Stages to Gardens

Outdoor Lighting System Maintenance and Repair

Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

Prevention is better than a cure, and landscape lighting is no exception. If you have quality outdoor lighting, you’ll want to pair it with quality outdoor lighting maintenance and repair as well.

While there is no substitute for professional outdoor lighting maintenance and inspections, there are many things you can do to prevent landscape lighting problems from occurring.

Landscape Lighting Preventative Maintenance

  1. Plants and Trees

Too often, an outdoor fixture gets blocked or disrupted by plants and trees. Whenever you are planting new trees, shrubs, and plants around your property, make sure they are not too close to any of your lighting fixtures. What is now a small seedling could soon grow to block, obscure, or envelop any nearby light fixtures.

If you have a landscaper or gardener, make sure they know where all of the lights are located. Communicate to them that plants should not be planted in front of or too close to any fixtures. Wrong plant placement can easily enshroud a once-bright area in darkness.

Additionally, if you are removing any trees, double-check that there are no wires or fixtures mounted in the tree. If so, call you professional landscape lighting specialist to remove the lights and relocate them for you.

Remember, plants grow. Take this this into account whenever planting or gardening. Consider flagging or marking all of your fixtures whenever embarking on a large landscaping project.

  1. Mulch and Ground Covering

In addition to plants and trees, you also want to be careful where you put down mulch and other ground coverings. It can be incredibly easy to accidentally bury in-ground lights, such as well lights.

As we suggested earlier, it’s a good idea to flag or mark all of your outdoor lights whenever tackling any large landscaping project.

  1. Careful Garden and Yard Maintenance

It’s a good practice to remove weeds, snow, and leaves from your property, but you want to be extra careful around any outdoor lights. When mowing the lawn, weeding, shoveling snow, or raking leaves, pay attention to where your tool is going.

Hitting a cord or light with a shovel, weed whacker, or some other instrument can damage or break your light fixture.

While outdoor lights tend to be very durable, most are not built to withstand heavy or repeated impacts. If your lights keep getting damaged by regular garden and yard maintenance, speak with a professional about upgrading your lights to a tougher type.

  1. Signs of Moisture

Moisture and electricity do not go together. The job of your light fixture is to protect the bulb, socket, and wires from moisture. That’s why it’s important to be on the lookout for any signs of moisture infiltration.

Sometimes, you can see water droplets build up on the inside of a fixture. If you notice any signs of moisture inside or entering your fixtures, contact a professional as soon as you can. Halogen buld outdoor lights are particularly susceptible to moisture.  The longer, you wait, the worse the damage will be.

Make sure you contact a professional outdoor lighting technician at the first sign of moisture problems around any fixtures.

  1. Switch to LEDs

LEDs are safer, sturdier, and much longer lasting than any other light bulb type. One great way to avoid burnt-out bulbs and keep maintenance to a minimum is by replacing all of your lights with LEDs.

Compared with traditional incandescent lighting, LED lights use “at least 75% less energy, and last 25 times longer” (U.S. EPA).

Since LED lights cost more upfront and are more prone to moisture-related problems, consult a professional landscape lighting technician about watertight fixtures that can protect your LED lamps.

Annual Professional Maintenance

In addition to the landscape lighting prevention tips above, it’s important to schedule a professional outdoor lighting inspection every year. In addition to basic prevention, a qualified technician will also check the following:

  • GFCI and AFCI outlets and/or circuits
  • Light timers and motion sensors
  • Photocells
  • Terminal blocks
  • Line balances
  • Fixtures
  • Mineral deposits and other staining
  • Overgrown plants and vegetation
  • Wiring and connections
  • Burnt out, dimming, or flickering bulbs

If your landscape lighting needs professional maintenance or service, don’t hesitate to contact us. We service and maintain most outdoor landscape lighting systems even if we did not install them.During your annual visit, our team of lighting specialists will make sure everything is safe, clean, and up-to-code. Contact Lite Visions to schedule your landscape lighting consultation.

Fence and Accent Outdoor Lighting

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Sometimes lighting up something as simple as a fence or wall with the correct artistic outdoor lighting effects can add alot to your outdoor living in the evening hours. Here are a few examples. The right outdoor lighting, designed and installed correctly will be enjoyed for many years

Working with an outdoor lighting designer.

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As a lighting designer , I work with homeowners in and around the Raleigh NC area to determine how you enjoy your outdoor space, particular features or a structure that you would like to highlight with outdoor lighting. What you like most about your homes architecture, specific trees or plant you like. A walkway or path you would enjoy or use more if it was illuminated. A favorite pond or water feature. Features you love most in your outdoor kitchen or along your hardscaping that would look great with outdoor lighting.

Accent lighting,which is light gently grazing the surface of the stone, stucco, and brick will add depth and dimension your home’s architecture as well as showing the features. This home is a great example. Accent outdoor lighting such things as an arbor, fence a statue or structure and trees will give you a dramatic and attention-getting visual lighting effect, creating a lighting scene with a backdrop as well as mimicking moonlights natural effects.

Water feature lighting. Illuminating a water feature, pond or pool combines 2 effects, you might have some trees or plantings near the water that will look interesting with up lighting. You also get stunning mirrored images on the water’s surface, creating dreamlike effects rippling across the water’s surface.

Accent and illuminate a bridge over a water feature with outdoor lighting to highlight it’s features and create safety. . Path way outdoor lighting will create a sense of security along stone pathways and lawn walkways as well as adding a hint of intrigue to plant beds and boulders along the way.

Down lighting with lights placed up in trees shining thru the trees creates stunning shadows on the ground below mimicking moonlighting effects. . Patio and deck lighting will feature and accentuate all of the architecture, beauty and detail of your deck, patio, outdoor kitchen, hand railings, steps and more while creating safety. Hardscape outdoor lighting brings out your stone features along with your outdoor kitchen, retaining walls, steps and more.

Call us Today 919-518-9950 Lite Visions Outdoor Lighting and Landscape Lighting Professionals Raleigh NC

Why I love outdoor lighting

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Back in 2001 when I was on tour with the rock group 3 Doors Down,I was talking to a fellow passenger on a flight who happened to be a rep for an outdoor lighting company. We were talking about what we both did and after inviting him to see our upcoming concert at San Diego State University he invited me to visit and tour their factory.I did and met people who are still friends to this day. I thought I would be interested in outdoor lighting later on in life as a way to not tour 10 months of the year.

I love Outdoor lighting design due to the fact that no two jobs are ever alike.In one week I might go from lighting only a walkway into a home for safety purposes to lighting up a few specimen trees to creating a resort style look for a beautifully landscaped backyard area. LED lighting has made it possible to paint the landscape with many different looks.

From helping create a distinctive look for a business using colored lighting to helping design and install an outdoor tree adventure park to creating a serene evening enviroment for a lakeside outdoor custom kitchen complete with hottub and firepit.

I love being creative and always have been a creative person with a huge imagination. This is a photo from 1979 of Raleigh beach music band the Embers who I was a roadie and operated the lighting for. I am actually in the photo behind the group with a co2 fire extinguisher. I took a few of our stage lights into the studio that day and with the photographer we helped create what is to this day one of the bands favorite photos. The first band I worked with who allowed me to be creative.

Let Lite Visions Create Some Lighting Magic For You Today

GOOD VS BAD OUTDOOR LIGHTING

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Today’s blog is going to talk about things we have seen driving in the evening from installing a lighting installation. Here is the first example below of good and bad lighting placements, the fixture in the grass will be beaten up by lawn maintenance and equipment and will not last very long in that area. Path lights should be installed in a mulched bed or walkway to not only use them properly for their effect but also to protect them from landscapers and equipment. Also notice you do not see the lamp source only a soft pool of lighting with good lighting.

  • Bad Design Fixture In Grass
  • Good Design Fixture Protected

You should never see the bulb or glare in a lighting fixture if the lighting is properly designed with the correct fixtures. Bad Design Fixture In Grass Good Design Fixture Protected Good Design and Path Lights provide safety light DO NOT place lights under windows ever,this not only looks bad but will also cause lighting to spill into windows and cause a glare so you can’t see out of your windows. A lighting designer would never install lights under a window. As a lighting designer we use several filters and know the difference in lamp color temperatures. Waste of money lighting under windows Notice architecture softly lit with no glare from windows. pathway also lit softly .

  • bad light placement lighting up windows
  • proper lighting placement
  • proper lighting placement

Transformer placement, shiny aluminum transformers should be hidden behind plant materials or placed alongside other mechanical equipment,Transformers should never be seen in plain sight in front of a home or building. Ugly transformer job and even lit up at night Transformer well hidden out of sight behind plant materials Do you see the transformer ? Call or contact us today if you want your outdoor lighting design done right the first time. 919-518-9950

  • bad transformer placement
  • hidden behind plant material

BUILDING A NEW HOME? MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE THE LED LIGHTING OPTION

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I did a home and garden show recently and spoke to a lot of couples who were building homes. When we started talking about things they were doing I was surprised to find out LED lighting isn’t a standard in every home built today.

I can’t imagine installing landscape lighting today with the old, not efficient halogen light bulbs that do not last. With most LED manufactures giving a warranty of 5 years or 50,000 hours I can’t imagine why LED lamps are not required and why the old very un-efficient halogen can lights used in most homes are still installed in this day. If you are building or remodeling a home, please do yourself a favor and ask the builder or electrician about the many LED options available from can lights to very nice track lighting and wall sconces.

Visit a professional lighting showroom and have them go over the options with you. Most LED sources are also able to work with dimmers and if you are installing a beautiful stone fireplace, do yourself a favor and have them install some LED track lighting just above the stone with the lights focused down along the stone. There are also many nice outdoor LED fixtures for garages and floodlights. There is even a very interesting LED candle flame effect that looks really nice in the outdoor lantern type fixtures. Do yourself a favor and use energy-saving green friendly LED lights in your home and watch the power bill go down.

https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/save-electricity-and-fuel/lighting-choices-save-you-money/led-lighting

    Tree Runner Park Raleigh Low Voltage LED Outdoor Lighting Project

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    We started talking with Tree Runner Adventure Park in Raleigh last year about a energy efficent low voltage LED outdoor lighting system to replace the rope lighting they had been using to have the park open at night. Here is a look at some of zone 1 of three zones we are lighting in the park so they can climb at night. This low voltage lighting is a combination of different lamps and fixtures along with colors. We are working in conjunction with the parks climbers who are installing the lighting that we specified and are consulting with the design along with installation and night focusing.

    Lamp Color Temperature and outdoor lighting design

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

    Nothing looks worse than a BAD outdoor lighting design. There are alot of people out there who call themselves outdoor lighting experts. Many of these so called lighting experts work in another industry and probably attended one lighting manufacture’s class and buy their light fixtures with the lamps that come in them and have no idea the difference in color temperature and beam spread let alone wattage.

    A true outdoor lighting designer has many years of knowledge and continuing education to create a properly designed outdoor lighting system. No two outdoor systems are alike. While a 2700 kelvin lamp will make a crepe myrtle look outstanding,put a 3000 kelvin lamp on another crepe myrtle beside it and it will look like an alien due to the light being too white. I see this alot in subdivision entrances leaving neighborhoods I work in at night.

    A professional outdoor lighting designer has quite a few tricks up his sleeve to make your outdoor lighting shine better . From different filters to diffuse and soften a lamp to different wattages ,beam sizes and even colors.

    An American flag is lit properly from the bottom of the post to the eagle on top to the flag when flapping in the breeze. This takes knowledge of a proper amount of light fixtures as well as proper color temperatures.

    Lite Visions has many years in the concert industry and as professional lighting designers we take pride in proper outdoor lighting that will last and make your home and property shine like the castle that you are proud of. You worked hard for your dream home. Don’t just let anyone light it up.

    Integrated LED vs drop in LED lamps

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    Integrated LED fixtures worked perfect to light the peaks of this Cary residence

    Integrated LED outdoor lights have been around for a few years now. The great thing about LED integrated fixtures is most have a minimum 10 year warranty and up to a 20 year warranty. Integrated LED light fixtures are meant to operate cooler for longer chip life as well as giving a better light.Some are even adjustible with the color temperature of the fixture as well as the focus of the light on the one fixture making it easy to adjust them and not have to go thru several lamps. Some are specificially built for mounting into hardscaping or for use at down lighting in trees. They are very energy efficent and green friendly. Integrated fixtures due to having these great fixtures are a bit more pricey. Integrated LED fixtures are the Lexus of the low voltage lighting industry.

    American made cast aluminum fixtures with drop in LED lamps highlight this crepe myrtle

    LED drop in lamps have gotten better better and better and keep getting better.Gone are the days several years ago when you had only cheap chinese LEDs with lots of bubbles that would slowly burn out one bubble at a time. The best LED lamps come with a 3/5 year warranty and are easy to replace in most low voltage fixtures. They are built to run in totally enclosed fixtures so as to not get any moisture into the chip and run extremely cool and are very energy efficent and green friendly. Drop in LEDs are a great cost effective option for alot of outdoor lighting jobs.

    Lite Visions provides an installation warranty on both type LED fixtures as well as an annual maintenance of our installed systems.

    Cheap and inferior outdoor lighting and repairs

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting
    a CHEAP INFERIOR outdoor fixture with thin walled brass falling apart after only a few years of installation.Notice the side cracking. Making it impossible to put in new lamps.

    Everyday it seems I receive an email from a lighting manufacture wanting me to use their fixtures. I use the outdoor lighting fixtures I use due to their being proven to withstand harsh conditions and have proven to be in the field and still working for over 16 years on sites.

    Alot of companies who install outdoor lighting are less expensive due to the fact that they only want their check and DO NOT CARE if the lights are working or holding up after their installation warranty period is over.

    Some outdoor companies or landscapers will try to sell you on their brass or copper fixtures that perhaps their company cheaply make in house.

    Lamp sockets cheaply made that allow play in the lamps are also something we run into alot and replace with new sockets or replace the entire fixtures.

    Poorly made wiring connections by improperly trained technicians can also lead up to having wires corrode and stop passing voltage correctly and reduce your light life.

    • old outdoor lighting wiring that was so corroded it was not allowing proper voltage to pass,due to improper connections
    • This was tripping the transformers circuit breakers,a landscaper had actually duct taped over these wires a squirrel had chewed thru.

    These pierce point connections cause water to corrode cable by piercing the cable,indoor wire nuts should never be used on outdoor low voltage wiring .

    Lite Visions cares about building relationships with our customers and we get alot of word of mouth referrals because of that fact. We have gone in and fixed jobs that were badly installed and either weren’t working or things were falling apart in a shot time of the installation.