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A Guide to Responsible Outdoor Lighting Practices

Artificial light at night (ALAN) refers to the use of electric light sources in outdoor spaces. As cities and infrastructure grow, ALAN is used for various applications, from lighting roadways and parking lots for safety to illuminating architecture. While safety is crucial, ALAN has created problems for wildlife that have lived under natural light at night (moonlight and starlight).

ALAN disrupts sleep cycles, displaces wildlife from their habitats, disrupts migration patterns and breeding rituals, and alters hormone production. To combat these effects, wildlife-friendly lighting standards advocate for specific fixtures, design principles, and lighting control methods to minimize disruption to wildlife and their natural environment.

Wildlife Lighting Standards Recommendations

There are several organizations that establish and promote wildlife-friendly lighting standards and one of the most prominent is the International DarkSky Association (IDA), an independent organization offering certification and educational resources. 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are key government agencies that provide guidelines and resources for wildlife lighting. They are the most referenced for sea turtle-friendly lighting and bird-friendly lighting, and they have developed the Wildlife Lighting Certification Program to ensure lighting practices are safe for wildlife.

International DarkSky Association

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are key government agencies that provide guidelines and resources for wildlife lighting. They are the most referenced for sea turtle-friendly lighting and bird-friendly lighting, and they have developed the Wildlife Lighting Certification Program to ensure lighting practices are safe for wildlife.

Aside from the five principles, IDA has a few other core functions, including the DarkSky certification program and DarkSky Approved program, as well as education and outreach. The IDA also works as a resource to aid in crafting ordinances and legislation for municipalities to help combat the growing problem of light pollution. 

IDA’s Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting 

A guide to assist lighting professionals when designing exterior lighting, these simple principles are intuitive and relatively easy to implement and can have an enormous impact when applied correctly to reduce light pollution and maintain dark skies and healthy habitats for wildlife. 

Many guidelines, like “Low Level” and “Targeted,” are subjective. Testing and mockups in the field can help determine what is “Low Level” in the context of the project site. For example, a 4-watt luminaire may be appropriately bright in a city park but too bright in a rural residence.

DarkSky Approved Program

The DarkSky Approved program provides third-party approval for products, lighting designs and projects, ensuring that they meet necessary requirements that abide by Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting.

When searching for outdoor luminaires, the DarkSky Approved seal can help guide the fixture selection for projects that need to meet any DarkSky requirements. DarkSky approved fixtures can be found with the DarkSky Approved Seal on manufacturers cut sheets or through the DarkSky Database. Full program requirements can also be found in the DarkSky Approved Luminaires Guidelines. 

Turtle-Safe Lighting 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) manages fish and wildlife resources for their safety and the good of the community. One large part of the FWC’s programs is establishing turtle-safe lighting practices. 

Turtle nesting seasons typically run from May through October in Florida. As hatchlings leave their eggs, they must make the trip back to the ocean across the beach where they were laid. Their natural means of navigation is following the naturally blue moonlight, which is brightest on the water horizon. Traditional ALAN can disturb this process, so turtle safe lighting ordinances have been implemented to protect this journey and save turtle lives. The most important aspect of turtle safe lighting is the use of no blue wavelength light (shorter than 560nm). 

The FWC’s Wildlife Lighting Certification Program helps identify lighting fixtures which meet requirements for turtle-safe lighting. Additionally, the DarkSky Approved program also has their own specific DarkSky Sea Turtle Sensitive Approved program, which has nearly identical standards.

Bird-Friendly Lighting Standards

Bird populations worldwide are highly susceptible to the negative impacts of artificial light at night (ALAN). Eighty percent of North American birds migrate overnight, relying on magnetoreception to detect Earth’s magnetic poles. Studies show that high levels of blue spectrum light can impair this sense, disorienting birds and causing them to fly in non-migratory directions.  

In urban areas, blue spectrum light traps birds in “bubbles” of artificial light, leading to collisions, exhaustion, and mass-mortality events, especially on foggy or low cloud ceiling nights when birds fly lower than normal. 

The standards and strategies set by DarkSky and the FWC sea turtle program are similar to bird-friendly lighting recommendations. Turning off unnecessary lighting is the most effective solution, especially during spring (April-May) and fall (August-October) migration seasons and on cloudy or foggy nights. Additionally, if birds become trapped in bright light, turning lights off for 15 to 20 minutes can help them escape. Automatic timers can create breaks if monitoring is not feasible. To reduce light pollution from interiors, close blinds, shades, or curtains at night, or use window tinting. 

Bird-Friendly Lighting Ordinances

Bird-friendly lighting ordinances are often grouped with bird-friendly building ordinances. Architects and designers can use construction materials, glazing, and lighting to create safer environments for birds.  

In the U.S., these ordinances are mostly managed by local municipalities. Notably, Maui County recently enacted stringent requirements for bird and wildlife-safe lighting, including outdoor fixtures emitting no more than 2% of light from the blue spectrum (400nm-500nm), no uplight, and full fixture shielding. For more information on other ordinances, refer to The Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative’s national database. 

DMF’s Wildlife-Friendly Lighting Solutions

DMF offers a variety of fixtures that are both DarkSky approved and turtle-sensitive for recessed downlighting and cylinder applications. Approved fixtures are limited to certain configurations. 

• DarkSky Approved 
  • Luminaires cannot include decorative trims and must be 3000K CCT or lower. 
  • M Series Residential (4-inch aperture) and X Series recessed downlights both offer configurations. 
  • M Series and X Series Cylinders have configurations. Cylinders must be downlight (direct only), without any uplight. 
  • Look for the DarkSky Approved seal on DMF specification sheets for approved fixtures.

• Dark Sky Approved Turtle Sensitive 
  • DMF turtle-friendly lighting fixtures come in 300 lumen output, specialty CRI and Turtle & Wildlife Friendly (TF) spectrum.
  • M Series Residential and X Series Recessed downlights are both available in turtle sensitive configurations.
  • M Series and X Series Cylinders are also available in TF configurations, in downlight configurations only.  

Note that DMF Turtle and Wildlife Friendly fixtures are not currently listed as FWC Certified but are designed within the required specifications and are certified DarkSky Approved Sea Turtle Sensitive.

To review the Wildlife Lighting Technical Bulletin, which includes references, click here. 

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Top honors in the MVP Awards go to the X Series Downlights

Chosen by a panel of residential construction professionals for “ground-breaking innovation and practical excellence to environmental benefits and jaw-dropping beauty,” PROBUILDER’s annual Most Valuable Product (MVP) Awards recognize the “best of the best to help its readers design, build, remodel and sell homes” in 16 different categories.

Winning the top GOLD honor in the Lighting category, the 2-inch X Series modular downlights feature field-changeable trims, light engine modules, and optics for exceptional versatility, while providing the ultimate in performance, installation, serviceability and sustainability.

The downlight or adjustable (360-degree rotation and 35-degree tilt) modules are paired with the universal housing, offering a small footprint (quiet ceiling) without sacrificing light output (750 to 1500 lumens) — comparable performance to 3- and 4-inch downlights in ceilings up to 10 feet, but providing a more architectural look.

Drivers are integrated into the light engine modules versus the housing for easy serviceability. Housings also have been designed with a unique trap door, providing post-install access below the ceiling.

It’s the first truly serviceable 2-inch downlight with an integrated driver and below-ceiling access. Together these features allow for painless serviceability, unheard of in a 2-inch fixture!

“From more than 200 entries, these products exhibit great design and style, convenience, efficiency, and true innovation in their respective categories.”             –PROBUILDER editor

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What is an IP Rating and why have IP Ratings?

An Ingress Protection Rating, or IP Rating, grades the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust and water and the ease in which individuals can access potential hazardous parts within the enclosure. Used widely in the industry, it provides a standardized method to evaluate/test a device’s resistance to environmental conditions and the suitable environment for the device, or lighting fixture.

The numerical rating consists of two numbers, the first digit [zero (0) to six (6)] refers to the protection against solid objects and the second numeral rates the protection against water [zero (0) to nine (9)]. In both cases, zero (0) represents no protection.

In some instances, the numeral position may contain the letter X, indicating no data/testing to specify ingress protection. IP Ratings may also contain a third supplemental digit, which indicates additional protection or testing conditions. This is more commonly seen in industrial equipment and enclosures, not typically in luminaire IP Ratings.

When evaluating IP Ratings for lighting fixtures, the ratings help to evaluate the appropriate environmental conditions that the luminaire can withstand since environments can vary greatly. Think of interior spaces such as bathrooms, covered porches, or fully exposed exteriors , all these spaces have different levels of exposure to contaminants and water.

The most common IP Ratings for exterior luminaires include IP65, which indicates a fully dust-tight lighting fixture that is also protected against water jets, and IP68, also indicating a fully dust-tight product but can also be fully submerged in water, such as in a pool or pond.

IP Ratings give the user and specifier the confidence that the product will not prematurely fail because of intrusion from dust or water and help determine if a fixture is safe for use in that environment.

DMF Lighting offers several fixtures with IP Ratings that can be used in exterior applications with frequent exposure to water and harsh elements. Those fixtures include:   

• M Series Commercial Downlights – The M Series Commercial Vandal Trim features a gasketed seal and IK10 (impact-rated) lens that offers IP66 level protection when installed in an appropriate ceiling. Available in both round and square standard trims, look for the “VP” option at the end of the trim product code.

VP = Vandal Proof/IP66  

• M Series Cylinders & X Series Cylinders – These cylinders are highly configurable with up to 14+ million possible combinations. Each have options for IP65-Rated Pendant, Wall Mount, and Surface Mounted versions. When building your configuration, look for the water droplet next to the options that will fulfill an IP65 Rated option:

• H Series Wall Mount Cylinders – These cylinders are easy to order and do not require any special configuration to meet the IP65 rating.  

Numeral Definitions

For a deeper dive into IP Ratings, including the rigorous testing procedures and the differences between IP Ratings versus UL Listings, check out our Technical Bulletin.