Outdoor landscape lighting
Using outdoor landscape lighting can be a great way to enhance the look and the mood of your landscape design,
and these lights are usually energy efficient enough that you don’t have to worry about your electricity bills going up because you are
using them. Most are low voltage and low light, so that you may not expect to be able to sit down outside and read a book by this kind of
light, or to be able to play sports with this kind of light on a dark night, but they might be bright enough to accent the shape of your
pathways, to show off your favorite plants and bushes, or to accent the beauty of a waterfall or statue in your yard. For that kind of
reason, they are popular and many kinds of lights are available at most nursery supply houses or home improvement centers, where they can
help you chose the ones that are going to work the best for you and your specific applications and requirements.
When using outdoor landscape lighting you are dealing with electricity and so that means you might need to
employ a trained electrician to help you install them. You might need to have an extra junction box or curcuit installed, you might need
underground wiring, and you might want to have an electrician to help you determine what kinds of lights at what voltage you need for your
landscape. You can also find light sets that are geared for the do it yourself landscape electrician, and most of these are so simple to
work that all you need is an outdoor electrical plug, and you can hook them right up by plugging them in. Others have loose wires that need
to be attached to the wiring of your house with some skill, and then there are others that do not use any electricity.
Some outdoor landscape lighting is derived from torches for instance, mounted on poles. Tiki lamps are great,
especially if you like the dramatic look of fire to light the way in your yard. The advantage of some of these is that you can burn
citronella oil or other products to repel insects who are attracted to the light itself and may come out and “bug” you while you are trying
to enjoy the outside.
|