Outdoor Lighting for Illuminating Landscapes

Author: Neil Runswick

When it comes to illuminating landscapes, outdoor lighting is essential. Your choice of outdoor lighting is more than just an extension of your exterior design. Outdoor lighting is a significant factor in ensuring that your home is safe, brightly lit, and secure. To begin with, you should consider choosing outdoor lighting that provides ample security. Floodlights are highly recommended, as this type of outdoor lighting will provide the light needed for clear and easy visibility. You can attach floodlights to exterior walls and angle them in a variety of different directions. You can point them towards patios, walkways, garden areas, or anywhere you feel you need a clear line of sight.

In addition to floodlights, you should also consider adding lights to your front porch area, perimeter of your yard, driveway, and any walkways that you have. Post lights are a wonderful addition to any landscape and are a very popular outdoor lighting choice. They look magnificent and come in a wide variety of decorative styles and designs. These lights are designed to withstand the elements and are perfect for adorning your front porch or to be placed on either side of your front door.

Late night visitors will appreciate the time you took to place outdoor lighting alongside driveways and walkways. These may be low powered lights that are staked into the ground, or lights such as bollards that are crafted from various decorative materials and provide plenty of illumination. When choosing outdoor lighting, there are so many styles and materials to choose from that you can easily select lighting that complements and enhances your exterior décor.

One area in particular that requires the adornment of outdoor lighting is the garden area. You might want to consider adding a spotlight to the back of your garden. This will illuminate the entire area and ensure that those who come to visit will enjoy the full beauty of your late night garden. You can also use outdoor lighting to create special effects in your garden as well. If you have a particular plant that you would like to showcase, you might want to install floodlights and direct them towards your garden or particular focal point. Additionally, you can also add spotlights to highlight certain plants, or other objects that you would like showcased. When thinking about the garden area, you’ll find that using imaginative lighting techniques can enhance your outdoor environment and turn your garden from a plain backyard to a beautifully lit oasis.

A great advantage to outdoor lighting is that you can always add more. This is true if you are having a party. Adding decorative lighting to a porch, patio, or swimming pool deck area for the duration of a party is a great way to ensure that your guests have a wonderful time, are safe, and have easy visibility to make sure that their entertainment is unhindered.

No matter what your outdoor landscape consists of, you can make certain that your home’s exterior décor has the lighting that it needs to allow visitors the ability to move freely and comfortably, while also adding dramatic effects by using light and shadows interactively. By experimenting with the elements of outdoor lighting, you can rest assured that your home’s exterior will not only be illuminated, but also magnificent.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/outdoor-lighting-for-illuminating-landscapes-453404.html

About the Author

Lights For Us offers a wide range of outdoor lights. The company has many different styles of lights available, ideal for brightening up your garden, patio and decking area. Visit the website for inspiration!

Lighting For Landscapes is a post from: Popular Garden and Landscape

Using Landscape Lighting is Easy with These Five Techniques

Author: Carey Dodson

There are alot of great ideas out there on landscape lighting. The most important thing to accomplish is to achieve safety for both you and your guests. Secondly, to enhance the beauty of your home. Here are five ways to do both:

1. Deck and Patios

Decks and patios are designed to be places for entertainment but without the proper lighting they can be very hazardous, especially if you have any elevation changes at all like steps, planters or seating. Landscape lights can be added to a deck or patio very easily to illuminate these elevation changes and make it a pleasant place to be for outdoor living. There are several options available like the recessed lights that fit flush into the deck itself. They are also very durable and can even be stepped on with out shattering. Another option for deck lighting can be to have lamps on the deck. Deck lamps come in many different shapes and sizes and can be a beautiful addition to your deck. With proper planning they can be part of the design and add an architectural element to your deck or patio. Another option to consider is adding post cap lights to your deck. They can add ambience as well as some added detail to your deck design.

2. Water Features and Fountain Lighting

Landscape lighting can enhance water features such as fountains with incredible effects. A fountain can glow and a small pond can be transformed from below the water surface with LED lighting. You want to be sure and choose the correct lighting for your situation though; it will make all of difference in terms of how your water feature will be perceived. The most common choice for fountain lighting is the submersible light. These lights are placed underwater and illuminate upwards to create a shimmering effect. They also help to illuminate streams of water as they flow in to the basin of the fountain. Colored filters can be added for creativity. LED landscape lighting is a good choice for fountains because is much less expensive than traditional incandescent lighting and they come in many vivid colors as well. Solar lighting is by far the cheapest and easiest to install and is becoming a popular choice for many because of this. However, you may not get enough light for your particular setting with solar landscape lighting, although technology is getting better. Choosing the correct lighting techniques for your fountain will take a little planning on your part. You will want to experiment with a flashlight at night to see exactly the locations that will best serve you for your fountain lighting project.

3. Walkway Lighting

Walkway lighting is crucial because it adds safety as well as accentuates the materials used on your path as well as surrounding plantings. The most common application these days is solar lighting. You can add solar lighting to your walkways in as little as 2 hours and for less than 0. Lighting kits usually come a number of lights, wiring and your power source.

4. Tree Lighting

Tree lighting usually involves up lighting and/or down lighting. Up lighting can accomplished with lighting fixtures that is mounted at the tree's base or around the drip line and aimed up towards the trunk and branches. This is a great technique when you have specimen trees with interesting branching patterns, for example the Live Oaks. Solar lighting may not be the best option here as it may not provide enough light to accomplish the effect. Down lighting is another option for tree lighting. Mounting lights in large trees on established branches and then aiming the lights downward to highlight bedding areas.

Moonlight Globes would be another creative option. This is a fairly new product but they have won awards for there shatter resistant design. The globes are available in four sizes: 10?, 14?, 22? and 30? diameter and are also available in half globes. The globes are also available in many different colors and designs that can really add some creativity and life to your landscape. They can be hung from tree branches, can be battery operated or hard wired and also contain speakers for added ambience.

5. Wall Lighting

Wall lighting can be done in several ways. One technique is "grazing". Grazing is accomplished by installing a light approximately 6" from the edge of your wall or facade and aiming it vertically up the wall. The textures of your house, fences or retaining walls will be highlighted and accentuated using this technique. Another way to light a wall is by using spot lighting. Spot lighting can be done by either up or down lighting. A creative way to use spot lighting is by up lighting a tree or any ornamental structure, for example a statue, by shadowing it. Shadowing is accomplished by positioning a light behind the object and aiming the light through it towards a wall. Silhouetting an object is another example of up lighting a wall using spot lights. You will want to locate your landscape light in between your ornamental peice and the wall, then position the light to shine on the wall at a 30 to 45 degree angle. The result is that the dark image your object is in front of it; only the shape of the object is shown, no leaf or flower color or texture shows up.

Here are five super easy techniques for lighting up your landscape. The key to having good results is a little planning before beginning your project and a little creativity.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/using-landscape-lighting-is-easy-with-these-five-techniques-1404523.html

About the Author

Ready to find out more about LED landscape lighting and solar landscape lighting? Come visit The Landscape Lighting Site for more great landscape lighting ideas!

Landscape Lighting is a post from: Popular Garden and Landscape

Now the question is: what do you mean by the term, proper lighting? Here are four main points to consider:

• The light should adequately illuminate the place, so that your guests can sit or move around comfortably. This is the functional side of your landscape lighting scheme.
• On the aesthetic side, the lighting should be such that it rightly accentuates the beauty of the landscape.
• More importantly, the lighting should be power efficient.
• The wireless lighting offers a fuss-free way of installation, and that make them more suitable for outdoor use.  

Solar powered landscape lighting is one that helps you meet with all these criteria in one.

• Solar powered landscape lights offer you the most energy efficient solution. They are virtually free, as they need nothing but clean energy from the sun to run.
• With solar powered landscape lighting, you are not only cut benefit on the personal plain by saving on energy bills, at the same time you are making valuable contribution in conserving precious environmental resources.
• It may sound unbelievable, but you will need as little as twenty seconds to install a solar powered light in your outdoor space. Spare fifteen minutes more and you are done with the task of illuminating the entire outdoor space for enjoyment after sundown.
• With no wiring required, solar powered landscape lighting can be installed even by an inexperienced homeowner. Your task almost ends with locating the proper place of installation of light; after that all you need to do is just plant them in the ground, without needing any cumbersome wiring.
• In case you need some alteration with your original scheme, it is easy to just pick the lighting fixtures up and replace them.
• You don’t have to compromise on the aesthetic side too; these solar powered lights are available in variety of styles starting from decorative lanterns to accent lights.

What makes a basic solar light?

• In a solar powered landscape light, the source of illumination is an LED lamp that is expected to withstand 10,000 hours of usage.
• The solar panels are made of photo cells that charge up the battery from solar power.  
• The solar panels need to receive enough sunlight during the day, so that you can get illumination throughout the evening. The rechargeable batteries provide about 8 hours of light at a stretch.
• These lights come with built-in light sensors that work for automatic turning on and off of the lamp.  

Ideas for creative use of solar powered landscape lights

You have worked hard to give the desired shape to create your dream landscape; now is the time of finishing touch. Add the final polish with a stylish lighting scheme.

• First locate the places in your garden that requires lighting and use different types of lights for different areas.
• If you happen to have a pond in your plot, use floating lantern style lamps for an unusual look.
• In the sitting areas or in the places where foods are served, place the table top solar powered lanterns.
• It is equally important to lit up driveways and pathways; use pole lamps or pedestal style lanterns here.  Pole lamps are also ideal for illuminating the patios and decks.
• The solar powered accent lights are also available to decorate the rock sculptures or other architectural attractions in the garden.
• Use footlights in the corners of edging and fences for a dramatic ambience. For the same effect, you can hide the source of light behind the bushes to bring about a silhouetted view. 

In the end here are some useful facts about solar powered landscape light that may help in your selection.

• Solar lights come both with ornamented outdoor fixtures, and without them. Select the type according to your plan of using them.
• Your local garden store can be a great source of solar powered landscape lighting options. If you want to spark off the imagination a little more, surf the internet; the online stores are the ideal place for finding out the products that you are looking for.

Solar Powered Landscape Lighting: The First Step to a Perfect Summer Evening is a post from: Popular Garden and Landscape