Lighting paths and steps properly

This is the first thing I look at when designing a lighting system.  Safety is and should always be the first concern.  The question is, how do we do it in order to bring attention to the path or change in elevation, or steps without being distracted by the source of light?
I find that too many people use fixtures that cause a lot of glare (this is when you see the source of the light).  This is the most common fixture used.
This fixture is real good at shining light in your eyes and not so good at actually lighting your path or steps.
Another thing that is used far too often is the “step” light fixture.  There are two types of these fixtures that are used often.  One has a louvered face which does eliminate the glare issue but at the same time, cuts the photometric (spread of light) of the fixture down to practically nothing, not actually lighting the steps very much at all.  The other option is the flat glass face which is an extreme glare producer.
             
Another issue with these fixtures is corrosion of the box that contains the light source itself.  These boxes are installed in concrete or mortar, do corrode and then have to be replaced which is a major undertaking and can be very expensive.
So now that we know what NOT to use, let’s look at some good options.  First we have a regular path/spread light fixture that covers the light source and allows the illumination to shine down onto the object in question whether it be steps or pathway.  This fixtures casts a very wide photometric and can illuminate a very large area.  This allows you to also use less fixtures. 
Another good choice is a fixture that can be mounted on a wall and shines down onto the steps.  Since this is a surface mounted fixture, corrosion is not an issue.  It also allows you to illuminate more than one step per fixture while not shining light in your eyes.

Every project is different and may require a completely different lighting technique so don’t use this information as a hard rule.  What you should notice is that we are shining light down and not out.  The main thing is that you think about the situation and plan your lighting accordingly, making certain that you are not shining the light into the eyes of those who are moving up the steps or along the walkway.

Why Professional Holiday Lighting?

Now that November is upon us, and the promise of cooler weather is right around the corner, our holiday bells – the telephones – are ringing with folks on the line asking to schedule their holiday lighting installation. Actually, the phone started ringing in August! What is it about our holiday lighting services that would cause our clients to start calling before the end of summer to be sure they get on our schedule in November?

The most obvious answer is the limited time available for this seasonal service. Most folks love to be able to flip the switch on Thanksgiving to signal the start of the Christmas season with all their holiday lighting in place ready for the big opening “ta-daa” after their turkey dinner. This is a great way to kick off the holiday season in your neighborhood, but few people want their lights actually installed before Halloween. In anticipation of a very short three-week window, our regular clients know to get their dibs in early!

Aside from the time constraints, the joy of having someone else handle all that untangling, ladder-climbing and extension cord plugging is a great convenience! Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to sit back and watch our professional crew show up and take care of all that exterior lighting for you? When our team leaves your home, you will be proud of how your home looks for the holidays. Then, after the New Year has been properly rung in, we return to the home to take down all the lights and carefully store them at our facility until next year. No sweat, no stress, and no boxes for you to trip over or haul to your attic or garage. What could be easier than that?

Many homeowners appreciate the custom nature of our seasonal lighting. Strings of lights are cut to fit your roofline eliminating sags and blank spots where connections used to be placed. Prefer a unique color scheme to help your home stand out in the neighborhood? We can do that! And the energy efficient LED products that use 90% less energy than the traditional incandescent lighting of the past can save you a bundle on your seasonal electric bill. These lighting strings also allow us to put the whole system on one controller, automatically turning on and off when you want. No tripping circuit breakers, and no more running around the house plugging in or unplugging extension cords from wall sockets in the cold and dark.

We can also punch up your outdoor project with bows, lighted garland, yard motifs or lawn art to create a complete holiday wonderland!

One last note for the homeowner looking to REALLY jazz up the holidays – the really cool homes with the fancy lights that flash to music? We can do that too!

Happy holidays from all of us at NightScenes! And remember that using a professional holiday lighting company can truly take the stress out of the days ahead making them even more merry and bright!

Timing Is Everything

One of the most common problems that we find on landscape lighting systems is the use of cut-rate mechanical timers to control the on/off operation of the lighting system. Even though we see this issue everyday, there are several good reasons why a cheap timer is a bad idea on a good lighting system.
First – and most critical – is that these timers are usually designed to be used indoors only. Moisture, insects, dirt and other elements of outdoor use cause these timers to malfunction regularly. Another reason to avoid sub-standard timers is their inability to handle power outages. These timers must have electricity at all times or they will lose time and programming. You’ll notice the system not turning on until well past dark, or staying on during the day when this happens. Also, a manual timer will not automatically adjust for seasonal changes in light and darkness. It’s not fun having to constantly adjust the timer to keep up with the daily time of sunset or Daylight Saving Time.

Controlling a high quality lighting system should be almost effortless for the property owner. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, and we use a lot of them - but we never use mechanical timers. One of our favorites to use is an astronomical timer. This timer is set to operate according to your actual location, using your longitude and latitude settings. This allows the system to operate only from dusk to a specified time or dawn, and automatically adjusts each day. This is far better than a photo cell since it’s not affected by shade, clouds or debris on the lens. The timing system works completely automatically, even for Daylight Saving Time, so there’s no need to make any manual adjustments. Additionally, the astronomical timer has a battery back-up eliminating failure even if the power goes out (the timer, not the lighting). Another control device, universal powerline bus/radio frequency, allows us to operate the landscape lighting and the home’s exterior lighting together as a unified system. The program will permit us to dim the home’s exterior lighting to the same levels as the landscape lighting, creating a lovely, uniform lighting scheme across the project, operating from dusk to any selected off time. This UPB/RF system is programmed and then managed from almost anywhere in the world using an IPhone, IPad or IPod Touch as a remote controller.
The main point here is that we want the operation of the lighting system to be as effective and efficient as possible. We don’t want lights to be on when not needed, and we don’t want anyone to be forced to constantly deal with the inconvenience of making adjustments all the time. These professional control devices may cost a little more than a big-box mechanical timer, but will easily pay for themselves by reducing energy waste turning the lighting system on unnecessarily. The effectiveness of a quality timer also ensures that your lighting system will work when you want it to without wasting your time with the inconvenience of manual adjustments.
Like they say, timing is everything and we like to help everyone save time and money.

How to spend too much money

We have been lighting entries to developments in central Texas for several years now.  We have always used low voltage lighting in our designs and wouldn’t even consider the use of high voltage lighting.  We also would never even think about using old technology like mercury vapor lighting.
I am still seeing mercury vapor lighting being installed at residences and developments in the area.  I really don’t know how these installation companies are doing this since mercury vapor lighting has been outlawed in the U.S. for a few years now.  We can no longer get the ballasts for these lights (through legal means) and lamps are getting harder and harder to find.  They’re also getting to be very expensive.
 What really bothers me is that the ones paying for this lighting now are not only paying a lot for the system, they are also going to pay more every month in energy use.  They’ll end up spending even more later to maintain the system as lamps go out and then, if a ballast goes bad, how are they going to replace that?  They’ll end up having to trash the whole thing and start over.
Why not design and install an energy efficient LED system that will use a lot less energy and be pretty much maintenance free for many years?  Why not look out for the best interest of the client?
Others in my industry ask me things like “why are you installing LED?  What about your maintenance end of the business?”  I tell them that if I look out for my clients they will send me far more business than what I could generate in maintenance anyway.  It also makes us feel better about the projects that we do, knowing that we are doing what is best for our clients and the environment.
Some of our friends in Florida made this video about the installation of LED lighting at a development that explains a little about how much money this place will save every year by installing LED lighting instead of other energy hog types of lighting.

If your development already has lighting that is costing a fortune to maintain, maybe it’s time to look at upgrading it to LED.  This can be fairly easy to do (for us) since we do it all the time.  We can even utilize a lot of the wiring that is probably already in place.
Don’t spend too much for lighting.  You may save a few dollars up front when installing other types of lighting, but you’ll spend a LOT more as the years go by.