the case of decking it prevents the fibre from being visible in the gaps between planking. Unsheathed fibre would be visible at night because of the sideglow effect of light leaking through the surface of the fibre.
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| This very nicely executed decking project has fibre optic star points clustered very densely over a limited area of the deck. |
For "star point" types of path or deck lighting it's generally not necessary to use an end fitting, unless you quite like the idea of the stainless steel fittings being visible during the day. So, if you're using bare fibre ends, installation is just a matter of drilling a suitable sized hole in the timber, stone or concrete and threading the fibre through from below. In the case of a decking installation a dab of silicone or something like our Simsons acrylic adhesive will also be necessary to hold the fibre in place. When laying fibre to go beneath pavers it's a good idea to embed the fibre in the sand layer so as to increase the bend radius of the fibre as it turns up into the paver.
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| In this project in Glasgow, sheathed 1.5mm optical fibres were used to create star points in granite setts. Since this was a commercial project and the designer wanted to ensure a very bright end result, 150 watt metal halide light sources were used. |
In many cases, customers doing paving projects choose to simply bring the fibres up in the gaps between the pavers. This is a lot easier than drilling holes in concrete, or even sandstone, but the effect is not quite so nice.
As always, err on the high side when calculating fibre lengths - you can always cut the fibre, but you can't stretch it. It is worth actually running a length of cord from the proposed star point back to the planned light source location to establish the length of the route the fibre will actually take. The most economical solution in larger projects is to buy the fibre on the spool and cut it as you go, thereby reducing fibre wastage to a minimum.
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| This decking project uses sheathed 1.5mm fibres which create nice reflections from the planters and other objects on and around the deck area. See Customer Project 54 for more photos and details. |