Lighting blog

WHAT IS A TRANSFORMER? A transformer is a box which takes in electricity at X volts and puts out electricity at Y volts.   In fact, by the laws of physics voltage isn’t the only thing a transformer changes. In brief, when voltage is stepped down, current steps up and vice versa. However, that can safely…

  OUTDOOR LIGHTING FIXTURES Guides to outdoor and landscape lighting usually suggest specific design uses for the various types of fixtures. Readers, however, aren’t always familiar with the trade lexicon. Let’s go over the outdoor lighting fixtures menu and shed a little light on it. FLOODLIGHTS AND SPOTLIGHTS Floodlights and spotlights are the basic workhorse…

Landscape lighting systems consume electrical power.  And alas, electrical power costs money. Therefore, unless money is no object, it’s reasonable to ask how much it costs to power a landscape lighting system. Obviously, any homeowner thinking of having a system put in should perform this due diligence. Likewise, since we’re going to base our math…

Outdoor lighting systems need a modicum of maintenance to live long and prosper. The lighting designer ’s mantra is “less is more”. The maintenance version is “a little goes a long way”. It doesn’t take much to keep an outdoor lighting system in tip-top shape. It just takes doing the right things at the right…

In 1913 the poet Joyce Kilmer wrote: “ I think that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree”. Trees are indeed magnificent works of nature. They ’re the most impressive natural features on most of the properties in our area. Lighting trees with 21st-century technology extends our delight in them past…

  WILL OUTDOOR LIGHTING MAKE YOUR HOME SAFER? From time to time there’s an item in the media suggesting that outdoor lighting doesn’t improve home security. One of the arguments is that outdoor lighting is as likely to help a burglar as to deter one.  Others note that a majority of residential burglaries happen during…