Three families that look like one category and are specified in three completely different ways. One has standard heights, one is built to your drawing every time, and one publishes a figure that is not a mounting height at all.
The height of a bollard decides two things at once: how far the light throws, and whether it glares. Raise the optic and the pool widens but the source climbs towards eye level. Lower it and the light is comfortable but you need more of them.
Enlighten Pro’s cast bollards cluster deliberately at one height. Of the 43 codes that publish a figure, 18 are 600mm, and most of the rest are pairs or ranges built around it — 250/600, 300/600, 600/750, 300/500/800. The bodies are aluminium casting, most commonly 150 × 150mm square.
| Height | What it does | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| 250–300mm | Marks an edge — a step, a planter, a level change | Lights the ground, not the path; spacing gets tight |
| 500–600mm | The working height for a footpath or driveway edge | Nothing much — this is why it is the common size |
| 750–800mm | Wider throw, fewer fittings, more presence in the landscape | The optic is closer to eye level; shielding matters |
Above 800mm you are no longer choosing a bollard. A post-top light on a short pole does that job better, because the optic can be aimed and shielded rather than simply raised.
The heights above are standard, not a limit. They are the sizes held as stock geometry. Any of them can be made to a client drawing or specification — that is how most site-specific work runs here.
Of 54 pole-light codes, only 15 publish a height — and that is the correct state of the record, not a gap in it. A pole is made to the requirement: the height, the wattage and whether it carries one arm or two are decided per project.
Read the published figures carefully. On a pole light the numbers describe the luminaire — the 15 that carry a height record something between 250mm and 550mm, with bodies around 325 × 325mm to 425 × 425mm. Nothing about a pole is 375mm tall. The pole is separate, and it is yours to set.
| What you decide | Why it is not in a catalogue |
|---|---|
| Mounting height | Set by the road or path width and the spacing you can achieve, not by the fitting |
| Single or twin arm | A twin arm halves the number of foundations on a divided carriageway; on a footpath it doubles the cost for nothing |
| Wattage | Follows from height and spacing — the same fitting is specified at 50W and at 100W on different projects |
| Pole material | Mild steel on 34 of the 54 codes, aluminium on 18. Coastal sites change that answer |
The practical consequence: send a layout, not a model number. A drawing with path widths and the positions you can actually get a foundation into tells us more than any code does, and it is the only way to answer the wattage question honestly.
This is the one that is most often misread. A gate light sits on a pillar, and the pillar decides the mounting height. The figure in the catalogue is the size of the lantern.
Across 40 gate-light codes, 35 publish both. Bodies are aluminium casting, most commonly 225 × 225mm square, and heights run 200–250mm. So the sizes here are genuinely fixed in a way the pole range is not — a gate light is a finished object, and it is chosen to sit in proportion on the pillar it lands on.
Proportion is the whole decision. A 150 × 150mm lantern on a 450mm pillar looks lost; a 250 × 250mm lantern on a 300mm pillar overhangs it. Measure the pillar cap before choosing the code.
Sizes can still be customised to a drawing where the pillar demands it — the difference from a pole light is that here the standard sizes are the usual answer, not the exception.
One deliberate difference in the specification: gate lights are supplied at Ra 80+, not the Ra 70 that is standard elsewhere outdoors. They light an entrance a person stands at, and colour matters more there than the last few lumens per watt.
There is no universal spacing figure, and any guide that gives you one has skipped the step that matters. Spacing is a consequence of mounting height, the beam the fitting throws, and the uniformity you are willing to accept.
The useful way to hold it: a light source illuminates an ellipse whose size scales with its height above the surface. Double the height and the same fitting covers roughly four times the area at a quarter of the level. That is why raising a fitting always lets you space further apart, and why it always costs you illuminance directly under it.
| Mounting | Typical use | What sets the spacing |
|---|---|---|
| 300mm | Step and edge marking | Continuity of the line — gaps read as missing fittings |
| 600mm | Footpath, driveway edge | Path width; a wider path needs both sides or a taller fitting |
| 800mm | Landscape, wide walkways | Overlap between adjacent pools at the darkest point |
| Pole | Roads, campuses, parking | Height, throw and the uniformity ratio the project is held to |
Where a project is held to a numerical uniformity or average illuminance, the honest answer is a calculation against the actual photometry, not a rule of thumb. Send the layout and the target and we will run it.
Two figures on every outdoor sheet are widely misread, and both are deliberate choices rather than defaults.
The second digit is what matters outdoors: 5 means protection against water jets from any direction, which is what rain plus a hose amounts to. It is not an immersion rating — a fitting that will stand in water needs IP67 or IP68, and those are a different family. The IP ratings guide covers what the digits do and do not promise.
Outdoors, lumens per watt is usually the figure the project is judged on, and colour rendering trades directly against it. So Ra 70+ is standard across the outdoor range, with Ra 80+ available on request. Gate lights are the exception and ship at Ra 80+, because they light a threshold rather than a carriageway.
3000K, 4000K, 5000K and 6000K are the standard offering and are held in stock. Anything between 2700K and 6500K can be supplied to order. Warmer reads better in landscape and residential entrances; cooler is usual on roads and industrial approaches.
Because so much of this range is made to the requirement, a short list of facts gets a real answer faster than a model number does.
A blank height in the catalogue is information. On this range it means the dimension is set per order, not that it is unknown. Where a size is published it is the standard offering, and it can still be customised to your drawing or specification.
Heights, arm configuration and wattage are made to your requirement — the layout tells us more than a model number does.