Posts Tagged ‘garden lighting’

Solar Garden Lighting Has Many Benefits

Posted in Garden on August 17th, 2010 by Jim – Comments Off

You can take advantage of the free energy the sun provides by installing some solar garden lighting in your yard. With a little planning you can ensure you have enough light for your needs with minimal expense. There are many different types of lights to choose from and if you choose ones that run on solar energy you will enjoy the many benefits of this alternate energy source.

Walk around your home at night to see where you could use some additional lighting. If you plan ahead you can make sure the darker parts of your property are well lit without going over your allocated budget. Use a digital camera to help you work out where to best put the lights you choose. By choosing the right type of lights for each area around your home you can have the lights you need while keeping your costs down.

There are many different styles of lights and you will be able to find something to suit each of the areas around your home where you want to add lights. For your patio or deck you can use spot lights, lanterns or in-deck lights. You can put lights into or on the side of steps to make them safer and more visible. You can add a motion sensor security light to your entrances for some added security for your home. Garden stake lights are great in and around gardens and paths for some wonderful ambient light. You will find whatever you need for your garden lighting design.

Free energy from the sun is something you should be taking advantage of and solar garden lighting is a good way to start using this alternative energy source. The lights use the energy from the sun instead of electricity, so there is no ongoing power costs for you. No electricity means no cables or wires, which makes installation so simple, in most cases just push a stake into the ground in a position where the solar panel will be exposed to a lot of sun. Free, clean, renewable energy is a great way to enhance your landscaping.

Add some solar lights around your home and enjoy the benefits of environmentally friendly solar energy.

A Few Things To Consider When Designing Your Garden Lighting

Posted in Lighting on May 21st, 2010 by Jim – Comments Off

Patio lights have come a long way from the drab “one lightbulb in a fishbowl” look they used to have. As the market for patio lights has developed, new styles and varieties of lights have been brought to market by manufacturers. And since homeowners, who are looking to improve the looks of their backyards, will be extremely picky in what they decide to buy and install in their backyard. The result of finicky homeowners and new styles, means that patio lights have become one of the very things that you will want to buy.

Why Focus On Patio Lights?

The primary use for patio lights is to illuminate an area of your backyard that you want to light up at night. This allows you to use your patio on a warm summer night. Perhaps you want to wind down with a frosty beverage? What better way to do this than to sit on your chaise lounge and let a slight breeze caress you as you sit in the light that your patio lights are shining. These types of outdoor lights are the very types of lights that you will not want to overlook when building out your backyard as social destination. The side benefit of adding these lights to your backyard is that they will improve the security of your home and the safety of you and your guests.

Other Things To Consider

With the many different varieties of garden lighting to consider, you can be assured that your sense of style can be serviced by the patio light of your choice. The best thing about these lights is that they are typically inexpensive and therefore you would not need to invest a large amount of your landscaping budget towards buying them.

By focusing on lighting your patio with many different styles of lighting, you will help yourself relax when you get home while improving the safety and security of your home and family.

Easy and Safe Garden Lighting

Posted in Garden on May 18th, 2010 by Jim – Comments Off

If you’re planning to spruce up your garden, then you’ve probably thought about your garden lights. With all the possible choices for your garden lighting, you’re wondering which one would be easy to work with and not too expensive. The answer to this is low voltage garden lights.
Low voltage garden lighting has many advantages over the other garden lighting options available. First, it is relatively inexpensive compared to other lights. The lights themselves are cheaper, but they are also easy to install. After all, sometimes the light installation alone can cost a fortune, so if you’re planning to light your garden, you may be worried about just how much these professionals will charge just to set up the lights around your home. Also, if you install them yourself, you have the freedom to position the lights where you choose, giving you complete control of how your illuminated garden will look.
As mentioned earlier, these lights’ greatest advantage is the fact that they’re easy to install. Running on 12-volt current, the lights only have to be connected to a 120-volt circuit with the use of a transform. They don’t even have to buried in the ground, so you can always change your lighting scheme if you ever get tired of it. Just be sure you have electrical outlets nearby your garden, because these types of lights run on electricity.
Another good thing about low voltage lights is that they are safe, so you don’t have to be afraid of changing the lights yourself, as this voltage would not kill you if you were to make a mistake. You can even work on connecting the lights with the lights on—that’s just how safe the low voltage lights are. They are also energy-efficient, so you won’t have to worry about your electric bill too much.
The only thing about low voltage garden lighting that you might want to be aware of is that it’s not as bright as other lights, such as 120-volt spotlights. But you don’t really need so much light flooding your garden—just enough to see where you’re walking and to accentuate particular parts of it. In fact, gardens work well with low light lights when you know where to set them up to make your garden look attractive.
There are many kinds of low voltage lights available for your garden so be sure to shop around and choose the ones that best suit your needs. These lights are safe and easy to install so now there’s no reason not to illuminate your outdoor living space.

Do I Need Multiple Transformers for My Landscape Lighting?

Posted in Garden on April 30th, 2010 by Jim – Comments Off

Low voltage landscape lighting is a snap to install, but only after you’ve already laid out the entire system.  The tricky part of the installation is figuring out the wattage of the lights that you plan on installing and figuring out if you need one or more transformers or powerpacks.  Here are some tips to help you find out if you just need one or more than one transformer.

The first thing that you need to do is figure out the wattage of your entire lighting system.  To do this, add up the watts of every light fixture that you plan on installing.  You should try to find a transformer that has a capacity of seventy to one hundred percent of the total watts of your system.

If your system has an incredibly high wattage, you have two options.  First, you could opt for installing LED lights instead of incandescent ones.  These use less power and would allow you to place more lights on a cable.  The other option that you have is to split the lighting system up and run two separate cables instead of just one.  Many times this will be your best bet.

You may also need to install more than one transformer if you have to run a long cable to a set of lights.  As you lengthen a power cable, it loses some power along the way.  Unfortunately, with low voltage cables even a small reduction in power will mean that the lights at the end of the cable will appear a little dimmer than the ones at the beginning.  If you’re just doing outdoor deck lighting, this won’t be a problem, but if you have a large garden, you may run into problems.  You can eliminate this by placing a second transformer closer to the lights.  Unfortunately, this also means that you need a grounded socket close to this area, which may not be available in every home.

For more tips and hints on installing your landscape lighting, visit the Garden Lights Guru.