Outdoor Landscape Lighting

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Outdoor Landscape Lighting

Outdoor landscape lighting is a simple improvement that can make a huge difference in the safety and security of your home as well as how it looks after dusk. Outdoor Landscape Lighting is usually installed along walkways, steps, and driveways, pointing up at trees, walls, and fences. The typical outdoor low-voltage landscape lighting system requires just three components: a transformer, low-voltage electrical cable, and the fixtures. Outdoor landscape lighting is easy to install even if you've never done any electrical wiring.

Unlike the landscape lighting of old, today’s outdoor lighting fixtures come in a wide range of shapes and colors. As long as you have a nearby outlet, you’ll be able to give your home and yard a welcoming glow when the sun goes down.

A Story On Outdoor Landscape Lighting

Eric didn't skimp on lighting when he landscaped his Los Angeles home.
Home and garden shows on television have boosted the popularity of landscape lighting.

The stone steps to his pool and spa are lit, palm trees are illuminated, and the sunken fireplace area gives off an inviting glow at night. Above his lattice-covered, horseshoe-shaped barbecue and bar, Eric placed task lighting and soft lighting for form and function.

Outdoor landscape lighting uses low-voltage light fixtures linked by a low-voltage cable and connected to a low-voltage transformer, which plugs into an outdoor receptacle and reduces the standard 110-volt current to 12 volts.

It's easy to do at home with a hardware store kit, though experts in the field say you get what you pay for. Cheaply made fixtures will need to be replaced much sooner than rugged and well-made systems.

Attention to landscape lighting has been boosted by the proliferation of home and garden shows on television, many of which focus on minimal lighting options that dramatically improve the exterior look of a home, Eric says.

The trend started about a decade ago when the economy was booming and opulent houses became commonplace. The lighting market responded with a plethora of new products, including lighted fountains, pineapple-shaped path lights, even one in the shape of a lizard.

LED is ideal for lights that shine down from the tops of trees, called moonlights, because homeowners won't have to worry about getting up on a ladder to replace the bulbs, he said.

The trick to landscape lighting is to disguise up-lights and spots behind plants, leaving only the more decorative path lighting in view. There should be no glare and the bulb should never be visible, said Steven Parrott, spokesman for CAST Lighting, a manufacturer of high-end professional systems.

"Landscape lighting is really an art in the sense that you're creating a lighting design," he said. "You are revealing the natural beauty of the landscape and of the architecture."