PAR Well Lights

There are many different types of fixtures and lamps and they all have different primary applications. 

There are so many lighting projects out there that have nothing but PAR well lights which are being used to illuminate a house, trees and everything else.  These projects were probably installed by an irrigation or landscape company that installs lighting as an “add on” item for a little extra profit.  Not to say that there aren’t landscape or irrigation companies that can and do install quality lighting systems and take the task seriously.  While this lighting looks better than no lighting at all, it doesn’t look like it should, if it were designed using the proper fixtures, lamps and lenses for the many tasks.

A little history about the ever popular PAR well light.  The PAR lamp was originally designed to be a head light for tractors and cars back in the 40s or so and have changed very little since.  Really the only change is that the lamp is now available as a halogen lamp.  As for the fixture itself, it is a piece of 6” PVC pipe with a lamp holder and that’s about it.  The wire attaches directly to the lamp on the back side.

We have very rarely used PAR well lights for several reasons.  First is that it is very old lighting technology and is not very versatile.  There are however filters and lenses that can be used to change things up a little.  Another issue is that this fixture should NOT be used in flower beds that have leaves and mulch.  These lights can get very hot and have been known to catch flower beds on fire.  One more issue is that this fixture does not protect the lamp at all, allowing water and other things to contact the lamp which can cause all kinds of problems.  Here in the south you will find these fixtures completely engulfed with ants trying to stay warm.  Where we have used these fixtures is in turf areas.  In these cases we use a cast brass grate over the fixture to cover and protect the lamp.  When installing this type of fixture we are sure to add about 4” of pea gravel at the bottom of the fixture for drainage and we also use an insect repellent in the fixture to help keep the ants and other bugs away. 

Regular maintenance is crucial for PAR well lights.  If you have this type of fixture on your property you should check them often for debris, water build up and insects.  If you find standing water in the fixture, pull the fixture out, dig the hole about 4”-6” deeper and add pea gravel which will help drainage.  You can clean the lamp with just about any household cleanser with something to cut through lime and calcium which will build up on the lamp.

When replacing the lamp in these fixtures DO NOT use the plastic lamps that you will find at the local big box store.  Instead, go to a lighting store, irrigation supply store or auto parts store and get a quality lamp.  You’ll want to treat the screw terminals of the lamp with an anti seize compound which will protect them if they do get wet. 

Illuminating Education

I mentioned earlier that I had gone to Cleveland, Ohio for the Kichler 101 hands on lighting class.  Well what have I done since then to further my education in lighting?  Here is a brief synopsis. 

The next course I took was put on by Unique Lighting.  They are a landscape lighting manufacturer out of San Diego, California.  The class was actually located in Austin and so Jr. and I both went to this one day class.  It was also somewhat of a hands on class in that the morning was spent learning about their equipment and the afternoon was spent setting up a lighting demonstration at a residence.  I would say that the class taught me more about marketing what I do than how to do it.  Jr. and I both felt like they tried to dumb down the whole design/installation process.

Next I was asked to go to Houston and help teach a class about lighting.  I asked my distributor to help me set it up with yet another lighting manufacturer.  This company was CAST lighting out of New Jersey.  This equipment is very heavy duty cast brass lighting which was needed in that coastal area of the country.  Here I was able to teach a company about lighting design and installation and was also able to learn a few things about another manufacturer and their products.

In 2007 I was invited to the first ever Unique Advanced lighting course in San Diego and so Jr. and I both thought it would be a good idea to go.  This course got into “trick” installation, which meant that we would find ways to put lights where we wouldn’t have thought to do it before.  We cut and core drilled concrete to put in fixtures.  We core drilled fire place mantles to put in fixtures.  We mounted fixtures in places that I had never even considered before.  This was a few days of very good design and installation training which really set NightScenes apart from our competition.

In 2008 I attended the world famous Janet Lennox Moyer Landscape Lighting Institute in Troy, New York.  This was a five day course in design, installation and documentation which was way over the top.  It was five 12 to 14 hour days that were just packed with information and work.  I was able to become acquainted with lighting equipment from just about every major lighting manufacturer in the world.  I was also able to utilize just about every type of lamp (light bulb) that is available. After this course I really started looking at every project differently.  I wanted every project to be special and look amazing.  Unfortunately, not every property or budget will allow for a lot of this information to be utilized.  I do however approach every project with the very best design in mind.

Finally I took a five step online course that was offered through Hadco Lighting.  This was pretty basic stuff geared toward the novice lighting guy, landscaper or irrigation person but was still pretty good.  I really didn’t learn anything new with this class but it did reinforce some basic information that I had let slip a little.

I am also taking the AOLP Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer course through the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals.  This is a four year lighting design course which is being put together by the AOLP and Janet Lennox Moyer.  This first of it’s kind certification course will probably become the industry standard by which all others will be compared.

I will continue to pursue any and all education possibilities as they become available both locally and nationally.  I know that even the most basic classes offer something to learn either by the instructors or by the other attendees.  The goal here is to never stop learning my craft.

Till next time.    

Getting Involved

I can’t believe that I let a whole month go by without an update to this blog.

OK, so let’s get down to it, shall we?  The next thing that I did was to get involved in the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals.  At the time I joined this organization it was called the Low Voltage Lighting Institute of the Americas.  It is a group of lighting contractors, distributors and manufacturers who truly want to see professionalism in the outdoor lighting business. 

The first time I went to an LVLIA conference in Scottsdale, AZ. I was dead set on just taking the certification exam and getting back home.  I really didn’t care that much about what else was going on during that week.  That was until I started meeting the other lighting professionals who were there.  Everyone was so pumped about lighting and taking their projects to the next level.  I was energized by everyone there and phoned my wife to get her thoughts on my staying for the conference (even though I had not packed for it).  She once again encouraged me to do as I thought best and therefore I stayed for the whole week and didn’t regret it for a second.

I didn’t pass my certification test that year but I went back the following year and passed it then.  My son Paul jr. who has worked with me for the past 5 years passed the test this year and now we can boast that we are the only lighting company in the state of Texas to have two AOLP certified technicians on staff.

Since I joined the association I have served on committees and am currently the vice president.  I have written several articles for the association’s online trade magazine and I am now starting to form a Texas chapter of the AOLP.  I think that if someone wants to be successful in their chosen profession, they have to get involved in all aspects of the industry and try to become the leading authority in their area.

I hope I am not being too dry and I pray that I am not coming across as braggadocios.  I just want everyone to know where I am coming from and where I have been as we get further into this blog.

Until next time, and I don’t mean a month from now.

Learning More

I decided that it would be a good idea to take a lighting class and I learned that Kichler Lighting was offering a course at their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.  I signed up, booked my flight and off I went.  That experience was great in that I learned about fixtures, Lamps (light bulbs) and design techniques. 

Our class participated in a full hands-on lighting installation that is pictured here.

We learned that dark leaves absorb light and therefore require much brighter light.  It can be seen in the red trees near the home.  They need a lot more light to bring them out in the landscape.  Another thing I learned here is that photography is VERY important.  I brought my little Cannon A-80 point and shoot with me on the trip but I forgot to bring a tripod.  I decided to set the camera on the roof of a pick-up truck to keep it steady.  The result is what appears to be a pond in the landscape instead of a roof of a truck.  This actually showed me a lighting technique called “mirror effect”.  This works great when lighting trees or structures around pools and ponds.

One more very important thing that I learned in Ohio is that little things learned are very big things.  I now find that no matter how simple a class is whether it be for beginners or experts, there is something to be learned by all.  I try to go to any class that I know of in hopes that I may pick up some small tidbit of knowledge. 

Next stop, another lighting project.  Thanks for coming along. 

 

Starting to roll

Not long after that first job I was introduced to someone with a lighting store.  This man could sell me the lighting equipment I needed and he also knew people who were in the market for landscape lighting.  He on the other hand had no idea about lighting himself.  He set up an appointment with a custom home builder who only built large luxury homes.  When I learned about the appointment I had a uniform shirt created for me so I could look the part.  If I was going to meet a connection like this, I knew that I had to make a good impression.  Until this point I was just wearing “work cloths”, jeans and a collared shirt.

Well, that meeting was a success which opened up several doors for large scale lighting projects in a very high end sub division just north of Austin, TX.  I’ll get into more of those projects at a later time.  The first home we accented in this neighborhood was pretty small but this was our second project (the photo).  As you can see, it was pretty impressive.  This is one of our best clients who has changed things up a few times since the original installation and we also take care of their Christmas lighting.  For Christmas, we outline their entire roofline (800’) with LED lights.  We are able to all of that plus a whole lot more on a single electrical outlet.  I’m getting a little ahead of myself though and I’ll cover holiday lighting later on as well.

If you haven’t visited our website yet, please do.  www.night-scenes.com  .

Till next time,

Getting to it!

After learning the basics it was time to get my feet wet and start doing some real lighting.  I contacted my previous electrical clients to let them know that I was providing a new service and would love to enhance their properties.  Since I had great relationships with my clients, it wasn’t long before I had projects to do.

My first real lighting job was located in Kingsland, on the Llano river arm of lake LBJ.  It was a small project with some down lights that I placed in a pecan tree, some path lights along a walkway that led to a storage shed and then a few up lights for some trees.  This was a great learning experience. 

I learned that I really needed a 30’ extension ladder if I were going to be installing lighting in trees.  This allowed for a softer light on the ground and more shadows from the limbs of the trees.  I also learned about glare and path light placement!!  I make a special point to let clients know what to look for in a good path light and I try to choose the fixture for my clients.  We do NOT want to use fixtures with glass lenses that allow viewing of the light source.  We also try to NOT place path lights in turf areas.  These lessons were huge and I’m very glad that I learned them early on.

On another note, as this blog continues I will be featuring some of our projects.  I’m sure that you will enjoy reading about some of the projects that we do and how we go about designing and installing them.  I’ll also include photos of these projects.  I’ll begin this with projects that we have already completed so check back often because your project may be the next one that we feature.

God bless.

The beginning part II

So to continue my little story, I spent a lot of time studying low voltage lighting and low voltage electrical theory. Although I was well educated in household electrical theory, low voltage was a whole new animal with much less room for error. This is why most electricians don't do so well in the field of low voltage lighting. I'll get into this in greater detail later.

I learned about all of the different ways to allow equal electrical distribution to each of the light fixtures. I'm sure that almost everyone has seen that home improvement lighting system with some lights that are quite bright and others that are very dim. This is due to poor electrical distribution and the reason I really wanted to make sure that I knew what I was getting into and how to "do it right".

I read many online forums, articles, books, and anything else I could find. I also ran several tests and tried several techniques to make certain that when I did start installing, my systems would be top notch, mechanically.

Next came choosing the fixtures that I would use. In my readings I learned that there were many lighting manufacturers. I had no idea but there are hundreds of landscape lighting manufacturers and they range from great to the stuff that is found at the box stores and yes, the box store stuff is nothing but a waste of money.

I contacted Hadco, FX, Kichler and a couple of others. Kichler was the only one that actually talked to me. They were very helpful to me is getting my website up and running, allowing me to use some photos since I didn't have any of my own yet. They also had a huge selection of quality products.

Currently I use Kichler, Vista, CAST, HK, Hunza, Hadco and many others, depending on the project and fixture required for a task.

More later.

The beginning

OK, so I'm starting this blog with no idea as to what I am doing. I guess I'll start with a quick introduction.

I won't bother with my name and such because those things are included in my profile. Instead I will focus on how I got into lighting.

I was a night club disc jockey for several years and needed something to supplement my income. I had a friend who was an electrician and a heating/ac guy and he offered me a part time job. This was great, I was able to make a little more money and learn a trade at the same time. I became very interested in becoming an electrician and learned the trade pretty quickly (I think). After a few years of working with my friend I gave up the DJ thing (a total of 20 years in that business) and focused solely on electrical work. A couple of years later my friend took me aside and told me that he could no longer keep me on but would use me as a sub contractor if I were to go it alone and that is where the fun began.

I went home from that meeting and told my wonderful bride that I was no longer employed and would be starting my own electrical contractor business. The birth of PRG Ventures was here!! We created business cards and told all of my friends that I was available for hire. This went pretty well for awhile but it became quite evident that there were too many electricians in my small town and no one could make a decent living. At about this same time, one of my clients asked me if I would please "do some lighting" in a small area of his yard where he and his wife liked to sit and enjoy a glass of wine in the evenings. I agreed to do the job although I had no idea as to what I should do. I looked at the area and had a few ideas so I went to the gettin' place and picked up some cheap lighting equipment and did the job. I went back that night, with my wife, daughter and mother in-law to see how it turned out and BOOM, I was hooked!! Although compared to the work we do today the job was "not good", it was great that night and it stirred an interest in me. I spent that weekend finding out everything I could regarding landscape lighting. I finally came out of my cave on Sunday evening telling my very supportive bride that I would be starting a landscape lighting company. Needless to say, she was not very enthusiastic about the idea but she was, as always, supportive.

Thus was born, NightScapes!! I joined the Low voltage Lighting Association of the Americas, went to Cleveland, Ohio to attend a lighting class offered by Kichler Lighting and put together a website and we were on our way.

I will get into more of this later on but I wanted to at least get started on this blog and thought that I may as well start with a little history.