Outdoor lighting is crucial to enjoying your outdoor living space after dark. Whether it is spotlighting a centerpiece or keeping a guest from walking into the pool, lighting makes it possible to enjoy your landscape late into the night. While we have discussed outdoor lighting 101 in the past, technology is constantly improving. Read on for the latest in outdoor lighting innovations.
Recessed Lighting
Hidden lighting fixtures under caps of walls can accentuate these features in your landscape without unsightly wires and fixtures. Lighting just appears after dark. Using these lights can add depth and texture to your landscape especially when the wall is made with natural stone.
Smart Lighting
Smart lighting isn’t new, but technology continues to improve in this area. You can do more with your lighting from your smart phone instead of having to change things at a control box. This allows you to easily vary the lighting depending on the weather, what you are doing outside, and what parts of your landscape you want to accent that day. You can use Wi Fi or Bluetooth technology to do this. Wi Fi costs a bit more but reaches farther. Some systems can set scenes for special events and others can control each light individually.
Lowering Your Carbon Footprint
LED lights continue to improve. They convert 95 percent of their energy into light, as opposed to 5 percent with other bulbs. As LED technology improves, LED lights are using less of toxic substances like mercury, making them even more environmentally friendly. You can know get LED lights in a variety of colors, too, making them fun as well as functional.
Simulating Moonlight
Moonlight is cool and inviting. New lights can simulate that light in your landscape. Lights are mounted at least twenty feet in the air. Lights mounted in trees can be made to shine down through the branches like dappled moonlight. To really simulate moonlight effectively, you will need glare guards. Sometimes a blue lens can also give the moonlight effect.
Higher End Visible Fixtures
Light fixtures should, generally speaking, not call attention to themselves. However, there are some light fixtures in plain sight that are hard to ignore. Spend the extra money to get high end light fixtures for porch lights, lamp posts, and path lights and other obvious fixtures.
Lighting From Below
Under lighting is softer and can provide visual interest as well as light. Lights along the underside of your outdoor kitchen counters can allow you to see what you are doing while adding visual appeal. Underlighting benches and stone walls can add visual interest as well.
Using Task Lighting Differently
Outdoor kitchens have employed task lighting for years. The new trend is to use task lighting throughout the outdoor landscape, not just in the kitchen. You can add bright lights to a basketball or tennis court to improve safety. Ambient light in the dining room or a warm glow that is bright enough to read by are additional ideas.
Lighting Water From Within
At Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping, we have been using lights inside water features for years. More and more people are discovering the special visual appeal of doing this. Lights from within water features can add an otherworldly appeal to improve any water feature.
Dark Sky Friendly Lighting
As much as we want to light up our outdoor living spaces, light pollution can block the stars and cause other problems. Wildlife can be confused by bright lights during the night and lose their way while migrating. Baby turtles who hatch on beaches with lots of lights can’t find the ocean. For both these reasons, many cities are passing laws about how much light can be used at night. Lights need guards to direct the lights and make sure the light does not escape the outdoor living area.
String Lighting
String lighting, also called fairy lights or café lights, are strung together and hung in trees, over patios, and along the edges of outdoor rooms. They add light but also add a bit of whimsy to the landscape. Some of these lights are strung permanently, but some are put out just for special occasions.
We Can Help
At Royal Creations Architectual Landscaping, we can help you stay on top of lighting trends for your outdoor living spaces. We will be happy to discuss innovative ways to brighten your landscape with you. Just schedule a consultation to go over new ways to light your outdoor living space.
Lighting is an important part of your landscape. The right lighting can improve the appearance and usability of your yard, while poor lighting can leave it dark and unsafe. Get all the enjoyment out of your landscape possible with the right lighting.
Functions Of Outdoor Lighting
There are many functions outdoor lighting serves. Here are the most important ones.
Safety
Outdoor lighting is necessary to keep your guests from stumbling into your water features or tripping over other parts of your landscape. In addition, landscapes and houses that are well-lit at night are generally shunned by thieves. They go where the lighting is poor and they can hide in the shadows.
Usability Of Your Landscape
Without lighting, much of your landscape becomes unusable in the dark. A well-designed lighting system makes the landscape usable all night long. This gives you hours of extra time to enjoy the landscape and entertain friends and family.
Beauty
A well-designed lighting system can point out features such as stonework, trees, water features, paths, seating areas, and more. Lighting allows you to show off your landscape at night as well as during the day.
The Right Lighting
We use only low voltage lights in our landscape lighting systems. High voltage systems can have more risk. These risks include chances of shock, fires, and other problems. Here are some other advantages of low voltage lights.
Easier To Install
The wires for low voltage lights do not have to be buried as deeply and do not require a conduit or a ground wire. This saves you money and causes less damage to the landscape during installation.
LED Fixtures
Older incandescent bulbs use between 10-50 watts. Newer LEDs use from 2-15 watts. In addition to saving energy, LEDs last much longer than incandescent bulbs.
Color Temperature
You are not stuck with a single white light to spotlight your landscape. You can change the warmth of a light, too. Warmth is expressed on the Kelvin scale. The Kelvin scale runs from 1,000 – 10,000. It was designed to tell what color a piece of metal got at a certain temperature. Lightbulbs are designed to look like the colors the metal goes through as it heats. Some lights can be dimmed and can even change colors. You can use Bluetooth technology to change the way the lights look throughout the day or for a special occasion. Here is an example of how lights look at different points on the Kelvin scale.
Types Of Lights
There are different types of lights that are used in landscape lighting to accomplish different goals. Here are the most important.
Spotlights
These shine upward to light up trees, sculptures, houses, and signs. These are usually placed in front of the object. Sometimes they intentionally cast a silhouette onto a wall or other large object behind the object being featured.
Down Lights
The best way to light up a path or sitting area with minimal lights is to place the lights in trees or on the house. If lighting a sitting area, the lights need to be soft and subtle.
Path Lights
Lighting up paths for safety, these lights are on posts beside the path. Over time, kids, pets, and weather can cause them to lean. Regular maintenance can take care of that and keep the path lit safely and attractively.
Underwater Lights
These make water features glow from within. They also make sure someone doesn’t step wrong and fall in the pool or other water feature.
Under Cap Lights
These are the small lights that fit on seating walls, steps, and other hardscape features that highlight the steps and stone. They help make steps and other potentially dangerous areas safe at night.
Get Long-lasting, Attractive Lights
As with all things, there are various price points in LED lights. Many are inexpensive at first but quickly become more expensive as they do not last long. Instead of cheap aluminum, using bronze lights with heavy-duty construction costs a little more upfront. However, they last much longer and look much nicer. These lights come with a wide range of finishes and color options.
Trust The Experts
Landscape lighting helps the landscape look nice during the day or night. Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping can work with you to design and install lighting that highlights the landscape and keeps you and your guests safe. We have expert electricians and installation experts on our Blue Crew. Contact Royal Creations Architectural Landscaping to schedule your lighting consultation today.
