Deck Lighting in Deer Park, OH

On the postwar lots in Deer Park (ZIP 45236) the way from the back yard to the front is a gate in the fence down the side. The bins go out that way, the mower comes in that way, and for four or five months of the year both of those happen after dark.

It is the trip nobody plans a lighting scheme around, because it is not a pleasant one. Everything else a deck gets lit for is optional: sitting out, eating, having people over. Taking the bins to the front on a Tuesday in January is not optional, it happens in the cold with both hands occupied, and it involves a gate latch, a step off the deck and a narrow strip of ground beside the house that is darker than anywhere else on the lot.

So the run keeps going past the deck. A fitting at the head of the steps, one at the gate itself, and one partway down the side, all low and shielded and aimed at the ground. Three small fittings on the same transformer turn the worst two minutes of the week into something nobody thinks about, and they cost less than a single decorative position on the deck would.

The gate is the one that earns its place. A latch operated with a full hand is the point where somebody props a bin against the fence, and a fitting throwing onto the latch and the ground in front of it is what stops that being a fumble in the dark. It is on the same photocell as the deck, so it is already lit before anybody goes out.