Making a Splash with Outdoor Lighting: Past, Present, and Future

Once upon a time, pool lighting was… well, not so exciting. White lights, while warm and inviting, used to be the only option for curating a welcoming nighttime oasis. The pool industry has come a long way! 

In the beginning…

To understand this evolution, one must look back at the history of lighting in general. Our story begins in 1879 when Thomas Edison created an incandescent bulb that was practical and reliable enough to illuminate homes. The world was forever changed by this innovation, and other big-thinking inventors were inspired by the possibilities lighting offered. As tinkering was underway, new inventions began dazzling the public: arc lamps, oscillating lights, and even Christmas light strings were soon unveiled. 

The American public, while still lighting many trees with candles, were awe-struck by this innovation. Lights brought a new warmth to homes across the nation, including the White House. In the 1890s, President Grover Cleveland decorated his holiday tree with multi-colored string lights. An awe-struck public watched in amazement as the possibilities of a colorful future sat in plain sight. The Edison Illuminating Company produced the first example of this dazzling multi-colored light show, but each light string had to be wired by hand. As a result, light strings were rather pricey for the everyday consumer.

Nonetheless, this largely forgotten moment in history inched us toward a more colorful future, both inside and outside the home. In the 1920s, the Jazz Age was underway, and a flair for the extravagant became en vogue. It was at this time that Albert Sadacca and his brothers set out to make colored lights more widely available, and the public was downright dazzled by this colorful experience that could be introduced to their own homes.

Diving into well-lit pools. 

While innovations in lighting were transforming the world as we knew it, the young pool industry was also taking notice. Like lights, American pools were still a fairly young innovation in the early 20^th century. Though Roman pools and natural hot springs had long entertained Europeans, American pools had only started popping up on the East Coast in the 1880s. Those early pools were a hit, and the ensuing century would introduce new swimsuit fashions that made swimming even more enjoyable.

At the height of the Jazz Age, a man by the name of Wesley Bintz began introducing public pools to the Midwest. In the following decade, wet-niche pool lights were introduced, and swimmers everywhere were dazzled by well-lit oases. 

Pool lights continued to evolve over the next few decades, becoming better at distributing illumination underwater, maintaining a cool temperature for lightbulbs, and embracing new innovations like fiberoptic lighting. A burgeoning industry was underway, and the concept of the American Dream grew to include a well-lit, welcoming pool. After all, the white picket fence alone wasn’t enough to create a backyard paradise!

Wading into a colorful future. 

Of course, the public had already demonstrated a fascination with colored lighting, as it had long been a staple inside homes. Naturally, the next step in the evolution of colored lights was infusing them into outdoor spaces like pools.

Colored lights enabled pool owners to curate a specific mood at their pool, enhancing holiday celebrations and pool parties in a magical way. 

Transforming lighting into a light show.

While colored lighting transformed the pool industry as we know it, the era of innovation wasn’t (and still isn’t) quite over. Creative minds around the world were already pushing the boundaries of innovation, but automation further changed pool lighting as we know it. 

Automation allows pool owners to connect equipment like pool pumps, water features, and – you guessed it – lighting in one easy-to-manage control center. In the smartphone era, connected apps like the Pentair Home and IntelliCenter2 app make pool automation as simple as the tap of a finger. Turning on and off pool features and setting schedules is made simple with an automation system. Plus, with automation or the Color Sync™ Controller for Pentair Color LED Lights in your pool toolkit, it’s easy to create an awe-inducing light show.

What is a light show, you ask? Instead of sitting with just one color, light shows cycle through several different colors to create a visually striking scene. Imagine painting your pool in hues of sunset magenta and yellow or creating a Caribbean ambiance with blue and green! Pool owners with colored lights can attest to the majesty of a rainbow-hued backyard oasis. 

Another pillar of the modern pool industry is a trend toward sustainable solutions, and pool lights haven’t been forgotten in this wave of energy efficiency. With the incorporation of LED lighting solutions, homeowners can enjoy colorful outdoor paradises that won’t break the bank. And the best part? With each new generation of lighting, technology and energy efficiency improves.

The shift from incandescent to LED lighting.

Over the last few decades, LED lighting has been replacing older, less energy-efficient incandescent lights. This recent lighting evolution wave has been, in part, due to regulatory pressures from the Department of Energy which has banned certain types of low-efficiency incandescent lights from being sold in the market.

In the pool industry, advancements from incandescent to LED lighting took place in the mid-to-late 2000s. Pentair began utilizing LED technology in backyard poolscapes with its first LED IntelliBrite large niche light in 2007. After tweaking and improving the design of that initial LED product, Pentair came out with the IntelliBrite® 5G Color and White LED Pool Light, which has been illuminating backyard paradises across the country for over a decade.  Now, Pentair will be introducing a new and improved LED lighting product with upgraded optics, power supply, and more.  

What makes LED lighting that much better than incandescents? To understand why and how LED lights are more energy efficient than incandescent lighting, let’s take a deeper dive into the physics behind the light. An LED (which stands for light-emitting diode) is one type of semiconductor that converts electricity directly to light at a more efficient rate than incandescent lights, which actually burns a filament (the wire or thread in a light bulb) to produce light. For every watt of electricity, an LED produces much more light than heat compared to an incandescent, which is why you can change an LED light bulb while lit up – you can’t always do that with an incandescent bulb without burning your fingers. 

Many of the energy efficiency and lighting differences between LED and incandescent lights stem from the use of optics – a lens or a reflector that changes the direction of the light beam. Optics direct the light to where it’s needed most. In an incandescent light, the light is directed omnidirectionally, meaning in three axes at 360 degrees. However, in an LED light, optics maximize the use of light by directing the photons only where the light is needed, which makes LED lighting that much more efficient.  

Looking toward the future…

From the humble beginnings of lighting to its transformative days in early American pools, underwater lighting has come a long way. However, a trend toward sustainability and energy efficiency clues us in on what the future holds for the pool industry. There’s more innovation underway every day, and each new product unveiling has the potential to dazzle the industry just as the very first colored lights did. 

If you’re ready to illuminate the pool possibilities at your customers’ homes, dive into the details of Pentair lighting at pentair.com/poollights.