Outdoor Lighting Lamps » Landscape Lighting

Japanese Landscaping: Add Serenity with a Garden Pagoda

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:37:30 +0000

Over the years Japanese landscaping has become quite popular in the western world. A Japanese garden has to radiate serenity and peace and the biggest mistake people make is that they add to many items to their garden, ruining this balance. It is difficult to know where to start if you want to create yourself a oriental themed landscape. It is important to consider that you have to buy the right items for your garden but you also have to know how to place them in order to create that balance. You should never use straight lines and angles but instead use curves because curves are the lines found in nature. Adding the right items to your garden is the most important thing to begin with and a garden pagoda will be a good start.

If you have ever visited Japan, China, Thailand or some other oriental countries than you probably noticed the large stone towers rising above the city. These towers are pagoda's and they are both a religious and spiritual building and almost every important village/city has at least one of them. A garden pagoda will protect you against evil spirits and it will also bring good luck to inhabitants of that village. Because the tower is so large in comparison to the rest of the village it was soon used to place fire candles inside them to became a beacon for travelers and inhabitants. It was also a custom to make a pagoda for your own garden in order to protect your family and bring good fortune to it. Because of their importance and because of their looks they have become an important asset for every Japanese garden.

An authentic Japanese garden pagoda is made out of cement because this was a cheap material to use. The problem with cement is that it does not react well on rain and other weather conditions like wind and that is why they tend to break after 1 or 2 years. For this reason they are also available in more durable materials like copper, stone and granite. These more durable designs tend to be more expensive than cheaper cement designs but they will last longer.

You can find Garden Pagodas in all shapes, styles and sizes and some don't even resemble a real authentic Japanese garden pagoda but rather a more modern version of it. The key of design is to add the right items to your garden and not to overdo it. If you have a small garden than you should settle for a small pagoda and not buy a very large one just because you like them more. If you have a bigger garden than having a small pagoda might not be noticed because there are so many other elements in your garden. A pagoda garden statue will need some space around it, it should be the tallest element within it's direct surrounding. Adding some smaller elements is a great way to showcase it's height more and make it more noticeable. You can place it next to a small pond or waterfall or put some small rocks aside to it in the grass.

Line Voltage Landscape Lighting

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:34:46 +0000

Line voltage landscape lighting is typically used for commercial, security and public use, as opposed to low voltage landscape lighting that you would buy for your garden. Line voltage lighting requires an electrician for installation and is therefore more expensive.

There are a number of issues to consider before making the decision to install line voltage landscape lighting. The lighting cable must be buried at least 18 inches underground as well as being placed in conduit and have a sealed junction box at connection points. The types of fixtures used for line voltage lighting are large. Because of this, there are fewer fixture options available. There are also not as many lighting options to choose from. Connections must be made waterproof or there can be a serious risk of electric shock hazard.

This type of lighting is ideal for illuminating large areas. The number of fixtures needed will be considerably less than with low voltage outdoor lighting, but the light output is typically very bright. With the right installation, it can feel like the middle of the day even at midnight.

Whether this type of lighting will be suitable for your needs very much depends on what type of area you require lighting for. If, for example, you were looking for a lighting solution for your garden and patio, then low voltage landscape lighting would be more than sufficient. It has the advantage of not requiring the services of an electrician and is fairly cheap to install. There are also fewer safety issues because the risk of electric shock is vastly reduced. Another factor to consider is the far greater variety of different designs available for you to choose from.

However, if you require more powerful lighting, it might be the case that line voltage lighting is the preferable choice. For commercial premises it offers the ideal solution for those looking for extra security at night. It is also ideal for those premises where outdoor working is a necessity, for example a warehouse type environment. By planning the position of the fixtures carefully, you can make sure every area is covered. For commercial premises located in areas where security is a real issue, this is a definite bonus.

Other possible applications include sporting venues. Football pitches are a great example of an area requiring extensive illumination at nighttime. Equestrian ménages also use this type of lighting. Many people spend large amounts of money building a ménage for either personal or commercial use. By installing line voltage lighting around the perimeter, the facilities can still be used once the light has faded. This is absolutely essential for commercial equestrian premises where riding lessons are frequently held during the evening.

Another possible application for line voltage landscape lighting is for artistic up lighting. It has great merit for spotlighting features of particular architectural note. For example, most large cathedrals and buildings worthy of public attention are always lit up at night by powerful lighting. Many beautiful buildings of historical and cultural value during the day are transformed into a work of art at night, using light. When colored lights are used, the effect can often be particularly stunning. Imagine the Coliseum in Rome if there were no lights at night—it would be a great loss to the public.

This type of artistic up lighting is also used to great effect in landscape architecture. Large canopies of trees can look spectacular when illuminated by line voltage lighting. Historic properties often use landscape lighting to great effect.

However, these are just a few examples of the different applications for low voltage landscape lighting—there are many others.

Garden Spotlights

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:06:28 +0000

A spotlight is frequently used as a way to accent a certain area in your garden or on your patio. You can either use a bright garden spotlight which is bright and illuminate a large area, or smaller spotlights which will only illuminate a small area. You can use them on your driveway in order to increase safety around your house and you can use them in your landscape to create dramatic settings and views. You can either go for low voltage spotlights or decide to go for a greener way of lighting and use solar garden spotlights instead.

Solar or low voltage garden spotlights?

The main choice you have to make for all outdoor lighting fixtures is the one where you have to choose between low voltage lighting and solar powered lighting. A few years ago solar spotlights could not compete with the quality of voltage spotlights but nowadays thanks to the LED technology and high efficient solar collectors, solar garden spotlights are a very good alternative.

If you compare these two options than the main benefit of using solar powered spotlights is the installation. You don't have to work with wires and the installation is a piece of cake. Low voltage lighting requires knowledge about how to work with electricity and many people are not able to install these lights themselves and instead call a professional.

Another advantage of using solar lights is the fact that they are cheaper to maintain and lower your electricity bill. Another important fact is that they are much better for our environment too. These are the two main reasons why many home owners choose for solar instead of using low voltage lighting.

But solar will not always give you what you want. Areas with a lot of shades or even no sun at all have problems charging the batteries of the spotlights. If the batteries are not charged properly they tend to lower their about when the batteries are drained. Instead of illuminating an area for the entire night, you will notice the intensity of the lights diminishing over night. This might not be a problem if you do not plan to use the lights all night long, but if you do than you have to be sure that they receive enough sunlight.

You can partly resolve this problem by choosing for solar garden spotlights with separate solar collectors. Using these allows you to place the spotlights in to the shade as long as you place the solar collector faced directly to the sun.

LED Technology

If you consider to buy a garden spotlight than you should make sure to buy one using LED lights. LED lights are very efficient and use much less electricity (or solar energy) to produce the same amount of light. The amount of light emitted will be dependent on the amount of LED lights that are installed in the spotlight. If you want to use them to illuminate a small area than you want a spotlight that uses 2-5 LED lights. This will be suited for driveway lights or accent lights. If you want to use them as security lights than you should look for a spotlight that contains more LED lights. Most security spotlights contain 10 to 20 LED lights and some even have 80 LED lights. Again, the bigger the area you want to illuminate, the more LED lights you want.

If you want to use it as a security light than your best interest would be to buy them with a motion detector. Using a motion detector will only activate the light when it detects motion. This will prevent the light from burning the entire night which will drain the batteries and cause sleepless nights for you and your neighbors. It will also alarm you when someone is coming because the lights will attend you on planned and unplanned visits.

Garden Spotlights

Spotlights intended for your garden will not require more than 2 or 3 LED lights and you can use for them different landscape decorating ideas. You can install them in your lawn, near a pond or as a mean to accentuate a tree, statue or fountain. Be sure to use solar garden spotlights when you can place them directly faced to the sun and low voltage lighting when there is not enough sun to charge the batteries.

Solar Rock Lights

Mon, 24 May 2010 10:03:56 +0000

Basically you can use outdoor lighting in 2 different ways. You can use it to increase visibility with lanterns, sconces and spotlights, but you can also decide to add accent lighting to your garden or patio. People use accent lighting because they want their patio or garden to be a cozy and beautiful place to enjoy when they are sitting outside enjoying the weather. One way of using accent lighting in your garden is by placing a few solar rock lights. These are look-a-like rocks with an integrated solar panel and LED light in to the rock. When it gets dark these garden rock lights will automatically start to illuminate which creates a nice effect.

A rock solar light is very easy to use because you can place them everywhere at your home exterior as long as the integrated solar panel is faced to the sun. Because the rock has accent lighting it will not need a large solar collector or much sun in order to charge the batteries. This means that they will work in almost every setting as long as there is a little bit sunlight.

You can use place solar rock lights at different areas. A great location to place them is near or in a pond. Light and water are an excellent combination and will surely increase the aesthetics of your pond. Especially if you place some plants near or in your pond it will become a pretty sight.

You can always place them in small corners on your patio or on different settings near a bush, in the grass or near a tree. Just be careful with too much shades covering your rock solar light.

Solar LED Rock Light
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Homebrite Polyresin Garden Landscape Solar Rock Spot Light 30838, Large, Gray
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How do they work?

A rock light is almost never made out of real rock because that is almost impossible to fabricate. Often it is made out of a strong plastic called resin or polyresin. This material resembles how a real rock feels and looks like and it is much easier to fabricate LED lights in them. The advantage of working with resin is also that the rock will not get too heavy. You want to experiment where to place your lights and if they are too heavy, replacing them is not a lot of fun.

Inside the resin are placed a few LED lights, mostly 2 or three. Together they will create a soft glowing light which is enough to accentuate a small area like a pond or bush. Because they are only using 2 or 3 LED lights you will not need a large solar collector to charge their batteries. Instead there is a small integrated collector on top of the rock.

Because they are made out or resin you can easily select the color you want. Most solar rock lights are grey, brown, black or dark grey. You can probably also get them more colorful but the question would be if you really want that in your garden.

Landscape Tree Lighting: What are your Options?

Fri, 21 May 2010 19:02:20 +0000

We all like to decorate out home and our home exterior because those are the places we spend most of our time. Decorating our home starts with nice furniture, floor, wall decoration and lighting. If you want to decorate your home exterior than the best way to do this is accentuating certain areas. Especially if you have a larger garden with tree lights in it than it might be a great idea to use landscape tree lighting in order to decorate your property.

We use outdoor lighting in 2 different ways, to increase visibility and security of a certain area like your walkway or driveway, and for aesthetic decorating purposes. It is important to understand this difference because you will use different materials and different lighting techniques when you want to make good use of your landscape lighting. Lighting your landscape has the main purpose to stand out certain areas in your garden, but not to increase visibility but aesthetics.

How to use lights in your trees?

When you are planning to install outdoor lighting on your landscape it is important to first read about some landscape lighting tips. There are some things to keep in mind like where to aim the light at, difference between solar light and low voltage lighting and a few basic other things. There are different ways how you can use lights with your trees. You can use spotlights to accentuate your trees which will often create a dramatic look, you can hang string lights in your tree or you can install lights in your tree which is aimed at another area (downlighting). We will review all methods and give some examples on how you can make it look.

Upward lighting (Spotlights)

If we are going to use upward landscape tree lighting than we want to create a certain dramatic look in our garden. Although real designers don't like this way of lighting, it is still a very popular way to use lighting on your trees. A spotlight is placed on the ground near the tree and aimed upward to the tree. Important considerations are to solely aim the spotlight at the tree and to hide the source of the light. An important landscape lighting tip is that you should never see the source of the lights you are using, only the results.

This picture above is a very good example how you should place your lights and it also shows what results you can expect. The spotlights that are used are only aimed at the trees and not on bushes or other trees around them (except for the other spotlights that are used). Although this kind of lighting will look much better on bigger trees, it still looks great.

String Lights

Using string lights can go both ways, either it will be a horrible sight or it will look very nice. How your landscape will look is highly dependent on what kind of lighting you are going to use. I strongly advice not to use bright colored leds but soft glowing white leds instead. You don't want to create a circus in your landscape and using different kind of colors is a great way achieve what you don't want.

You can both use solar string lights and low voltage string lights but probably the best option is to go for the solar string lights. Especially if you have a large garden than it might become quite a problem to connect all the string lights to your electricity network and you will not face this problem with solar lights. Solar lighting is indeed less bright, but this is not a real problem when you are decorating your landscape because here it is all about improving aesthetics.

On the pictures here on the left you can get some great ideas how you can use string lights for your landscape.

Downward landscape Tree Lighting

As stated, downward lighting is when we aim our spotlight down instead of up. If you have some trees near some areas that deserve extra attention than you might install a small spotlight in the tree and aim it at that spot. Think of statues, fountains or maybe some really nice looking flowers which you can accentuate with downward lighting. Using this technique is very difficult so you might try some different ways and see which you like best.

Good luck decorating!

Landscape Lighting Tips

Sun, 16 May 2010 08:53:41 +0000

We want to lit our landscape in a way that it looks astonishing, artful and unique bit most times we fail doing this and we create unwillingly something that resembles a typical state penitentiary instead of a beautiful looking landscape. Most people who consider decorating their landscape with outdoor lighting don't know exactly where to start and they might need some basic landscape lighting tips to get them started. This article will explain what you should do and what you should not do in order to create the landscape lighting resutls want.

Tip 1

Don't use too much lighting fixtures when you are planning to illuminate your landscape. Somehow we always overdo things and instead of accentuating certain spots of our area we are flooding our entire landscape with light which does not create a nice effect. Think about what you exactly want and start with a few lighting fixtures and go up from there.

Tip 2

What a lot of people but also manufacturers are doing wrong is that they don't hide the source of light. A well lit landscape should never show the source of light but only the result of it. Seeing the lighting fixture will create glare lighting and this is not something we want. We don't want to accentuate the lighting fixtures itself, we want to accentuate our fountains, trees and ponds.

Tip 3

You have to think about it for a second, do you want to accentuate your landscape or do you want it to look like a a Portuguese restaurant flooded with fluorescent lamps? The secret to landscape lighting is that you should not use to much wattage. You want to use bulbs that use very low wattage like 7-13 watt and 20 watt at most. If you want to use 20 watt than you should have good reasons for doing that because you will already create flooding. Brights lights will only overwhelm your landscape and they will get a lot of attention. Again, you want to accentuate things and not putting them in to the spotlight.

Tip 4

Flooding an area with light is not a good thing. If we don't shroud our lighting fixtures than the light will not only be aimed to the spot we want to accentuate but also to the surrounding area creating flooding. We don't want to create flooding because than we are losing the whole aspect of accentuating our landscape.

Tip 5

We frequently use timers to set our landscape lighting on and off but this is not always the way to go. We want to enjoy our landscape lights but we are not enjoying it when it is 2 or 3 o clock in the night because we are a sleep. Turn your landscape lighting fixtures off when you are off to bed because you are only wasting money and natural resources if you let them lit the entire night.

Tip 6

If you are placing your outdoor lighting fixtures on your patio, garden or entire landscape than you want to take in mind that lighting attracts bugs, and lots of them. There are some things you can do in order to prevent or lesson the amount of bugs attracted to the lights that are closest to your patio.

1) Shine some light fixtures on leisure area's in your garden like flowers or bushes

2) Add a bug zapper in to your outdoor lighting plan.

These simple landscape lighting tips might help you to prevent bugs entering your patio.

Tip 6

You want to get some ideas on how to lit your landscape because you don't know up front how it will look. To get some ideas you can drive around at night in your area and look at some ideas of your neighbors. You can also visit some manufacturers and ask if they have some magazines that are full with designing tips on how to accentuate certain area's in your landscape. Another good idea is to go out with a flashlight and try some things out. Try to illuminate area's from different directions and see what you like and want to replicate. Although a flashlight is not comparable to lighting fixtures, it will give you a basic idea how it will look.

Tip 7

You should not only use accent lighting if you want to install your outdoor lighting fixtures. Also think about safety and try to lit area's that need it like your walkway, driveway or steps that are hidden in your garden. From there you should think about what further area's you want to accentuate.

Tip 8

There are different ways to illuminate your landscape:

*Downlighting: The lighting fixture is up and is aimed at the ground.
*Uplighting: The light is shining up and is frequently used to accentuate a tree or a bush.
*Backlighting: Here you are placing the fixture behind the object you want to accentuate, silhouetting the object.
*Spotlighting: Here you are drawing attention to a focal spot by shining light on that object
*Crosslighting: Using two fixtures aimed from 2 different directions can create really nice results.

Tip 9

Many people consider solar lighting for accentuating their landscape. However, the light that solar lamps emit is often not as bright as low voltage lighting and will therefore not be able to accentuate certain area's but only accentuate their own location. They are well suited for using on your patio, driveway or walkway to illuminate a path or area but they are not fitted to accentuate trees, bushes or fountains.

These are just some basic landscape lighting tips but I hope they will be of guidance when you are planning to install outdoor landscape lighting.

Sources and Related Websites

http://www.dannylipford.com/diy-home-improvement/design-and-decor/design-tips-for-landscape-lighting/

http://starrynightlights.com/blog/2007/03/07/landscape-lighting-tips/

http://www.landscapelightingshop.com/path-lighting/lightingtipsarticle.cfm

Hampton Bay Landscape Lighting

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:46:20 +0000

Upgrading your property with outdoor lighting has never been easier. With an abundance of landscape lighting to choose from, you can be sure that you are getting quality and durability when you purchase Hampton Bay Landscape Lighting. They offer a wide variety of styles to choose from, with different price ranges in mind as well, so no matter whether you're after the perfect light to accent your house, or if you're going to be economical and use solar powered light, Hampton Bay landscape lights are probably the best route to go.

Hampton Bay Wall Lantern

Some of the most popular outdoor lighting on the market today is solar lighting. This is because of the numerous advantages of solar lighting. With solar lights, the cells in your outdoor lights charge during the day. They do not even need much direct sunlight, but you cannot place them in complete shade for the entire day. Once the sun begins to set, sensors in these lights activate and turn them on, releasing the energy that they have stored over the day. These lights charge enough energy from the sun to burn long into the night, and the best part is that they are not using electricity, so you do not have to pay for power usage.

Solar lights tend to be a little bit more expensive than regular lighting, but it is well worth the investment if you want your home and landscaping to be lit up properly at night. If you do not care about being economical, or you are looking for a cheaper option, Hampton Bay landscape light that do not use solar power are available as well. These come in a wider variety of styles than their solar lights, which makes them the better choice for people who are looking for the perfect style to match their home.

Some of the most common styles for this type of lighting include brushed metal, from aluminum, brass, and copper looks. These lights come in small, medium, and large sizes, so no matter your needs, you will find the landscape light you need from the Hampton Bay Company. The best part is the warranty, which is included with all of their products. Hampton Bay stands behind their products 100%. If you buy outdoor lighting in a set and have a problem with any of the receptacles, you can contact the company and they will take care of you. Hampton Bay is the absolute best when it comes to outdoor lighting.