Tag: led outdoor lighting raleigh

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.

Working with an outdoor lighting designer.

Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

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

Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

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

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

Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

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

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting

    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.

    Integrated LED vs drop in LED lamps

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting
    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.

    Outdoor Pool Lighting in the Raleigh area

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting, Outdoor Lighting

    Homeowners in Raleigh NC take advantage of sunny days with outdoor living spaces. When you create an outdoor living space around your pool, you will be able to encourage your family and friends to spend time outdoors and enjoy some fresh air. With today’s busy lifestyles, families want to be able to enjoy their outdoor living spaces every minute of the day—even after dusk.  Lite Visions Outdoor and Landscape Lighting offers several techniques can achieve a dramatic look while providing a safe, cozy, people-friendly environment.

    Around the pool, you should have both functional lighting and mood lighting. At night, most people spend little time swimming; they’re more likely to be cooking and socializing. You want lighting that’s conducive to all of that and creates a pleasant experience, so we avoid anything that looks like a harsh spotlight across the pool – instead, we use combination lighting effects to illuminate elements around the pool.

    Like the illumination from the sun and the moon, the most natural form of lighting comes from above. If a tree canopy hangs over the pool deck, moonlighting can create a mystical effect. You can put moon lights in tall trees or off the side of the house. Soft, uplighting adds a touch of class to any setting. River Birch, Crepe Myrtles, Japanese Maples and Palms are one of our favorite candidates for uplighting. With complex limb structures, the evening sight of these beauties can be enjoyed year around. As a bonus, If the trees are close by the pool they usually provide a beautiful reflection on the surface of the water as well. Path lighting is a much smaller version of downlighting, this popular fixture treatment displays streams of light along walkways.

     

     

     

     

     

    The landscape surrounding the pool area can act like a backdrop; it can create the perfect lighting canvas…many landscapers now are showcasing beautiful water features or water falls or fences. We will be sure these features are not over lit and that the right color temperatures are used and that you are not competing with the lighting that may already be provided from inside the pool. Finally, a lighting technique that will define the property or boundaries by softly washing the pillars of the walls with a soft warm light is wall washing. This technique can truly refine and finish off the pool area and provide that feeling of balance and composition to your landscape.

     

     

     

     

     

    Exterior lighting not only adds to the ambiance and atmosphere of a pool area; it also adds safety and security. There is no shortage of ideas or possibilities when it comes to exterior lighting. Lite Visions will gladly discuss lighting ideas and possibilities for your Pool,Home and Outdoor spaces

    The best thing about installing low voltage lighting around the pool area is 12 volt lighting is 100% safe around the water

    Call Lite Visions today for your outdoor pool area lighting in the Raleigh NC area 919-518-9950

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    Call us Today 919-518-9950

    Lite Visions Outdoor Lighting and Landscape Lighting Professionals Raleigh NC

    Which lighting contractor would you prefer working with?

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting, Outdoor Lighting

    THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTRACTORS IN THIS INDUSTRY

    CONTRACTORS WHO BUY THEIR POORLY MADE PRODUCTS ONLINE FROM CHEAP SOURCES WITH NO LOCAL SUPPLIER BACKING AND TRY TO MAKE A CHEAP BUCK.

    THEN THERE ARE LIGHTING DESIGNERS WHO UNDERSTAND THE ART OF LIGHTING AND TAKE A LOT OF PRIDE IN THEIR DESIGN AND INSTALLATION AND WORK AND ARE NOT ONLY USING THE BEST QUALITY LIGHTING SOURCES AVAILABLE TO THEM FROM A LOCAL SUPPLY HOUSE,BUT THEY ALSO STAND BEHIND THEIR WORK AND INSTALLATION.

     

    Alot of homeowners do not understand,going to a big box store and buying a LED bulb not made for wet area use or in an enclosed fixture might not last 30 days to six months. I have personally heard another contractor asking a vendor for the cheapest lights he could make the most money on,because after they get the check they are done with the job and walk away from it. I could not believe my ears. No wonder so many people have complaints about different contractors these day.

    We are NOT A OUTDOOR LIGHTING FRANCHISE that anyone can buy into,We have a long history in lighting design and lighting tech work with live concerts.

    At Lite Visions,we design our systems to not only look great,but with longevity in mind,from using the highest quality outdoor lighting fixtures available to us. But also working with a family owned local supply house where they keep a good supply of the lighting supplies we use on a regular basis and where we can get warranty items taken care of locally.

    We are a member of the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals who helps our industry in many ways, there are only a small handful of outdoor lighting designers who are a member of this small group of outdoor lighting professionals.

    We have  5 star reviews on google ,yelp,houzz and facebook.


     

    Creating Magical Outdoor Lighting Effects With Water in Raleigh

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting, Outdoor Lighting

    When outdoor lighting is added to homes, trees and plant materials near any type water feature, pond or pool, as a bonus to the feature itself looking stunning, the outdoor lighting will usually create a beautiful mirrored effect onto the surface of the water.

    Give us a call today 919-518-9950 to see your home in a whole new light with outdoor lighting in the Raleigh NC area.

     

     

    The Art of Outdoor Lighting in Raleigh NC

    Posted on by admin in Landscape Lighting, Outdoor Lighting

    Nothing beautifies your home more than outdoor LED lighting. Low voltage LED lighting’s purpose is to unify your home and the surrounding landscaping into the evening hours. There are few things that will impact your home’s value and curb appeal better than a correctly designed and professionally installed outdoor LED lighting system.

    The many advancements in today’s LED out lighting fixtures have made your choices even more attractive and can add long term value to your property.

     

    When designing your outdoor lighting,we take into account your personal style and adapt your exterior environment to evoke a particular mood or place that is soothing to you.

    Even modest homes or those with limited yards can benefit from outdoor landscape lighting.

    You have a substantial investment in your home and homeowners are looking more and more to outdoor landscape lighting to increase their outdoor living spaces well into the the evening hours.

    Call us today to get started with your outdoor lighting project ,the summer evenings are already growing shorter in NC

     919-518-9950