Q – How high should I mount the wall lanterns around my front door?>
A – Approximately 66 inches above the bottom of the door, slightly above eye level.

Q – What about the height of the wall lanterns?
A – No fast and hard rules on this.  Basically, it depends on the height of your house’s front entrance.  Normal range for the lanterns would be from 1/5 to 1/6 of the entrance height.

A Little Bit About ‘Dark Sky’…   
The mission of cities which have passed a Dark Skyordinance is to preserve and protect the nighttime environment through quality outdoor lighting.  The loss of the natural nighttime sky has become significant in recent years.

It has become more common in modern society to use Outdoor Lighting around our homes and businesses to accent architecture, draw attention to a sign, provide security, and enable people to be more active at night.  Unfortunately, the use of Outdoor Fixtures can have a negative effect.  Upward or outward light causes “light pollution” which significantly dulls the dark star-filled sky.  This not only impacts the aesthetics of a beautiful night sky, but the effectiveness of astronomical research.



Using fixtures which are Dark Sky Compliant brings substantial benefits.  Lack of glare and excessive contrast means improved visibility, especially for the aging eye.  Additionally, elimination of wasted light saves money, energy and resources, which in turn reduces air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions caused by energy production.

What is a Photocell?
A Photocell is a light sensor that varies its resistance between its two light terminals based on the amount of light it receives.  In other words, it is a sensor – or an “eye” that detects light - which turns your Outdoor fixture on when receiving less light (usually around dusk) and turns it off when receiving more light (usually around dawn).  Fixtures that come equipped with a Photocell are often referred to as “Dusk-to-Dawn” lights.
Often times, you can combine a photocell with a timer allowing you the option of turning the fixtures off at a specific time. This is increasingly popular among landscape lighting systems. By using both a photocell and a timer, the system will turn on when the photocell detects dusk, and turn off based on the settings of your timer.