Lights around pool, safety

[howardtopher]

We'd like to put some lights around our pool as our back yard is pitch dark at night and we only have one porch light on the house. There is a light in the pool, but we'd like light outside of the water, too. I've done some searching and have seen different things - 5ft from the water, 10ft from the water, different rules for aerial lights, etc. I'm still not confident on what's ok and I don't want to do anything unsafe, hence yet another post about lighting.

We have an above ground pool. I was thinking about mounting lights to the fence around the yard as that would get the lights higher than the pool edge (about 3ft difference in height). However, the side of the pool nearest the fence is only 8ft from water edge to fence. If the lights are permanently mounted to the fence, would this be ok? Is there a difference if it's 110v Christmas type lights, or low-voltage LEDs? The power source would be the pool equipment pad, mounted on a board with all the other outlets/equipment.

If the fence isn't ok, then the next plan is to permanently mount lights on the house, on the gutter. This is far more involved so it's not my first choice. The house is a couple inches over 10ft from the edge of the water, but those lights would be 10-12 ft high.

 

[kellyfair]

Have you thought about solar lights?

What type of fencing do you have? I have vinyl and they make end caps for the posts that are lights (I didn’t get them, but they were interesting).

 

[howardtopher]

Have you thought about solar lights?

What type of fencing do you have? I have vinyl and they make end caps for the posts that are lights (I didn’t get them, but they were interesting).

It's a wood fence. It's getting close to time to replace it because we never did take great care of it and we would like to go vinyl when that happens in the next couple of years.

We used to have solar lights on the sidewalk to the front door and they were never all that bright so we replaced them with low-voltage LEDs. As a result of that I haven't considered solar because I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough light. Plus having to deal with batteries. I will look into them, even if it's just temporary while we do something more permanent.

 

[kellyfair]

I don’t know about electrical requirements so didn’t comment about that, but just want to mention to use care when you plan how high to place the lights, and that you can tweak the direction if needed. My neighbors behind me had the most obnoxious light that beamed right into my eyes because of the way they had it positioned. Lit up one side of my house and left most of their yard in the dark!