Simple Lighting Maintenance Idea – Add Some Lens Covers

When we think of outdoor lights, we generally think of fixtures that are relatively resistant to sun, weather and the other outdoor elements. Indeed most are relatively resistant. But, there are a couple of things that an outdoor fixture can’t resist – falling leaves and fire ants.

We all know fire ants are pests – especially when they build a nest in a high traffic area around our home. But, sometimes they can be bigger pests when they build nests around low traffic areas – right  inside the outdoor lighting fixture near the house or in a tree bed.

Fire ants will actually crawl up inside the lighting fixture with nesting materials such as dirt and make their nest inside the fixture. At best, this can cause the fixture to short out. In the worst case scenario, this can cause a fire. Either way, it’s an expensive proposition when $25 could have avoided that and avoided other problems as well.

Purchasing lens covers for your well lights will not only keep out insects, ants, and insect nests, but they will also keep out leaves, debris, brush, snow and other things that could fall in the fixture.  They are made of tempered glass which maintains the white light of the bulb and you can install them yourself, or we can install them for you.

If you have a lighting system from another source and are experiencing maintenance issues like this, call us at (512) 247-1815.  We do service existing systems.

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives installed well light near a tree

One is halogen. One is LED. Can you tell which is which?

Which outdoor lighting is right for you, LED or low-voltage halogen? In short, either can work and make your home look beautiful with the right outdoor lighting design. At Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, we work with our clients and their budgets needs and goals to recommend the best fixtures for your property. Both have their pros and cons, but both have the ability to highlight all the best parts of your property.

What the image above shows is that when done right, and with the right fixtures, LED and halogen lights can create the same desired effect. You’ll notice the color of both bulbs is very similar, and that’s because of the quality. High quality low voltage and LED lighting will both have a color rendering index, or CRI of over 80, which is what’s needed for outdoor lighting applications. Make sure you check your fixtures CRI as older technologies, LED specifically, may produce a substandard light.

Energy efficiency is important when choosing an outdoor lighting fixture. For residential lighting, LED takes the cake on being the more energy-efficient and longer lasting than halogen cutting down on maintenance costs as well. Even on properties where we primarily use halogen lights, we will recommend LED outdoor fixtures for those in hard to reach areas like up in trees or on the peaks of the home. The reason? To cut down on maintenance and the cost to repair it if something goes wrong. With LED you can install it and forget about it (for a while at least).

Where halogen fixtures come out on top is the initial price. Halogen’s initial price is reasonable where the LED’s can be rather expensive depending on what you need.

If you have questions on different types of outdoor lighting technologies or what would work best on your property, contact our office at 512-247-1815.

Georgetown’s Washington Harbour Lights Up on the Potomac

Posted by JaneGWalker on February 1st, 2012 @ 9:02 PM

If you’ve never visited Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, you’re missing out. It’s beautiful and has something for everyone to enjoy: great restaurants, eclectic shops, delicious bakeries, gorgeous parks and more. In the Georgetown area you can find the Washington Harbour, which provides luxury condos, offices, shops and restaurants along the Potomac River. On a nice day residents and visitors alike can watch boats pass on the river and enjoy views of the Kennedy Center and Watergate.

The Washington Harbour’s new induction lighting compared to compact florescent

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives recently started working with the Washington Harbour on retrofitting their architectural and security lighting. When the weather is nice, the Washington Harbour hosts a number of outdoor events and needed better outdoor lighting to improve the atmosphere and security at night.

To cut down on the Harbour’s energy and maintenance costs, induction lighting is being used on the project’s retrofit of existing fixtures. Induction lighting isn’t as well known as LED lighting, but it is even more energy efficient and makes more sense for a lot of commercial applications like parking lots and garages, street lighting, etc. For the Washington Harbour, induction lighting reduces their overall energy consumption and is cutting down on their maintenance costs because induction bulbs last for up to 22 years! Check out some of the other benefits of commercial induction lighting compared to other technologies on our outdoor lighting comparison chart.

Induction Lighting gives a brighter white light than CFL and LED

Although saving money and energy alone is a great reason to consider retrofitting existing commercial fixtures, it doesn’t mean that we have to compromise on the aesthetics of the project. In the image to the right, you can see the white light of induction lighting in comparison to the orange/yellow light of a depreciated CFL bulb. The white light improved the light quality of the Harbour’s buildings because it’s brighter than CFL, but it also gave them a consistent color output throughout the harbour. The color of CFL and LED bulbs may shift and change over time, whereas induction will remain steady from fixture to fixture.

Induction lighting and its’ reliable white light and longevity increases safety in areas like the Washington Harbour. The light is more pleasing the eye, allowing people to more clearly see where they are walking, biking, etc.

We are really excited about the Induction lighting project at the Washington Harbour because of all the benefits it provides for residents and visitors to the area. If you need help in planning, designing and installing a commercial lighting project, or just have more questions on what is best for you, please visit our commercial outdoor lighting website or call us at 800-447-1112.

LED technology arrives for outdoor lighting

A lot of homeowners are trying to be more environmentally friendly today.  Buying energy-efficient light bulbs for inside the house, using energy-efficient appliances, and conserving water, are some of the ways we are all trying to conserve energy.  The movement has now moved outdoors and our customers are now able to save up to 80% in energy by switching the light bulbs in their outdoor lighting fixtures with our new LED light bulb.

While LED outdoor lighting fixtures grows in popularity for their energy efficiency, there hasn’t been an option for homeowners who already had lights installed in their yard without replacing the entire fixture.  Until now.

The Outdoor Lighting Perspectives Par 36 LED bulb is making it easy for homeowners by simply changing out a bulb in an existing fixture assembly without any replacement of the fixture itself.  Once installed, this LED bulb has a rated life of 50,000 hours or 19 years if you have them on for 7 hours a day.  There is no socket that can fail and tests show that the bulb could be submerged in one meter of water for thirty minutes and still work.  And most importantly, the color is a warm white that will highlight all the best characteristics of your home and landscape.

We are pleased to offer this option to our customers to make their outdoor lighting systems more energy-efficient by cutting down their energy consumption up to 80%.  If you would like more information on retrofitting your current outdoor lighting system please contact our Austin office.

Does Outdoor Landscape Lighting increase home value?

I’ve been asked several times recently if outdoor landscape lighting increases the resale value of a property.  I decided to do some investigation to determine if there is a clear answer to this question.

The simple answer is yes it does, but only if lighting is part of a comprehensive landscaping plan that goes beyond planting a few bushes, to include structural features like lighting, fences, garden paths, fire pits, swimming pools, and ponds.  Outdoor rooms, terraces, and decks are also high-yield structural investments.  The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recommends that homeowners invest 10 percent of the home’s value in total landscaping.

A good place to start might be a landscape architect as they generally look at key areas of enhancement. A patio, a deck, a front walk, complementary plantings in the front yard, and exterior lighting are all desirable features with today’s buyers.

When most people think of lighting the outside of their homes, they usually just consider safety and security. Important considerations, however, lighting can be incorporated into an overall landscape plan that also adds to the overall beauty of your property. The lighting of steps, paths and walkways will make the grounds of your property safer; the lighting of the home façade, trees, and outdoor living spaces will add significantly to the aesthetics and make the home more inviting.  And there is the obvious benefit of added security by eliminating dark areas of the yard.

If you drive through your neighborhood at night, the home that will stand out the most is the one that has properly designed outdoor landscape lighting. You can’t really see the other landscaping features at night, but look how the lighting makes that house stands out on its own.  Now ask yourself – do prospective buyers do this before purchasing?  In today’s market, you bet.

The consensus is that a properly landscaped yard does in fact increase the value of a home somewhere between 15% and 20%.  Just like investing in a kitchen remodel and expecting a certain return, a total landscape remodel that includes a well designed and implemented outdoor lighting plan, is well worth the investment when it comes time to sell that home.

New LED par bulbs

LED PAR36 bulb -

We recently returned from the Outdoor Lighting Perspectives annual conference.  Certainly, the biggest news on the technology front was the introduction of a new LED PAR36 bulb.

Some of the features of this bulb:

• 6watt (over 80% reduction in power consumption)
• 3000 degrees Kelvin (warm white)
• 50,000 hour rating (compared to 5,000 for halogen)
• 5 year warranty

The light quality?  Side by side against a new halogen bulb, the light output (temperature) is so close that it’s hard to tell one from the other.  This light is also an easy retrofit in existing fixtures using PAR36 halogen bulbs.  Benefits:  the energy efficiencies saves electricity and super long burn rate lowers maintenance costs.  Typical payback on an LED conversion is less than 2 years.

LED bulbs replacing the MR16 bulb is also available now and an LED retrofit bulb for path lights will be coming in April, 2012.

Clearly, LED technology has finally arrived for Outdoor Lighting Perspectives.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays with your friends and family.  As we head into the new year, it’s always been a time for optimism for us and certainly some of the recent economic indicators have been positive to fuel that optimism.  Since we still call ourselves the “new” owners of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Austin, we are especially optimistic about what the new year may bring for us.

One of our early goals for the new year is to be especially active publishing articles and updates on different lighting topics.  Whether it be new technologies, going green, or changing legislation, we hope you find our articles useful.  In that respect, we will be doing a lot more exclusive offers on Facebook for different seasonal promotions and discounts off some of our services.  We encourage you to become a fan of our site by clicking the Facebook “LIke” icon below or visiting our facebook page at facebook/OutdoorLightsAustin.com and then watch the feed for new offers from your friends at Outdoor Lighting Perspectives.

A simple closing by wishing a Happy New Year to all.

Uplighting or downlighting?

Tree lighting Austin

When you’re doing garden lighting, landscape lighting, or even architectural lighting, one of the things you’ll have to decide is whether to do uplighting or downlighting. Hopefully you’re working with a lighting designer that can make the best recommendations for you. With outdoor lighting, likely they will suggest mostly uplighting but there are also some areas with your landscape where downlighting makes a lot of sense.

Uplighting serves a more practical purpose. When lighting your home, you want the illumination to come from ground up. From a practical standpoint, with uplighting, the light more fully illuminates the area where you walk and live. Also, the amount of light will be greater at the lightsource then at the distant point that is illuminated from that fixture. So, naturally, with architectural lighting, you want the light source to be closer to the base of the house or structure than at the roofline.

Palm tree lighting Austin

Hearing the word uplighting might conjure up images of bright blinding spotlights impeding your vision. But, with professional outdoor architectural lighting, this is not the case at all. The outdoor lighting fixture we use to light your house will most often be a well light. The well lights are usually placed in landscaping and the shape of the fixture directs the light toward your home and away from your eyes.

With landscape lighting, downlighting often makes the most sense for aesthetic and other reasons. With low plant garden lighting, downlighting will illuminate the most beautiful part of the plant which is often the top of the plant. Also, landscaping often “lives” in an area where uplighting might get in the eyes of the beholder. For lighting low plants and paths, we usually use our copper path light.

So, you want the light source close to the most important part of the area being illuminated. You don’t want the light shining in your eyes at any time. And you never want a spotlight effect. Good outdoor lighting should have a natural effect. It should make the item look similar to how it looks during the day.

What color are icicles?

With the temperature in Austin dancing around the freezing point, I remember as a child asking my mother what color icicles were? Some times they looked white. Some times they looked a little blue or a little green or a little red. I remember a moment on a very cold day when we opened the door from our house that was buzzing with the sound of the heat running and watched amazed as frost in the shape of intricate ice fans quickly cascaded across the glass door. As they did, I told my mother the color of each ice formation. Not wanting to squelch my enthusiasm, my mother didn’t mention to me that the ice was merely reflecting the colors around it.

stones color rendering index

Now that I design with light, I often have the opportunity to discuss the color of light with my customers. We often talk about the Color Rendering Index or CRI. As defined by Wikipedia, the Color Rendering Index is the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. So, think about looking at a white marble wall during the day. What colors would you see? In addition to white, you would likely see sparkles of silver and shades of gray. If you looked at a wooden fence during the day, you would see the apparent color of the fence but you would also see subtle color variations related to the primary color.

Color of wood color rendering index CRI

Now envision looking at that same white marble or brown wooden fence at night. We might expect that the white marble would appear gray and the dark brown wood of the fence would look dark gray or nearly black. That is a function of the color rendering index. The ability of the light source to represent the color as it would with a natural light source such as the light of day depends on the quality of the artificial light source which is the light bulb.

Color of trees - color rendering index CRI

Often when we go on lighting demonstrations and the homeowner has existing outdoor lighting that they know they want to replace, we talk about and show them things like the yellow of the light they are using. The goal of good outdoor lighting should be to faithfully render the color of the item as it would look during the day or with a natural light source. Look at the pictures you see here. If you look at the picture of this tree, you can see the true green of the leaves that you would expect to see during the day. You can also see various other shades of green. This light (our light) has a very high CRI because it faithfully renders the colors you would see in natural light.

Another thing you want to look for with outdoor lighting is the ability to see nuances such as flat patterns and depth. Can you see the knots in the wood? Can you see the subtle elevations of a stamped concrete?

Michael Wynn, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives

The quartz halogen bulbs we use with our outdoor lighting has a tremendously high CRI. Take a look at your outdoor lighting if you have some. Examine the colors of the items that are being illuminated. Are they gray? Are they yellow? Do they render faithfully?

Michael

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives

Should black Friday have you seeing Red?

Light up your Christmas trees

Actually black Friday has nearly everyone seeing red but maybe not the red you’re thinking about. Black Friday is the day that nearly everyone starts thinking about all the things that need to be done for the holidays. While a lot of those things have to do with small details like wrapping paper and picking up the serving utensils you realized you didn’t have at thanksgiving, a lot of big details come to mind also.

Thanksgiving is a really good day to remind you of all the things you need for your home. You might have realized that you’re just short of having enough seating for your whole family when they visit. Or you might have realized how difficult it was for your family to park along your long driveway at night when you realize how many of your shrubs were collateral damage of the dark spots along your driveway. Or you might have realized how you needed better lighting out your side door because a couple more elderly family members had trouble tripping on the step on their way in.

In short, this is a really good time to think about outdoor lighting for your home. Outdoor lighting includes all of the following:

• driveway lighting
• path lighting
• door lighting
• security lighting
• lighting timers
• garden lighting
• deck lighting
• home lighting

Take a look at these pictures below to see the difference with outdoor lighting.

house without outdoor lighting

Now take a look at this same house after adding outdoor lighting.

house after adding outdoor lighting

It would be so much nicer to have your guests and family drive up to your house after adding outdoor lighting. Not to mention, it greatly enhances their security and the security of your home. An intruder is going to be much less likely to target a well-lit house.

Believe it or not, there’s still time to get holiday lighting installed before Christmas. Just give us a ring now.
(512) 247 – 1815. We look forward to talking to you.