How To Light Your Flag

In the United States it is against the law to display a flag at nighttime without lighting it up. Therefore it is important to make sure you have a flagpole stand or setup that will illuminate your flag at night.

There are no specific laws about how bright the lights should be that are illuminate your flag at night so you are fine as long as they are lit up. Some cities do have limits as to how bright your displays can be however so it is important to learn about your local regulations to ensure you are in compliance

Some lighting fixtures are buried in the ground. These fixtures are called "inground" because they are In The Ground. Inground lighting is a great option if you want to keep your lights our of the way. Most inground lighting is able to cover a fifteen degree angle and light up an entire tree or an entire flagpole. Many of these ground lighting features are able to rotate 360 degrees.

You can get inground lights that are made of different types of technologies. You can find halogen lamps that are able to put out different intensities of light. You can also find LED lights or HD lights that will do the job for you. With these types of lights you can find the right fit to illuminate your flagpole whether it is 5 feet tall or 40 feet tall.

Oftentimes people will use inground lighting to illuminate flagpoles in dark areas. Places like parks or subdivisions or even businesses can often be too dark at night to be properly lit.

There are also many types of lighting fixtures that can be mounted above the ground. These are usually positioned on buildings or poles or wires. They are best used where there is not sod or yardage that would make it easy to install inground features.

HD lamps are only available with certain wattage for above ground lighting features. These are designed to light up very tall poles and their design is only acceptable for those types of situations. This is usually the case because there is a lot of ambient light and it is difficult for the natural eye to make out the difference between a flag and the background.

We see these flagpole lighting fixtures most commonly in places like car dealerships, which are super bright throughout the night, and large retail centers where parking lot lighting produces a tremendous amount of ambient light. Large corporate headquarters may also have a high level of ambient light due to landscape lights and security lights.

Depending on where you live in the United States you may have to use downlighting. This would be good in certain cities where laws keep you from shooting too much light up into the sky. If your flag is too tall it may not work but if you have a place to position your lights so that they point down to the flag it could be a good option.

Light pollution is experiencing a huge crackdown in America. Many cities are implementing lawus against uplighting to ensure the rest of the city can still see the stars. This keeps any kind of uplighting off limits, whether it is inground or above ground. This makes downlighting even that much more important.

Some of the downlinghting fixtures are decorative and designed to look really good. Make sure that your downlighting fixture matches with the rest of your decor or landscape. If you choose the right downlighting fixture you can really make your flag pop and still not take anything away from the rest of your area.

If you install the right kind of flagpole lighting fixture it can really bring out the color in your flag and make it stand out. If you do your research you will have a fantastic flagpole and you will not have any problems with the law.