• Which lighting arrangement provides the best security?
• What is the most cost effective system, taking into account both installation and running costs?
• Which is the most visually appealing design that will enhance the appeal of your property?

One of the most common errors with outdoor security lighting is the overuse of floodlights. The assumption with floodlights is that because they are bright they are the safest. However they can actually create safety and security problems and are centainly not energy efficient (i.e. they are not cost effective to run).

The problem when you have a floodlight shining toward your house and you look outside is that all you can see is the glare from the floodlight. This can actually protect intruders from detection.

In addition, floodlights generally illuminate both the area where they are directed and adjacent areas, which can result in annoyed neighbors who have to endure the unwanted glare of a neighbor’s lights.

In terms of visual appeal, floodlighting does nothing for the aesthetics of a home (unless you are seeking the “prison camp” look!), because their intense light means the detail, color and texture of the home and yard is lost.

We recommend selecting outdoor lighting systems with:

1. A series of energy-efficient, low-wattage lights strategically placed around the property, preferably with lights positioned on the ground, provinf background lighting and illuminating distinctive features, which creates an aesthetically pleasing effect, and
2. For security, strategically placed floodlights combined with motion detectors. These floodlights are normally switched off, but are triggered by movement.

With this approach, the energy-efficient lighting provides visual appeal and contributes to safety, by providing sufficient light for navigating sidewalks and steps and enable you to walk safely without light spilling over into your neighbor’s yard.

The background lighting is supplemented by the motion detector switched floodlights that are normally off except when turned on by movement.

Fiber optic landscape lights provide a very different approach to landscape lighting compared with traditional outdoor lights, such as low voltage lights or solar landscape lights.

As the “fiber optic” name suggests, light itself travels down the cables rather than electricity. The benefits include:

• Electrical safety - these lights are ideal for pools, spas and water features because there is no electricity reaching the light fixtures and so no danger of shock.

• The light source can be installed in an indoor environment protected from the weather.

Fiber optic lights are also excellent for changing and colored light effects, because there is only one light source to control. The light from this source is then routed to a number of lights (and potentially this can be a large number of lights).

For really spectactular effects, you can use multiple light sources supplying a range of lights with shifting colors and effects.

Fiber Optic Landscape Light Fixtures

The light fixtures themselves can be very simple - in some cases they are just a simple acrylic stick as shown.

They can also be at the opposit eend of the spectrum and complex or intricate.

Some creative fixtures include paver lights, which can add an elegant touch to any landscape lighting plan. Paver lights can be used in path design, walkways, decks and to illuminate walls. Most paver lights accept 25 strand fiber optic cable and are constructed of a poly carbonate top with an ABS base.

Design and Installation Considerations

Fiber optic landscape lighting offers unique flexibility compared to conventional lighting, but it also has limitations. In particular, fiber optic lights are in general not as bright as conventional electric outdoor lights.

For this reason, areas with a high ambient light level (from other light sources) should be avoided as they tend to “wash out” the color.

On the other hand, a major benefit is that fiber optic lighting can be installed in areas not accessible to conventional lighting.

Fiber Optic Light Cables

As well as fiber optic light fixtures, you can also get fiber optic cables that emit light themselves. These cables ar eoften encased in a water clear PVC jacket for use in water features, underwater lighting for swimming pools, patios, facades, landscaping decks etc (see photo above).

Light is displayed in a so-called lineal fashion. This produces a brilliant light simulating a neon effect. The light emitting cable is flexible, easily installed, UV resistant and can provide vibrant color changes.

Buying Outdoor Lighting Fixtures

Which light fixture is “better” or “best” is a difficult question and depends on what you are looking for and of course how much you want to pay.

One thing to remember is that outdoor lights are exposed to the full effects of weather and need to be built for durability. This means that outdoor lighting fixtures may look great in the shop or catalog, but if they aren’t made of quality, weather resistant materials they won’t look good for very long.

So if a light doesn’t look and feel solid, it probably won’t last well. Check what materials it’s made of - look for materials such as stainless steel, bronze, copper, glass and so on.

As an example, you can buy a pack of 4 or 6 solar powered path lights for only 20-30 dollars or so, but the ones I have tried at thaty price point have all broken within a year or so.

Outdoor Lighting Fixture Brands

• Access Lighting
• Alliance
• Ambience
• Artistic Lighting & Designs
• Corbett
• Crystorama
• CSL Lighting
• ELK Lighting
• ELK Outdoor
• ET2
• Fine Art Lamps
• Flos

• Fontana Arte
• Forecast
• George Kovacs
• Hampton Bay
• Hinkley
• Hinkley Outdoor
• House of Troy
• Hudson Valley
• Kichler Lighting
• Kichler Landscape
• Kichler Tiffany Classics
• Kichler Westwood
• Juno Lighting
• Lutron Dimmers
• Maxim Lighting
• Maxim Outdoor
• Metropolitan
• Minka Lavery Lighting
• Minka Energy Star
• Minka Great Outdoors
• Murray Feiss
• Murray Feiss Lamps
• Murray Feiss Outdoor
• Quoizel Lighting
• Savoy House Lighting
• Savoy House Outdoor
• Sea Gull Lighting
• Sea Gull Outdoors
• Sonneman
• Triarch International
• Triarch Outdoor
• Troy Lighting
• Troy Outdoor
• Westinghouse Lighting
• Westinghouse Outdoor
• Zaneen

Outdoor Lighting Fixtures Discounts

Similarly there are many vendors that offer discount outdoor lighting fixtures. As you would expect many merchants will offer lighting fixtures at a discount from time to time. Here are a few.

• Amazon
• Arcadian lighting
• Home Depot
• Lampsplus
• Lamp USA
• Lighting Showplace
• Lighting Universe
• Soho lighting

Two of the most popular fixture types are:

1. Outdoor Lighting Fixtures Wall Mounted
2. Outdoor Lighting Fixtures Posts

The first type is typically used to highlight an aspect of a home or building, whereas the second is popular for path lighting.

Both types are also usually available as low voltage outdoor lights or solar outdoor lights. As we cover in how to install landscape lighting solar lights and low voltage lights are often simpler and cheaper to install.

Mains powered lights are simple to install if you are mounting them on the side of your home and access to mains power is simple. When running power around your property for lights, low voltage is easier than mains to install.

]]> http://www.landscapeoutdoorlighting.com/outdoor-lighting-fixtures/outdoor-lighting-fixtures/feed/ http://www.landscapeoutdoorlighting.com/landscape-lighting/landscape-outdoor-lighting-landscaping-services-company-listing-a-d/ http://www.landscapeoutdoorlighting.com/landscape-lighting/landscape-outdoor-lighting-landscaping-services-company-listing-a-d/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 02:04:09 +0000 admin http://www.landscapeoutdoorlighting.com/?p=67 Here is a listing of companies from A to D that offer the following products and services:

• Landscape and outdoor lighting products
• Architectural Lighting, Pool Side Lighting, Deck and Patio Lighting fixtures
• Landscaping
• Installation and design services
• Landscape maintenance services

Basically you need to first create a lighting plan (see Planning Outdoor Lighting), decide what areas you want to light, where you want to create highlights, set your budget and then install the outdoor lights.

In most cases, a simple outdoor lighting system where you are using low voltage, or solar outdoor lights is a project that you can complete in a weekend.

Outdoor Lighting Fixtures

There is a huge range of lighting fixtures you can choose from, in a wide range of styles.

Most likely you will choose an overall theme for your outdoor decorative lighting, probably in tune with the style of your home. Then you can choose outdoor lights that fit into that theme.

There are modern lights, ultra-modern, art deco lights, traditional lights and so on.

Outdoor & landscape Lighting Styles:

Accent Lighting

With this style, you use spotlights or minispreads to generate intense light that is focused on a specific object to contrast it against a dark background.

Spread Lighting

This style uses so-called spread fixtures to create circular patterns of light to highlight items such as flowers and low shrubs from above.

Downlighting

With downlighting you usually use spotlights, floodlights and spread light fixtures mounted high up, either on a wall or in a tree and then aimed downwards to create a soft and romantic feeling.

Uplighting

As you would expect, uplighting is the opposite of downlighting and uses fixtures that are surface or ground mounted and angled upward to highlight a feature. This technique uses spotlights, floodlightss, or in-ground light fixtures.

Cross Lighting

With cross lighting, the fixtures - usually spotlights or floodlights -  are mounted on the side of a tree, feature wall, or arbor to reveal detail and soften shadows.

Silhouetting

With silhouetting, you normally use spotlights, floodlights, or in-ground light fixtures to light the surface behind an object to create a striking effect.

A variation on silhouetting is “grazing”, where you use a beam of light that just grazes the surface of an object to reveal its texture.

Enjoy!

However, whether you are landscaping or installing outdoor lighting for a newly-built home or redesigning an existing landscape, the results will be much more satisfying if you plan first.

The Basic Plan

A landscape and the associated landscape lighting is a picture, with a great opportunity for artistic composition. In home grounds the central feature is the house and to just scatter trees and bushes all over the area surrounding the house defeats the fundamental purpose which is to make good use of every part of the grounds.

So you need a definite plan on paper for the location of the leading features of the landscape and the associated outdoor lighting.

Consider features such as the residence, outdoor areas and patios, any out buildings, walks and drives, the service areas, the border planting, flower-garden, and possibly a vegetable-garden.

To begin, it is recommended you draw a base plan to scale. For most properties a scale of 1/8″=1′ is workable; for small properties or a particular area of a larger development 1/4″=1′ may be better. Graph paper with lines indicating a particular scale is also helpful.

Include all the major features of your property on your drawing. After you have prepared the base plan you can either use tracing paper or transfer the drawing into a suitable PC drawing/graphics program. Then you can sketch possible ideas and solutions to your landscaping and outdoor lighting needs.

Steps For Drawing The Plan

• Indicate the compass directions in relation to the house by drawing an arrow (N->) pointing north.

• Measure each property line and record the measurements.

• Accurately locate one corner of the house on the plan by measuring the distance from the back edge of the curb or edge of the street and nearest property line. From this corner of the house, measure each side of the house and place it onto the plan.

• Locate other existing features on the plan by measuring from known reference points, such as the street, property line or house.

• Identify potential outdoor living and entertaining areas. Terraces and patios are now an integral part of many homes. They should be located, if possible, where they will receive summer breezes and afternoon shade. If sun is a problem, add trees or overhead shading structures.

• Once key features are located on the plan, it is now time to decide which of these will require outdoor lighting. Some will need functional lighting e.g. patios and decks, paths and walkways, others will be lit for aesthetic value and other lighting will be for security purposes.

• Don’t go overboard with the number of lights. It increases the costs for installation, maintenance and the running the outdoor lighting. Too many lights also don’t look good.

Note: The best (and most used) outdoor living areas are usually located adjacent to living areas of the house where they can easily be served and seen from inside. Even when they are not in use, well-planned, attractive decks and terraces adjacent to the house give a feeling of added space to interior rooms. A terrace is sometimes placed away from the home to take advantage of a striking view, good afternoon breezes, or the shade of a large tree.

Feature and Aesthetic Lighting

There may be some striking features on your property that you wish to highlight. There are a huge rang eof lights available. Again be restrained - less is more here - and remember that just like you trees and shrubs don’t like to be brightly illuminated night after night. It interferes with their natural rest cycles.

Lighting Paths and Entrance Areas

The amount of path lighting required depends on:

(a)    The amount of ambient light from other sources, such as streetlights, “always on” security lights and outdoor lighting attached to your home and outbuildings.

(b)   The smoothness of the surface of the walkway, the presence of steps.

Outdoor lights linked to motion detectors are a popular and efficient choice for entrance areas as the light only comes on when needed.

Security Lighting

The main objectives with outdoor security lighting are to illuminate dark areas and detect and recognize movement in “protected areas”.

The best vision with outdoor lighting is obtained from downward directed and shielded security lighting that is “always on”, supplemented with instant-on lighting triggered by motion detectors.

Overall, the best position for security lights is mounted as high as possible on your property, directing light in a downward position for safe and reliable operation.

Motion detectors sense movement and turn outdoor security lights on when movement is detected and are ideal for both security lighting and energy management. They are often used in conjunction with floodlights that raise the overall brightness. However, the aesthetic drawback of floodlights is they can make you home look like a jail.

An outdoor security lighting system is a deterrent because it exposes the criminal, who looks for areas with little to no lighting. Well lit areas increase the risk of detection for criminals and makes them less confident about taking the risk of entering your property.

The main objectives of an outdoor security lighting system are to illuminate dark areas and detect and recognize movement in the protected area.

The best vision with outdoor lighting is obtained from downward directed and shielded security lighting that is constantly on, supplemented with instant-on lighting triggered by motion detectors.

Note: It is important to position security lights high up and well out of reach, so they cannot be disabled by intruders. Overall, the best position is mounted as high as possible on your property in a downward position for safe and reliable operation.

You can buy many different types of security lights and outdoor security lighting systems, so it is best to divide security lighting into two lamp categories:

• High Intensity Discharge (HID)
• Halogen or Incandescent.

High Intensity Discharge Lights

HID lights  are energy efficient, long lasting and for this reason are commonly used in landscape lighting. The most popular HID lights are the mercury vapor types, which are blue-green colored. The other common types of outdoor flood lights are:

• high-pressure sodium
• metal halide
• fluorescent.

All of these sources require a warm-up period in order to return to full intensity if the power goes off. As such they are not designed for immediate use for example with motion detectors and should be therefore be used in conjunction with other sources for instant on lighting.

Halogen or Incandescent Lights

Halogen lights operate on standard house current and are often used as floodlights. They are ideal for instant-on applications because they require no warm up period. These security lights work well in combination with HID lighting as supplemental security lighting. They are not power efficient so are less suited to continuous use.

Motion Detectors

These devices sense movement and turn outdoor security lights on when motion is detected and are ideal for both security lighting and energy management. Because they switch the lights off and on constantly, they are designed to control halogen or incandescent sources and cannot be used to control HID lights..

There is a huge selection of Christmas outdoor lighting available. Most people seem to choose a selection of Christmas theme figures that are often animated, with a background made of light strands and colorful LED rope light.

Suggestions to consider with Christmas lighting:

• Decorate the background and outline of the building with LED Rope Lights

• Select Christmas Yard Art. Popular figures include Santa, Rudolph and the Reindeer, light art in the form of local landmarks.

• Animated figures are great fun.

• Lawn Decorations of Snowmen and Reindeer are popular.

• Use Christmas LED Lights where possible for power efficiency.

• LEDs are available in Lights Strings, Rope Lights and LED Garlands come in an assortment of colors, sizes and string lengths.

Christmas Light Design Tips:

• First sketch the outside of your house, indicating its dimensions - height, width and length.

• Note the locations of any available power outlets in the sketch.

• Decide where you want the lights to go e.g. along the eaves, around windows.

• If you want lights on trees and bushes, measure the height of bushes and the height of the sections of any trees you want to light, including each tree branch.

• For trees and bushes, a good rule of thumb is to allow about 50 lights per foot of height (double this  number if you’re using miniature lights).

• In the design, add an extra 25-40 feet to allow for the pitch of the roof if you are following the roofline.

• Decide what style of lights you want to use: solid, chasing or blinking? Miniature (C-7) or full-size (C-9)? Do you want white or colored lights or a mix? Rope lights usually come in lengths from 25 lights to 200 lights.

• Now you have to work out how many strings of lights you’ll need based on your design and measurements.

• At this point you may decide to scale back your design, because you have too many lights!

• Also remember you don’t want you house/premises to be too bright - you’ll lose the appeal of the best Christmas light arrangements.

Christmas Light Installation Tips:

• Test the lights before you install them (it’s a pain in the b–t if you have to take them down again).

• Get help. If you’re up high have someone hold the ladder and pass you the lights.

There is an idea that one day we will all be able to use free electricity from the sun. This is a seductive promise that is harder to put into practice, but solar powered outdoor lights are a step in the right direction.

On a bright, sunny day, the sun’s energy generates approximately 1,000 watts of energy per square meter of the planet’s surface. The goal is to find an affordable technology that enables us to collect all of that energy so we can get power for free.

The benefits of LEDs are that they are rated for over 20 years, meaning they should last that long before needing replacement.

However, you will certainly need to change the re-chargeable batteries that power the lights several times in that period.

Generally speaking outdoor solar-powered lighting is the most sustainable means to provide exterior illumination. Outdoor solar lighting is also easy to install and work on.

All you have is a solar panel which is attached to the lighting fixture, plus batteries to store the solar electricity generated. There are no mains connections or cables to run, so you don’t need an expensive, skilled contractor to install solar lighting.

In summary, solar lighting for your home and garden makes great sense because it is fast and easy to install with no wires and no electricity costs. Its safe, simple and there are many fixture designs to choose from.

Outdoor solar lights are now available with the the same range of features as mains powered lights. This includes security lights with motion sensors.

The only exception is for high powered, spotlight lapplications, where the power drain is too great on the batteries. Hence, these lights will need to be mains connected.

This guide on how to install landscape lighting assumes you will be using low voltage landscape lighting, as this is simple and safe for home installation.

There are two main aspects to consider when you are planning outdoor lighting:

A) The aesthetics of the lighting - what you are going to light, what types of landscape lights, what the lighting is designed to highlight

B) The practical issues - how many lighting fixtures you’ll need, where they will be sited, what the total wattage of the installation will be, what wattage transformers you’ll need, where the transformers will be sited, where the cables will run

Planning Steps:

1. Using a Bird’s-Eye-View, sketch your home and grounds, including features such as deck, fence, shrubs, trees, etc. in scale. Ideally use a large piece of graph paper where each block on the paper represents dimension proportional to the size of your property e.g. 4′ x 4′, 10′ x 10′ (the scale depends on the size of your property).

2. Choose the aspects of your property that you want to landscape lighting to highlight. These could be an attractive tree, interesting aspect of your home, a garden feature etc. We suggest you limit the highlights to no more than two for an average-sized property.

3. The other lighting fixtures should be used as background or safety lighting e.g. path lights, step lighting or as lower key accents.

4. Choose the outdoor lighting fixtures e.g. accent/spot lights path lights for each location and mark them on the plan. A word of caution - the normal tendency is to over-light by installing too many fixtures.

5. You now need to calculate the total wattage of the planned lighting system by adding up the wattages of every light on your plan. We suggest that you divide the lighting into several areas, each with its own transformer. This gives you flexibility in upgrading/changing the lighting system and also usually reduces cable lengths, because you can site a transformer closer to each area.

6. When selecting transformers to meet the demands of the total wattage for each area, make sure you buy a transformer with more capacity needed, to cover changes and upgrades. A good rule of thumb is to choose a transformer 50% to 75% bigger than the total wattage of the lights.

7. Now use the plan to estimate how much cable you will need. For a system or lighting area that totals less than 200 watts, use 14-gauge cable. For a system/area over 200 watts, you need 12-gauge cable.

8. Select the control option your lights. The most popular choices are timers or a photo-sensor that turns on the lights automatically at dusk. Alternatively you can use a simple on/off switch.

Installation:

9. Select the location for the transformer(s). When using an outdoor receptacle, hang the transformer at least 12″ above the ground. Attach cable and adjust the timer or photo control (this will need to set to account for local artificial light levels).

10. Lay out the light fixtures at locations according to the plan (use the graph paper to check distances/locations are correct).

11. Run the low voltage power cable above ground to each fixture. The cable can be left above the surface, but is preferable to covered it with mulch or bury it underground.

12. Once you are happy with the cable runs, make a trench (this only needs to be 3 to 6 inches deep) for the low voltage cable. On a lawn, use a spade to slice through the sod.  In mulch make a trough to run the cable.

13. With the low voltage power turned on, attach each fixture to the cable. This way you can observe when the light illuminates that the power is reaching the fixture. Popular lighting systems use fixtures with a special connector that makes a connection to the main cable simply be squeezing the two halves of the connector together on the cable. .

14. Press the fixture stake into the ground until the post rests at ground level. Use a visual check to ensure the fixture is upright.

15. Before you finish the installation and bury the cable, we suggest you turn on the transformer at night so you can see you are happy with the lighting effect. If you are using a photo-sensor that turns the power on at dusk, you may need to adjust it for the ambient light levels.