Design points for commercial and high-end residential pool lighting

So what should we consider when designing for today's pool lighting? Today we will discuss a few points:

1. Consider the lighting of the surrounding environment, not just the design of the pool itself.

First of all, the most important but often forgotten is the design of the pool lights, forgetting to consider the lighting of the surrounding environment, just designing the pool itself.

Why should we consider the whole? One of the reasons is that the brightness in the pool should match the brightness of the surrounding environment. This is also a safety factor. For example, lifeguards often complain that the ceiling light reflects on the water and causes a lot of glare.

We need to keep in mind the three important functions of pool lighting: illuminate the floor and side walls of the pool, illuminate the swimmers and objects in the water, and illuminate the water itself to produce certain glare effects. The realization of the last one requires small particles or bubbles in the water to be emitted by the light.

Figure: In this case, the lighting of the pool needs to be able to catch up with the brighter ambient light, so the number of pool lights is large. Because ambient light is an indirect lighting method, it greatly reduces the flooding and glare generated on the water surface. In order to make the lighting in the pool more uniform, the beam angle of the pool light is about 90 degrees.

2, should consider the lighting design in the pool design stage

The second important factor is that the lighting design of the pool should be considered early in the design phase of the pool.

When the concrete in the pool is poured and the embedded parts of the luminaire are not placed, it is very difficult to drill holes in the concrete.

It is not recommended to have a surface-mounted pool light in a public swimming pool because it is easily damaged.

Repairing the pool fixtures is cumbersome, so you need to use good quality fixtures and long-life light sources, not to mention the IP rating must be 68.

3. Other TIPS for swimming pool lighting design

1) Installation depth

Depending on the depth of the pool and the beam angle of the luminaire, the installation depth of the luminaire is usually 600-700mm, and the shallower children's pool is 400-500mm.

Remember that only when the incident angle of light hits the water-air interface is less than 41 degrees will it be reflected back to the surface. If the installation depth is too shallow, the light will escape from the surface of the water before it hits the water (such as a swimmer) and ran into the air. Looking down from the water, there will be a large dark area under the luminaire. If the installation is too deep, you will see a glare highlight below the luminaire, and the lighting will not be enough when the swimmer is close to the luminaire.

2) Light distribution

When considering the problem of light distribution, we need to think about whether we need more uniform illumination or some kind of accent lighting, or both.

Most underwater lights have different light beams from 10 to 90 degrees, and some have "Multiflux" multiple light distribution methods, such as 120 beam angles but 30 degrees of narrow light in the center. For shallow pools below 1.5 m, an elliptical light distribution, such as 15 x 40 degrees, is recommended to avoid glare and light loss.

Figure: A small pool with a 10 degree beam angle produces a dramatic effect

Figure: A large swimming pool uses a 90 degree beam angle underwater light with cross-side mounting for more uniform illumination.

3) Dimming control

Pool lighting rarely requires dimming, except that the same fixture is used everywhere, but in some places it does not require 100% brightness. Whether dimming is required or not is a consideration when designing and selecting a luminaire.

But many times the pool needs to be able to RGB or RGBW color, this time you need a good controller, such as DMX control. If you want both a good color effect and a very positive white light, then you should use RGBW LED luminaires to control the red, green, blue and white colors of the LEDs individually.

For most pool lighting, users like to have only one controller with several static or dynamic scenes, each of which can be individually controlled and adjusted. In other cases, the scene of the pool is set with the lighting scene of the surrounding environment.

4) Treatment of other water elements

Many times there are other water elements in the design of the pool, such as falling water, falling water, fountains or water spray. Don't forget to add effect lighting to them, such as lighting from below the pool or behind them.

Figure: A very beautiful water element somewhere, the surface-mounted LED floodlights are installed behind the water curtain.

5) Handling special pool needs

Finally, there are some special pool needs that may be considered. E.g:

Small decorative LED dots?

Can the floor be moved?

Is the surface flush mounted or flush mounted but requires a thin face ring?

A salty pool? The luminaire requires a 1.4539 stainless steel alloy body to better protect against corrosion.

Or sometimes it may be necessary to replace existing old fixtures with new LED fixtures?

All in all, designing a satisfactory pool lighting requires a high level of design and requires adequate consideration. At the same time, good lighting quality is required, and the luminous flux, size, color, color temperature, beam angle, etc. of the lamps need to be matched well.