In the market to buy lights? Are you wondering what is the best landscape lighting. Let our years of experience guide you through it.
On average the best landscape lighting is made from heavy duty sun resistant plastic or powder coated aluminum. For areas exposed to weather and the elements you will want the most durable light you can find. It is also noted that you should consider a long life warm white led for durability.
There are many different choices to choose from when making a purchase so read on for more information.
1.Recommended Best Landscape Lighting
A good recommended best landscape lighting would be any type of lighting that is low-voltage either 12 V or 24 V AC or DC. This will be the type of lighting that you would have a separate transformer to transform the power from 120 down to 12 or 24 V. The 12 or 24 V would then run out to the landscape lighting which could be around flower beds, ponds, trees, or any other thing that you would like to light up in here in your yard. Low-voltage landscape lighting comes in a variety and an assortment of colours shapes and sizes.
They can give a warm 2700 to 3000 K light level and they also come in an LED style. This type of low-voltage landscape lighting usually comes in anodized aluminum which is powder coated and is ready for all weather conditions. We have found in our experience with installing this equipment that they have the longest lifespan over any other type of light.
Maintenance on these lights would be minimum. You can purchase of the traditional halogen style lighting however most of the star lighting is still 120 volt so you need a qualified electrician to help you install this. It’s not recommended that you do your own 120 volt wiring. There are some cases that you can still buy but ,playing 120 V wiring just be certain that has proper protection you back in source.
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2. Who Makes The Best?
Believe it or not most low-voltage high-quality landscape lighting comes from China. You can purchase these products on eBay Amazon or anywhere online. They are good quality and long life usually 50,000 hours of rent time or more. The low voltage landscape lighting can come in stake lighting you can angle at certain objects. It also comes in uplighting so you can light the side of your house. As well as down lighting.
Your conventional rope lighting and you’re hanging style lights are usually line voltage 120 volt and not the low-voltage shaped up you’re talking about. Make sure the low-voltage tape has a plug-in transformer for ease-of-use. You can get the low-voltage landscape lighting and plug and play method and in this case you can install it yourself.
It will usually come with a predetermined amount of wire with it so you can make your connections or even plug-and-play to all your individual lights. This type of lighting is particularly great for lighting flower beds, small trees to give accent lighting like you would see you in a high-end resort in the Caribbean.
3. How Do You Angle Landscape Lighting?
Many types of landscape lighting will come in a stake form. They have adjustable screws so that you can angle them any which way you want. When installing them you do not want to install them right on top of the object that you were trying to light.
In any case it is best to install them at least a minimum of 2 feet away from the object. This will project the light onto the object for example a tree or a plant much better than it would if it is right on top. This will also create the least amount of shadow on the object that you were trying to light.
If you install them right under the object or against the object and face them up the most you will get a shadow on the object you were trying to like for example a statue. You do want to take advantage of the most lumens that you can get out of the light fixture itself. For lighting on wall if, the best case is to go about 3 feet back from the object on a 30 to 45° angle to like the object this will minimize shadowing and try to cover the whole object itself.
4. Can I Install Landscape Lighting Myself?
When talking in terms of best landscape lighting some landscape lighting comes in the plug-and-play form. It will come with the prepackaged plug-in transformer six or 10 lights and wire with plug-and-play connecters to wire them up between them.
This is great and you can install this yourself however there’s limits you to the distance between lights if you only have a 10 or 20 foot piece of wire between them. You can buy extension cords or low-voltage extension cords to run between the light fixtures to extend the distance. Keep in mind the further the distance you extend the lights the weaker or the light output will be at the end of the line.
You should take extra care in bearing the cables in flower beds or under bark mulch or any other type of substance that may damage to wire. Make sure it is a minimum of at least 6 inches even though it is at low voltage. This will deter any rodents or anything else that makes you on the wire. Although you shouldn’t be too concerned because the wire is low voltage so carries very little current and has no risk of electrocution.
Any external transformer that plugs in should be plugged into an external GFCI outlet on the outside of your house to properly protect against any moisture issues. In any case if you get into a situation where you have to hardwire the lighting system you should always consult in your local qualified licensed electrician. Doing permanent external or internal connections not a suggestion that you do yourself or homeowner.
5. What Is The Best Wattage For Landscape Lighting?
Most LED landscape lighting is LED technology . This means the watt to put the LED technology is much lower than a standard traditional halogen. For example a 50 att halogen light would be equivalent to about a 7 watt LED bulb. LED light fixtures come between 3 watt and 12 watt. So as an example if you have a 300 W rated outdoor transformer and your light fixtures are 10 watts a piece you could run 30 light fixtures off of the transformer which is quite a bit. Obviously you want to go for a higher wattage or brighter wattage for your outdoor landscape lighting when it comes to best landscape lighting. The higher output will light the object better and give you better results for the application.
6. What Are The Best Lumens Output?
Lumen output is the actual amount of light spectrum that the light fixture gives out. Most outdoor landscape lighting will come with lumen rating between 500 and 1200 lm.
900 lm seems to be industry standard so you want to look something for something in this range. The higher the lumen output the brighter the light output. Don’t confuse us for the K level or light colour level.
When making a purchase look for the highest level of wattage technology that you can fine and the highest level of lumens that you can find this will give you the most lighter but overall.
7. Which Color Light Output Should I Use?
Most light fixtures come in a variety of colour selections. When we say colour selection we mean the light output color. 2700 K and 3000 K or your warmer traditional light. This light output is what everybody wants to give that nice warm natural light it is also referred to as warm light.
The next level of light foot output would be the 4K. 4K is more of a white light but yet soft should be a soft white light like you would see in commercial applications.
This level of light can be used but it’s not preferable for accent lighting like landscape plants. The next level of light would be the 5000 K. This light this is the brightest white light is on the market as of today. You see this particular applications were more light output is needed but keep in mind this is a pure white.
This gives an undesirable effect for landscape lighting however it is very good for security lighting. Mostly all outdoor lighting will come in 2700 or 3000 K this is the most popular choice and give you the best looking light effect for your property.
8. Can Landscape Lighting Be On A Dimmer?
If you want to get best landscape lighting the best is the type to get that is dimmable. When making a purchase double check to make sure that the product is dimmable because not all LED light fixtures are. Also make sure that you get a dimmer that is selected for dimmable location.
In this case you may need to get an electrician involved as it’s not a good idea to damage outside outlet. This would be for hardwired application only. However you can get plug and play landscape lighting that is Wi-Fi compatible to your phone.
This Wi-Fi compatibility will also give you the availability to them right through the app. Although a dimmer sounds like a good idea, it may not be the best solution to have the landscape lighting on the timer or on the dimmer. Do you want the best light of what you can from the lights so there’s not really a purpose to dim them.
9. Should Landscape Lighting Be On A Photocell Or Timer?
The actual answer to this is both. You see, the problem with having your landscape lighting on a timer only. Yes you’re going to have to shut off the same time every night say 11 PM it’s dark which is great. If you have them set to come on at 7 PM the darkness level will vary depending on what time of year it is or what time of year it is.
This is why it’s good I did have a photocell. Photocells will sense when the darkness comes no matter what time daylight savings happens. You can use the photocell to turn them on and the timer to turn them off. This is a good combination to have. When making your purchase look out for this to see if the lighting give ability.
You can buy plug-in photocells but you can first install in line and you can also battery plug-in timers. If you’re going to buy a plug-in time are you should make sure that it is a battery back up to keep clock going.
As a photo so I will shut the power off throughout the day losing power to the timer. You can put a timer first but this would kind of defeat the purpose is the time or would they control the photocell and would not properly adjust when the lights come on and off.
10. Does Landscape Lighting Add Value To Your Property?
As a general rule landscape lighting does add property value to your home. Especially if the landscape lighting is done correctly. Keep in mind this is for lighting particular objects or particular areas of your yard.
It is used as an accent lighting to give a warm feeling to your property. In any case you can count on this adding some value as people like to see these things just the same as I’d like to see Christmas lights. We hope this article helped and you making some of your decisions I want to purchase for your best landscape lighting. It’s always important to do research first before making a purchase.