Wooden Bollard Lights

What Are Wooden Bollard lights?

Wooden Bollard lights are short, and erect poles are usually mounted in the ground and consist of light bulbs at the top of the structure. The short and thick light posts are fixed on the sides of a pathway, driveways, grounds, lawns, parking lots, and residential areas to illuminate a landscape beautifully.

Before the extensive buyer’s guide, you need to learn about the different types, uses, and benefits of a wooden bollard light to make the selection more straightforward and smooth. This information will help you identify your problems in your current landscape and the need to install the latest wooden bollard lights.

Benefits of Wooden Bollard Lights?

Your immediate response to this question is always – ‘illumination.’ But wooden bollard lights provide far more benefits than just a smooth illumination in the area.

1. Amplified security

Bollard lights are a sure way to create a high-security level in sensitive and important areas such as parking lots, commercial areas, and deserted streets.

The public in such areas needs a sense of security that only bright bollard lights can provide.

2. High Visibility

Bollard lights are short, making them the perfect lighting fixtures to illuminate the pathways, stairs, and driveways because they are closer to ground levels.

A high level of visibility will prevent tripping and unforeseen accidents from occurring often. Your projects will become the most visited by the public if it provides them visibility merged with security.

3. Striking Appearance

Moreover, the striking look that wooden bollard lights create in a landscape design can not be overlooked. Wooden bollards give off a traditional look to the exterior. As wood is a natural material, the design creates a natural appearance.

Why Choose LED Wooden Bollard Lights?

Choosing the right bulb type for bollard lights can easily save you a tremendous amount of cost, maintenance effort, and energy.

We endorse that you choose LED wooden bollard lights because numerous benefits and advantages back LEDs over other light bulbs such as CFLs, incandescent, and HIDs. Let’s discuss it further.

Bulb Wattage

With the advancement in lighting technology, you will find LED bulbs consuming less power and emitting the same number of lumens as a high-wattage incandescent bulb. The new lighting fact labels now consist of information about lumens/brightness instead of wattages.

The use of CFLs, incandescent and Halogen bulbs is slowly becoming obsolete.

Have a look at the table below. It compares the wattage and lumens of various bulb types.

If you have incandescent lamps in wooden bollard lights, it’s high time you replace them with a cheaper yet brighter solution, i.e., LEDs.

Energy Consumption and Cost-effectiveness

The whole world is slowly replacing every light bulb with LEDs as these are the newest, most energy-saving option. If you want to play your role in saving energy and the planet, then choose LEDs for your bollard lights.

Did you know that LEDs consume ~75% less energy than incandescent bulbs? It will save 50% of the electricity bills making LEDs a cost-effective solution for your landscape.

Here’s how: LEDs demand a higher investment cost, but their operating cost saves the overall cost tremendously. Whereas, if you buy a 1$ incandescent bulb, you will have to pay about $5 for the electricity for an expected life of 750 hrs. (at 11.9.¢/kWh). LEDs will use for 1$ for electricity for the same light output.

Lamp Life

Lamp life bears considerable importance in lighting fixtures that are hard to replace, require a high maintenance cost, and are difficult to reach.

If you choose LEDs for the wooden bollard lights, you will not be required to replace them as quickly as the rest of the bulb types. Consequently, saving cost as well as time.

High-quality LED bulbs have a life as long as 50000+ hours which means your LED lamps can easily last up to 15 years and more.

Durability of bulbs

LED bulbs are shock-resistant, weatherproof, and long-lasting as compared to other bulb types. They work seamlessly in extreme temperatures and humid areas. Since LEDs do not dissipate extra heat energy, so their life does not deteriorate.

Environmental impact

LEDs do not consist of mercury and other toxic materials, making them highly environmentally friendly and safe to use. They are better than both CFLs and incandescent bulbs in terms of environmental safety.

If you replace a 50-Watt incandescent bulb with a 10-watt LED bulb, you can easily save 800kWh of power. This will consequently reduce ~1000 pounds of carbon gas emission, 8 mg of mercury, and 4-6 pounds of sulfur dioxide (source). This fact alone can help you decide faster.

Diverse Light output

Do you require different color temperatures and brightness levels for your landscape design?

LEDs offer a wide range of colors, lumens, and output light intensity to match any business needs. They are easy to customize and can be adjusted according to desired beam angles, luminosity, colors, shapes, and sizes. Contact the manufacturer and communicate your demands upfront.

LEDs emit directional light that can be easily directed to a point in your landscape. On the contrary incandescent bulbs spread the light everywhere and dissipate heat energy in all directions. You can prevent night pollution and unwanted jarring effect using LEDs.

Now that you have decided to use LEDs for your wooden bollard light, go through our detailed buyer’s guide to choose the best kind of LED wooden bollard light.

Types Of Wooden Bollard Light For Your Application

Wooden bollard lights come in various forms, shapes, and sizes that cater to the specific design needs of an area. The latest designs allow you to be more creative in selection.

Material

Whether you want a more classic look or a traditional ambiance, wooden bollards lights can be customized accordingly.

You will find wooden bollards made of pine, teak, iroko, oak, and Sapele wood that blend perfectly with the natural elements in the landscape, such as trees. They make a splendid combination with the wooden deck and patios.

Teak is a robust tropical hardwood and the most prevalent and popular choice that goes best in commercial and domestic areas where a harsh environment needs to be considered. Teak secretes a natural oil that prevents the wood from early deterioration due to pollutants in the air.

Sapele is an impact-resistant, stable timber. Its dark reddish appearance is a great attraction.

Iroko is naturally rot-resistant and highly durable, which is a good option for harsh outdoor environments.

You can always choose the material for your wooden bollard lights.

Shapes and sizes

Wooden bollard lights come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. You can choose from rounded, flat-heads, cylindrical, square, etc., and even get the size customized by your selected manufacturer. Usually, bollard lights are manufactured between the heigh range of 2 ft-3.5 ft.

This selection solely depends on the aesthetics that you need for your landscape.

Moreover, you can choose from different optic designs depending on the light spread that you require. Bollard lights have various reflectors inside that can control the light spread.

How can this benefit you?

You can control the light spread and reduce light pollution or unnecessary glare. The reflectors direct the light downwards or to a certain degree of an area that is a valuable feature to create a comfortable illumination.

The optics are divided into:

1. Louver

The reflectors direct the light downward, reducing the jarring light effect and creating natural and comfortable visibility. It is best suited for pathways and walking areas.

1. Standard cone reflector

Such bollard lights create a 360° illumination, lighting the whole area splendidly. The light intensity is perfect for illuminating a large area such as parks or gardens. These types give off a traditional look to the surroundings.

1. Specialized cone reflectors

The light is bounced downwards from the reflectors inside such bollard type. Specialized cone reflectors reduce glare and create smooth illumination.

1. Type V glass reflectors

You can opt for such a type if you need high illumination in your landscape for security reasons. The fixture spreads a diffused light in all directions (360°).

Choosing The Best Wooden Bollard Light Specifications

Each specification works best with specific application and design needs. You must carefully analyze your project and choose the optimum number of lumens, color temperature, wattage, and beam angles.

Lumens

Lumens determine the output brightness of the LED lamp. You should choose a higher number of lumens if your wooden bollard lights are installed in commercial areas such as parks, streets, pathways, driveways, etc. Higher lumens create greater visibility and sometimes can cause a jarring and uncomfortable effect.

That is why lower lumens are preferred for projects where you want to create a serene and comfortable illumination, such as outdoor restaurants, residential areas, etc.

Head over to our extensive guide on lumens to select the best option.

Color Temperature

Colors play a significant role in creating the desired ambiance and environment. If you want to pull off a warm and comfortable look, then lower Kelvins is your selecting range. This color range (~1800K-3000K) consists of yellows and reds that create the effect of bonfire or tiki torches best for residential gardens, parks, and casual sitting areas.

The higher color range between 3000K-5000K is used in corporate settings, commercial, industrial, and warehouses. It consists of cool bluish hues that enhance the security and visibility of the area.
You can always consult a specialist while selecting the color temperature that perfectly matches your application. Check out our detailed guide on choosing the optimum color temperature for your project.

Beam angles

Beam angles correspond to how narrow or wide the output light spread is. Large beam angles (70°-80°) work best in projects where security and visibility are a big concern. Such beams cover the whole area around a bollard light.

Small beam angles are the best choice for decoration purposes, such as highlighting the stairway, path, driveway, or residential areas.

Voltage

For installing wooden bollard lights, low voltage and line voltage are the two options that you can choose from. Low voltage lighting is the optimum choice for projects that require high customization and control, such as parks, garden pathways, playgrounds, etc. You will need a transformer along with your wooden bollard light fixtures for low voltage integration.

Line voltage is used for projects that involve long wore runs such as streets, pathways, parking lots, commercial areas, etc. It is essential to have LED drivers installed in the lighting fixtures.

IP rating

Your wooden bollard lights will most certainly be installed in an open area under the bare sky. We strictly advise you to select the bollard lights having high Ingress protection and weather-resistive properties.

A high IP rating will keep your bollards from malfunctioning in moisture and rain. Weather resistive bollards will work effortlessly work in extreme temperatures and not demand a replacement any time soon.

Spacing Requirements of Wooden Bollard Lights

Is discussing the bollard spacing critical in a buyer’s guide? Yes, the correct spacing can help you select the optimum number of bollard lights, the output light color, intensity, and beams angles and shapes, and bollards’ size. Spacing mainly depends on the total area, the surrounding lighting, the brightness of the LED, bollard optic type, and the lighting fixture’s height.

Furthermore, it always boils down to personal aesthetic preferences and the local code of the area.

Here are a few standards that you can use to determine the spacing for your wooden bollard lights.

Spacing Rules

Usually, the spacing lies between the range of 3 meters to 12 meters.

IESNA has set some rules that give an idea of the number of footcandles and the corresponding distance between two bollards in feet. A footcandle (fc) means enough illuminance to light up one sq. ft area with 1 lumen.  The footcandle determines the distance between two consecutive bollard lights.

A general rule of thumb is to maintain one fc between bollard lights for homogeneous illumination. However, it depends on applications. If an application requires high brightness for security purposes, a higher number of fc must be maintained between consecutive bollard lights.

The spacing is directly related to the bollard optic type as well. For example;

A cone reflector bollard’s light distribution equals about 7 ½ ft diameter. In comparison, a type V glass reflector of the same watts has a light distribution of 12 ft diameter.

This means that to maintain one fc light in a cone reflector, you will maintain a distance of 15 ft between two wooden bollard lights.

Similarly, in a type V glass reflector, a distance of 24 ft is necessary for homogenous light.

The above calculation will give you an idea of how to create a comfortable, non-intersecting light spread.

Areas where public traffic is high such as hospitals, offices, and the commercial regions, use a tighter spacing of about 10’-15’. On the other hand, parks and casual pathways use a greater spacing of about 25’ to create comfortable illuminance.

These are suggestive rules not defining standards that should be followed as it is. Spacing depends on your preferences and the needs of the applications.

Treatment of Wooden Bollard Lights

If you leave the wooden bollard lights untreated, they will fade over time as they secrete oils and become grey due to the chemical reactions with the pollutants.

It is an essential piece of information to have as you set off to buy wooden bollard lights.

It is essential to discuss the surface treatment, finish, or wood protection you would prefer and what is recommended by the manufacturers upon installation.

There are wood protection coatings based on wax and oil that prevent the reactants from penetrating the layer and reacting with the wood. Such coating has weather-resistive and UV-resistive properties as well. To avoid cracks, staining, and decolorization, a surface treatment is vital.

Conclusion

In this extensive buyer’s guide, we have covered all the critical aspects regarding wooden bollard lights that can help you select the best option from our catalog. Determine the accurate light output, type, spacing, and design for your wooden bollard lighting project and light up your project splendidly.

If you have further questions, contact RC lighting today.