LIGHTING EFFECTS | Dark Skies & Nocturnal Wildlife

We’ve already covered how a well-considered lighting scheme can transform a garden - click here to read our previous blog - but there is a topic that is gaining increasing attention, and rightly so; the impact of garden lighting on the environment and local wildlife, particularly with respect to dark skies and nocturnal creatures, like bats. We touched on Dark Skies in a blog back in 2022, but more information is now available and as your go-to garden lighting supplier we want to make sure you have the most up-to-date information at your fingertips. 

As many of you will know, garden lighting can disrupt the natural nighttime environment if not carefully planned and installed. Light pollution can obscure the beauty of the stars and interfere with the behavioural patterns of nocturnal wildlife, especially bats, which rely on darkness to navigate and forage. 

So what is the solution? Well, as always there are more than one, and many differing opinions that come with them. 

In this blog, we’re going to do our best to break it down and stick to the facts. 

Firstly, we’d always recommend using LED fittings. This is for many reasons but with the given topic they are fantastic for providing a sharp beam cut-off, high colour rendition and dimming capability. With Landscapeplus, you’re in safe hands (again for many reasons) because we only stock LED lights. 

Let’s dive into each of those points: 

• Sharp beam cut-off can be achieved due to the compact nature of an LED chip. This allows manufacturers to build fittings that can help reduce the light from spilling into unnecessary areas.
• High colour rendition (CRI) is important as it allows objects to appear in their true colours, even at night.
• Dimming Capability allows you to control the brightness to suit the application and surrounding areas.

We’re going to lightly touch on peak wavelengths as it’s important for projects that fall within high bat activity areas without going into too much detail. The peak wavelength of an LED depends on the colour of the LED and research shows that warmer colour temperatures with peak wavelengths greater than 550 nanometres cause less impact on bats. This specification can be obtained from our manufacturers and suppliers.

When it comes to colour temperatures (kelvin), Warm White is your ally here. To comply with dark skies you want to be looking at fittings between 2700K and 3000K. This is a simple solution as the majority of our light fittings sit around here on the kelvin scale. Please note, if you are working on a project that needs to comply with ‘Artificial Lighting / Bats and the Built Environment’ you’ll need to stick to fittings that are 2700 kelvin. 

Choice and placement of fittings are key when trying to balance garden lighting and dark skies. At the end of this blog, I’ll list a few of my go-to fittings that are perfect for dark-skies and nocturnal wildlife. As well as fittings, there are also a variety of accessories available that are worth considering; glare guards, honeycomb lenses, frosted lenses and risers. Where possible, we’d recommend to specify and/or install downlights or use accessories to reduce the amount of light from shining into the sky unnecessarily. If you’re in an area with high bat activity, you will need to be more cautious as even the smallest amount of up-lighting may not be permitted. In this case, consider using dimmable fittings where you can also control the beam angle and glare. If you are having to comply with restrictions and regulations regarding nocturnal wildlife, it is worth mentioning that the fittings you choose will need to be fixed in a downward position that your client can’t alter. 

Something that is often overlooked is only using lights when needed. Now you might think this contradicts what we’ve previously spoken about when it comes to garden lighting, especially aesthetic lighting, but there are ways to tick both boxes: sensors, timers and controls. 

• Sensors are fantastic to use with functional lighting, think driveways, paths and entrances. Rather than having the lights on all the time, a simple PIR (passive infrared) sensor will switch the lights on only when they are required. 
• Timers are an ideal way to control aesthetic lighting in the garden as it takes the responsibility away from your clients having to remember to turn the lights off. For example, you could set a timer for a feature light to come on at dusk for 1-2 hours. This way your client can still enjoy their garden lighting whilst being respectful to nature. 
• Lastly, controlling garden lighting. Love it or not, we live in a world where there is either an app for everything or at least a way that technology can make life ‘easier’ for us. Having an easy way for people to control their garden lighting should hopefully encourage them to use their garden lighting more effectively and responsibly. Being able to control different zones whilst in the garden allows clients to use lighting more dynamically by responding to moods, occasions, use and more.

DarkSky International has a host of information and recently published their ‘five principles for responsible outdoor lighting’ which are as follows: 

The increased awareness of this subject over the last few years has been hugely beneficial and we are so happy that our manufacturers and suppliers are really starting to get behind it. Hunza now has a compliance team who are already working on preparing files for dark sky certification but more excitingly are aiming to create a ‘Dark Sky Range’ across both the Hunza & LuxR brand. Their existing range features a number of fixtures that comply with these recommendations, we’ve listed them below for your reference. When it comes to CRI, in-lite boast an impressive rating of 90+ on all of their fittings and again I have listed some of my go-to in-lite fittings below. Collingwood have an exciting range of mushroom style lights coming soon which will be a fantastic addition to their staple fittings suitable for dark skies applications. DELTALIGHT spoke with different experts to bring some interesting insights on the topic in the latest issue of their project magazine. 

I appreciate that is a lot of information to digest so reach out to the team if you have any questions. As always, if you need some support, advice or guidance with an upcoming lighting project please get in touch with our Design Support team who are always happy to help.

I’ll sign off with some of my favourite, go-to, dark-skies friendly fittings.

• LuxR M1 LED Halo Extended Pole Light - Dark Sky Certified
• LuxR M1 LED Wayfinder Path Lights
• Hunza NPS Moonlighters (with tree mount kit)
• Ortus Wall Downlights
• Hunza PURE LED Walkway Lights
• Hunza PURE LED Tier Lights