Outdoor lighting not only creates a stunning affect for your home and landscape, it also provides safety and security benefits.

As the evenings are getting dark earlier, look around your home, yard and neighborhood. Do you see areas that pose safety and security questions?

Much is said about the stunning affect residential and commercial outdoor lighting can have on architectural and landscaping features. However, in addition to the aesthetic benefits, a low voltage outdoor lighting system also offers the following safety and security benefits…

• Eliminates dark exterior areas where vandals can easily hide, making it a strong deterrent for break-ins and home or community invasions.
• Creates a welcoming and inviting appearance.
• Increases safety by lighting up path ways, pool walkways and entry ways.

Simple and affordable safety and security preventative measures can be taken by installing a few fixtures in the unlit areas of your yard or common areas of your community.

To learn more about lighting design techniques that can help you maximize your home and neighborhood’s safety and security, visit Outdoor Lighting Perspectives.

Pat Harders, who owns the Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Northern Virginia, was recently called to a client’s home to light up a pathway on his yard. Generally, path lights would be used for this task (hence the name), but the client wanted something discreet. Check out the pictures below to see how Pat was able to light the pathway with a barely visible LED fixture, and for more information check out Pat’s blog here.

Here is the light up in the tree. By pointing the fixture downward, it makes it dark sky friendly, a new trend in outdoor lighting.

Micro LED light fixture up in tree (circled in blue because the fixture is so discrete, it practically fades into the tree)

In her article, Schultz explores the advancements and technology of outdoor lighting with expert design input from Oscar Peterson of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives in Watertown, WI.

According to Peterson, outdoor lighting design is one of the fastest growing trends in home decorating, creating more beautiful neighborhoods and safer, more secure homes. “Ten years ago, virtually no one was doing outdoor lighting in a pleasing, effective manner,” Peterson said. “Today, the practice of outdoor lighting has become much more sophisticated and effective, resulting in systems that are practical and add to the beauty of a home as seen at night.”

Together, they focus on advancements  in lighting design such as the home security benefits of uplighting vs. flood lighting and how to use lighting to accent specific features of your home and landscape.

"Uplighting provides security" according to Oscar Peterson of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives

Towards the end of the article, Schultz poses the question, “What would Edison think of advancements in the industry?” I say he would be impressed.  And not only for the reasons outlined by Schultz and Peterson but also for continuing lighting advancements such as LED (light-emitting diode).

To read Schultz’ complete article, ”Watertown Remodeler Discusses new Outdoor Lighting Trends on 127th Anniversary of First Electric Lighting,” click here.

Before sharing the details of the installation, I’ll tell you a little bit about these three trends. LED stands for light emitting diodes and is a light source that consumes less energy and has a longer life than other light sources. Solar power has been in the news for quite some time for its ability to convert the sun’s rays into electricity, thus, minimizing energy cost. Finally, the dark sky movement aims to find a balance between appropriate outdoor lighting and the ability to view the stars at night. When lighting systems are not properly designed, wasted light may shoot up into the sky, making it difficult to see the stars. Dark Sky Friendly lighting generally has to shoot light below the horizontal plane to avoid this wasted light.

To be honest, I’ve always thought of these three ideas separately, but when Mead told me how he used all three applications at once, it made complete sense.  Outdoor Lighting Perspectives was brought in to light two entranceways to a community located out of Denver. The community has an active elk herd (elk often rub their antlers on different objects ruining whatever it rubs against) and a dark sky ordinance in place. On top of all that, the fixtures would need to withstand hurricane force/jet-stream winds and one of the entranceways was without power. That’s a lot of prerequisites. Luckily, Mead came up with a perfect solution.

To handle the lack of power, Mead installed a solar photovoltaic product that was mounted higher than the elk’s antlers would reach. This was used to power one cooper LED fixture that was mounted to shine downward onto the entrance sign, complying with their dark sky ordinance. It is a great example of the perfect application in a difficult situation. Congrats Mead!

The cooper LED fixture in this picture is pointed downward to comply with the community's dark sky ordinance. The solar PV panel/mounting pole is present in the background.

The switch will not only make for a better ambience, but will also save several hundred thousand dollars in lighting costs. To read the rest of the article, click here.

Don’t forget-as more and more companies make the switch to efficient LED lighting, you can do the same thing for your home. Outdoor Lighting Perspectives can design a custom illumination display for your house that is both attractive and efficient.

LED’s, or light emitting diodes, are tiny light bulbs that can fit easily into an electrical circuit. Unlike incandescent bulbs, they don’t have a filament that will burn out and they’re much more durable, due to their small plastic bulb. Their most important feature, however, is their efficiency. LED’s generate very little heat, allowing more of the electric power to directly generate light.

To find out more about how LED’s work, click here.

To see the new slideshow, click here.

 Here are some pictures of some lighting done to accent the pool and surrounding space. I think it has a dramatic effect on the outside atmosphere.

The tree lights really compliment the pool

Another Nice Approach

A Little Light Goes a Long Way!

So as you can see, its easy to change the entire atmosphere of your back pool and patio with just a few simple lights. Get the most out of your investment by creating a personal relaxing oasis! Call an Outdoor Lighting Perspectives near you for a free at home demonstration to see just how good it looks before you buy!

Check out this slideshow to find out!