landscape lighting fixtures along a pathSchedule Your Sprinkler and Landscape Lighting Projects

Are you looking to get some sprinklers or landscape lighting installations done? Well, you’re certainly not alone and that may just be a problem. For a variety of reasons, if you’re looking to get this kind of landscape work done, it’s going to be a bit of a wait. So, if you want to be getting any kind of work done, you’ll need to schedule it ahead of time. Here’s why.

The Demand Has Never Been Higher

From early 2020 to today, there’s been a high demand for any kind of work that involves upgrading homes and businesses. From remodeling buildings, to installing new features, everybody seems to want to get it done now. This means that companies that do this work are backed up with projects. If you don’t get on the schedule ahead of time, you might find that there’s nobody available to work for you when you need it done.

Use The Extra Time to Plan

One of the things the slows down getting started on a project is the need to plan. You can’t just jump headlong into a major renovation to your home, including sprinklers and landscape lighting, without knowing what you want to do. Since there’s going to be a wait time on getting any work done, getting on the schedule ahead of time gives you reason to start planning. While you wait for your turn, figure out exactly what you want so the work can begin as soon as the crew are available. Consult with experts to get just the right design and the work will go much faster.

firepit landscape lighting fixtureMaterials and Labor Shortages Are Delaying Projects

Another problem delaying work is the shortage of materials and labor. Due to the Covid outbreak, various fires around the US and other unforeseeable issues with supply, there are shortages in nearly every industry. Because it’s so much harder to acquire materials and find people to do the work, starting a project often gets delayed. If you’re planning ahead of time, you’ll know better what’s needed and your crew can figure out the shortages ahead of time. That way, they can acquire those materials ahead of time as well.

Don’t Wait, Schedule Ahead

There’s no way of knowing when things will get back on track. As long as the demands are high and the materials are short, schedules will be tight. Don’t wait until the last minute to start looking for someone to help you out. You’ll find there’s nobody available.

Do you have a landscape lighting or sprinkler project you need help on? Like everyone else, we’re backed up with projects, too. It will probably be some time before we’ll be free to take you on, but you can make sure that you get started as soon as possible by scheduling with us ahead of time. If you want to get on our list now, feel free to get in touch!

fall landscape lightingTake Advantage of the Season With Fall Landscape Lighting

Fall is here and we’re soon going to see it in all its glory. That means we’re going to see more color as the leaves change color. The heat is giving way to the cooler times, letting us enjoy time outside more. It’s also going to get darker sooner. What better time to update your landscape lighting? Take advantage of your fall landscape lighting to enhance the curb appeal of your home by exploiting autumn’s natural beauty. Here are some tips and ideas for you to try.

1. Create Ambiance For Fire Pits

People use their fire pits more in the fall. While the fire pit will provide some light while it’s burning, it does need some lighting around it. You don’t want big floodlights with wide beams, though. You want softer lights to add ambiance that won’t take away from the light of the fires you set. Floating feature lighting, like we talked about previously, is perfect for this. It gives a clear view of the area from a distance without destroying the ambiance.

2. Highlight The Changing Trees

The colors of the leaves is the most distinctive and recognized part of the season. Your fall landscape lighting should aim to highlight that. Playing around with different lighting styles can really amplify the natural autumn beauty of your trees. Try different kinds of uplighting and downlighting at different temperature levels of light to get different effects.  You can create some really striking and eye-catching visuals with the right mix.

3. Bring Warmth to the Cold

While fall still has its warm moments, the evenings get chilly. Bringing a sense of warmth to the cold nights can give your home strong curb appeal. Use warm lighting for your entertaining areas. The glow will make these areas seem like an island of warmth in an otherwise cold night, inviting the eyes as well as your guests.  That extra warmth and light can help you fight the winter blues, as well!

4. Take Advantage of the Dark

While darkness can seem scary and foreboding, you can use that feeling to create strong contrast with your warm lighting. A softly lit patio can become an island of warmth and friendliness, enhanced by the darkness around it. It also makes for great romantic ambiance to enjoy with your loved one as you curl up in a nice blanket to watch the stars.  It’s as cozy to look at as it is to experience.

landscape lighting fixtures along a path5. Get Your Safety Lighting

Too much darkness can be a bad thing.  If you haven’t set up good lighting for your paths, now is the time.  As the deeper darkness of the fall and winter take over, that’ll be more time where you’re left unable to see where you’re going. These lights will also help you see patches of ice that might build up, protecting you from injury caused by slipping on it. Get your path lights installed now so you won’t be bothered by the darkness when you come home late at night.

Don’t Forget The Maintenance

While the changing leaves can be quite beautiful in the autumn, it’s a signal that the leaves are about to fall. Autumn winds may also knock branches off your trees. When these things happen, they can obscure your lighting. Worse, they could potentially become a safety hazard. If the leaves dry up, the heat generated by the lighting fixtures may be enough start a fire. Don’t forget to remove any that fall on or near your lights.

Now Is The Best Time For Fall Landscape Lighting

Fall is the best time to make any adjustments to your lighting that you’ve been planning on. You can now see what the longer nights will look like and adjust your lighting to match. Don’t wait too long, though. Once fall moves into winter, the cold hardens the ground, making it more difficult to install fixtures and bury cables.

Here at Portland Sprinklers and Landscape Lighting, we are experts at lighting design. If you want to set up your fall landscape lighting to take advantage of the spectacular autumn season, get in touch with us today. We’ll set you up with something stunning!

Brighten Up Your Backyard

quality landscape lightingSummer’s here. As hot as it gets, you won’t be enjoying your yard too much during the day, but what about the evenings? It cools off, you get a gorgeous sunset and . . . your yard is too dark to see anything. You wouldn’t dare go anywhere beyond your back door, or maybe back porch. Why not fix that? We can help you light up your backyard so you can enjoy all of it during the summer nights!

What Are Your Backyard Landscape Lighting Needs?

When it comes to the best landscape lighting, you need to consider your needs. Your backyard might be the largest space in your yard, so lighting the whole thing up is unfeasible, but you do still need to see. Fortunately, you don’t need to brighten up everything to be able to see. With just the right selection of lights, you can create great ambiance that enhances your backyard. Let’s look at what you need.

1. Porch Lighting

The porch will be where you go to and from your backyard, so it needs to be clearly visible at a distance, as well as lit up to see while there. If your back porch is a patio, you can use a combination of lanterns, inground lights, and wall lighting to create a nice place to sit and talk. Stair lighting will make it possible for everyone to see exactly where the stairs are for those going up and down. Wall lighting highlights the area so no matter where in the yard you are, you and your guests can always find it. Enjoy an evening meal and watch the sunset while your kids play out in the yard and never have to worry they’ll have trouble getting back inside.

landscape lighting fixtures along a path2. Path Lighting

Path lighting will highlight and illuminate the paths around your yard. This is one of the foundational elements of landscape lighting. It provides clear direction for people to follow. Those who go off the path, will still be able to tell at a distance where everything is by them. They also create a visually striking sight. There’s nothing quite like walking down a well-lit path on a late summer evening, after it’s got cool and quiet.

3. Highlight Features

While you can get by with just decent porch and path lighting, the great advantage of landscape lighting is your ability to make your yard visually stunning to look at. For this, you use the lighting to draw attention to the best features of your yard. These will look great from a distance, adding to the curb appeal. They also light up the area so you can see where you’re going. You can use these features to act as places for people to gather as well as something to draw the eye, letting you enjoy every part of your backyard during the summer nights.

4. Safety And Security

Naturally, you want to consider the safety of yourself, family, and guests when you do your landscape lighting. Make sure any areas that people might trip – like stairs – are well lit so that everyone can see their footing. Add lighting around places your kids play so you can see them at a distance even if they stay out past sunset. Use motion sensors to activate lights as people enter new areas that will turn off on their own afterward. That way, you can make sure everyone sees where they’re going without needing to worry about ruining the ambiance and visual appeal with too much light. Motion sensor lights also work great as a deterrent. Sudden changes in lighting draw attention, which is exactly what burglars want to avoid.

We’ll Light Up Your Backyard!

There’s a lot of proper knowledge and planning that goes into making the best landscape lighting display. If you want your landscape lighting to look good as well as be functional, there’s a lot to figure out. Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out all on your own! Here at Portland Sprinklers, our people have years of experience. We’ll know the best ways to manage landscape lighting to create visual appeal, while also getting the most light for the least use of energy (and money). We’ll take all the hard work of planning and installation out of the equation for you and give you a backyard you’ll be able to enjoy all summer! Just get in touch with us today and see what we can do for you!

Gorgeous Landscape Lighting

landscape lightingLighting is important when it comes to seeing where you’re going. It has great value for security. These are the practical aspects of landscape lighting, but you shouldn’t neglect the visual appeal, either. Landscape lighting can make your home a stunning sight. If you need the lighting for practical reasons, there’s no reason you shouldn’t also make it gorgeous. How can you manage this? Well, let’s take a look at some options.

1. Take Advantage of The Darkness

Features that look great in the day can be completely invisible at night, even if they’re large. If there’s a feature to your home that’s a large part of its curb appeal in daylight, you can make that a major focal point at night. During the day, people will see everything in your yard, but landscape lighting can make the best features stand out. Do you have a fancy retaining wall? Landscape lighting makes it grab people’s attention. Have you worked hard to get your trees looking beautiful? Spotlighting can show them off while the scrub around it fades from view.

Use your landscape lighting to make the best features stand out so that anyone seeing your house at night will only see the absolute best your home has to offer.

an infographic for tips on good landscape lighting design

2. Light All The Trees

If you decide you want to highlight your trees with landscape lighting, it’s a good idea to highlight all of them. Highlighting only some of your trees will produce large areas of strong light and spaces of empty darkness. Those large spaces are more noticeable for the contrast with the highlighted areas, creating an ominous feeling that can ruin the visual appeal.

For large yards with many trees, this isn’t always necessary. You can focus your lighting around your home, highlighting the areas that draw attention to the house and let things fade out as you get further away. Depending on how trees are spaced, there might be other unique designs that can be effective, but that’s more situational. For average sized yards, however, highlighting all the trees is generally more advisable.

3. Floating Features

Darkness isn’t always scary. Properly used, it can be your best friend. If you have a particular feature that’s relatively isolated from others, you can use LED strip lights in recessed areas underneath the feature to create a soft glow underneath it. At night, this creates the illusion of the feature floating in its space. This kind of striking visual design is great for decorative fire pits, benches, and similar features. It creates a welcoming atmosphere without any need for overhead lighting.

4. Ambient vs. Direct Lighting

Landscape lighting isn’t just about shining a bright light on something you want people to see. Even spotlights spread light in an area around where they’re aimed. The extra ambient lighting can be used to great effect. It’s central to the floating look we just mentioned. In that case, the direct lighting is hidden underneath the feature so that all you see is the soft ambient light spilling out.

This ambient light can be used to provide enough light to see as well. If you factor it into your thinking, you can use direct lighting to draw attention to features, then use the ambient lighting to let people see where they need to go without drawing attention away from the features you want people to look at.

5. Water Features

Water features, such as pools, fountains and decorative ponds can add a lot of value to your home’s visual appeal. With good landscape lighting, they can sometimes add even more appeal at night than during the day. Waterproof lights placed under the surface of the water feature can create a glowing pool effect with an inviting, magical quality to it. For fountains with decorative features, you can use the floating trick to catch the eye, combined with spotlights to keep them focused on its decorative qualities.

Swimming pools can also have the same effect. Just remember that people actually in the pool will have a much lower line of sight than someone walking around. Avoid bright lights shining directly towards the pool to avoid blinding people in the water. Good use of ambient lighting can make it a magical experience, whether you’re looking from afar, or going for a nightly dip.

6. Planters

During the day, planters are a great way to add a splash of color to your home. At night, they can double as lanterns. Using LED planters can create a glowing spot of color that not brightens up your home in more ways than one. The color will liven up the night and also draw attention to the area around your house. Try placing a few around the facade of your house and see what you get.

7. Welcome Visitors With Your Garden

If you’ve got a front garden you’re proud of, the right type of lighting can make it a stunning display at night. It will welcome your guests and create a comfortable ambiance that’s visible from the street. Combined with strong path lighting, it also makes for excellent security, as it lights the area around your home. It will be harder for anyone to get to your home without being seen, discouraging burglars from the attempt.

8. Step Lights

Stairs are a major hazard in the dark. There’s no shortage of stories of people coming home at night and stumbling on the stairs because they couldn’t see them.  Lighting them up is pretty much essential for safety, but consider step lights instead a lantern or porch light. Soft step lights built into the concrete create enough light to see by without a harsh, centralized light source. It’s more inviting as well, improving your curb appeal.

Landscape Lighting Enhances Your Home’s Beauty

Landscape lighting is all about making the best features of your home stand out. With good planning and proper light selection, you can create a visual striking image of your home and yard at night. There’s no end to the ways you can improve the curb appeal of your home when you know the right way to light it up at night.

At Portland Sprinklers and Landscape Lighting, we’re experts at this. We use high quality, energy efficient LED lights to bring your home to life. If you really want your home to stand out from the rest, then don’t hesitate to get in touch. There won’t be a single person who passes by without remarking on the gorgeous sight.

Quality Sprinklers in Grass Yard.

Sprinklers And Lighting: Two Peas In A Pod

Spring is here again! Huzzah! That means it’s time to turn your sprinkler systems back on in preparation for watering your lawn. We’ve talked a lot about lighting over the winter – mainly because your sprinklers aren’t running during the winter – but as a transition, let’s consider some reasons why you should do your sprinklers and lighting together this spring!

an infographic illustrating why you should do sprinklers and landscape lighting together

Click to see enlarged.

1. We’re Already Here

If you’re going to need to have your sprinklers set up, of course you’re going to do it in the spring. Whether installing new sprinkler systems, repairing the old ones, or just doing some routine maintenance, it’s all something we can help you with. Getting it done just after winter is the best time. That way, you can find any problems – like busted pipes – before they start gushing water and flooding your lawn.

If you also want to have good landscape lighting, we do that, too. Since we’re already out there, it’s super convenient to have it done all at once. It saves you time, because you don’t have to schedule multiple appointments to determine the best lighting options. That also saves you money because it’s less time we spend on the job getting it set up. Benefits all around!

 

2. The Two Systems Interact

By doing your sprinklers and lighting at the same time, we’ll know where your sprinklers are. With that knowledge fresh in our memories, we can get right to work installing your landscape lighting in the best way for your home. This is yet another way that saves us time and you money; we don’t have to find out where your sprinkler system runs because we just helped you install, or maintain it

3. Doing Both Can Save You Money

Sometimes you’ve already got both systems installed. There’s always room for improvement, though. Older systems, both irrigation and landscape lighting, are less efficient and therefore more costly. Lighting systems installed before the development of LED lighting consume a lot of power and need more maintenance to keep them going. Older irrigation systems are often inefficient because you either have to manually operate them, or they work on timers, and many just waste water because of their design. There’s nothing more frustrating than to drive by someone’s house in the rain and see their sprinklers going.

New systems are so much more efficient. LED lights require far less energy to run and give you more brightness. Modern irrigation systems can incorporate new technologies to detect the amount of moisture in the soil. They’re also just more efficient with their water use. The combination of using less electricity and less water translates to significant savings on your overall bills. The expense of upgrading your systems quickly makes up for itself with the amount of money you save on water and power bills.

We Do Sprinklers and Lighting!

Portland Sprinklers & Landscape Lighting Logo.Given that irrigation and landscape lighting have so much crossover, it should be no surprise that many companies around the country will do both. It’s very common to see sprinklers and lighting paired together. So, if you’re going to be doing one, why not do both and save yourself some time and money?  If you live in the Portland, Oregon area and want to get in done, we’re here to help!  Get in touch with us today and schedule a time we can take care of that for you. You’ll appreciate the value, we guarantee it!

 

LA decent sized house using about 120 lumens of landscape lightingumens: A Better Measurement

When you think of bulbs, you probably do so in terms of wattage. That’s how bulbs are labeled, after all. More watts means more light, right? Well, no, actually. You see, wattage is a measurement of energy use, not light output. When all we had were incandescent lights, watts worked fine as a measurement, but technology always changes the playing field. LED lights – of the sort we install with our landscape lighting – can give off the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb for as little as 20% of the wattage. So, to say how much light fixtures give off, wattage is a really bad way to judge. That’s where we get lumens.

But What Are Lumens?

The dictionary definition of a lumen is as follows: “a unit of luminous flux in the International System of Units, that is equal to the amount of light given out through a solid angle by a source of one candela intensity radiating equally in all directions.” In other words, lumens measure how much light is increased in the area the light spreads. It’s all quite a bit technical in the specifics, but all you really need to know is this: lumens measure brightness, wattage measures energy efficiency.

Getting the best value out of a light fixture is having a good ratio of wattage compared to lumens. The lower the wattage and higher the lumens, the better the light is. LEDs easily outclass all other types of lights in this category, making them the least expensive, longest lasting, and brightest lights you can get. That’s why we use them for all our fixtures. As a sample comparison, a 100 watt incandescent bulb will give off 1600 lumens. A 22 watt LED bulb will give off the same amount. Put into numbers like that, the correct choice is obvious.

How Many Lumens Do You Need?

Home Depot has a list of recommended lumens for specific types of lights. It reads as follows:

  • Step lights: 12-100 lumens
  • Hardscape lights (on walls): 50-185 lumens
  • Landscape lights: 50-300 lumens
  • Path lights: 100-200 lumens
  • Landscape spotlights: 120 lumens
  • Lamp posts: 120-180 lumens
  • Pond/pool lights: 200-400 lumens
  • Motion sensor lights: 300-700 lumens
  • Flood lights: 700-1300 lumens

These are standard recommendations, however, and don’t consider particularly darker areas, or specific instances where you want more or less light. Generally speaking, the amount of lumens you want should be determined by how and what you’re trying to light up.

infographic on lumens

Click to see full size

1. Ground Level

For a simple, one story house, with small shrubs, bushes, hedgerows, and sidewalks, around 80 to 120 lumens is usually recommended. With the right angle of beams, this lighting can give you enough light to see by and spread that light evenly around. The aim is to give cohesion: evenly spread light without any harsh glares.

2. Second Story Stuff

If you’ve got a second story house and you want to light up the second floor, 140-180 lumens is recommended. This can help light up spaces between 10 and 20 feet high. This level of lighting can also light up medium sized trees, or be used to cast striking shadows for artistic effects.

3. Mansions and Moonlighting

If you have a house with three stories, you’re going to need around 230-270 lumens to pull it off. To get this effect, you usually rely on uplights, well-lights, and spotlights. These will get you lighting on the upper stories of your house. They also provide good grazing light for the front of larger homes and mansions.

This level is also used for “moonlighting.” By placing lighting fixtures at this level at 20 to 30 feet in the air, you can create an effect that mimics natural full moonlight in the area below. It creates a great ambient lighting effect for people who want something a bit more romantic and interesting. The effect can also be achieved with level 2 lighting, but it’s usually this level of light that best achieves the effect with the least amount of planning and effort.

4. Tall Trees and Extensive Estates

Anywhere from 350-1000 lumens will fall into this category. It’s very rare for private homes to require this much light, except in very specific circumstances. These kind of light levels are reserved for lighting up very tall trees and very tall homes with four or more floors (generally up to 70 feet high). You can also use it to highlight features of tall houses, like chimneys, or other rooftop artistic displays.

Mix It Up

These four different light levels don’t act as a single fix for any situation. Generally, each level of light is used for different purposes. This means to get the best lighting effect for your home and landscape, you really want to layer the lighting. Use higher levels of lighting to achieve specific effects, while the lower level lighting gives you light to see and highlight the general features of your home. With good mixing and matching, you can create astounding, breathtaking effects for your landscape lighting.

Let Us Help!

Landscape lighting is one of our specialties! If you’re looking to get some good landscaping lighting up for your house, we know all the tricks. You can talk to us for advice on the best way to light up your landscape, or you can ask us to come out and help you set it up. We’ll help you get the best lighting set-up you can for what you want it to do. Get in touch today and see what we can do for you!

Different Landscape Lighting Fixtures Have Different Uses

Landscape lighting is all about knowing how to light your home and yard to get the best results. Whether you just want to see where you’re going, or want to improve your curb appeal, you’ve got to know how to light it up. There are many different types of landscape lighting fixtures and each one has a different use. Let’s take a look at the basic ones.

infographic on the different types of landscape lighting fixtures

click to see full sized version

1. Path Lighting

Path lighting is the most basic type of landscape lighting fixtures we use. Path lights are set along walkways to provide light to see by. These fixtures cast light downward on the path so you can see where it is, as well as highlighting it at a distance.

2. Spotlights & Floodlights

Spotlights are a type of landscape lighting fixture designed to give a beam of light. They’re generally used to highlight specific features, such as statues, shrubs, or other landscaping displays. They can also be used for shadow lighting. By placing an object in front of a spotlight, you can use it’s shadow to create a silhouette on a flat surface for artistic effects.

A similar type of fixture is the floodlight.  A floodlight typically spreads at a 120 degree angle, though there are wider or narrower varieties. They’re used if you need to light up a large area. If you want to hold a night-time party, or want people to see a large architectural feature (such as a fountain), floodlights are what you want.

3. Inground Lights

Also called a well light, inground lights are circular light fixtures that fit directly into the ground. They can be used in place of path lights to highlight walkways, but have many other uses as well. The uplighting effect combined with the light itself being hidden creates a dramatic atmosphere, or highlight tall features, such as trees. Combined with well-blended spotlights, you can get some highly striking visuals.

4. Deck and Step Lights

Where inground lights are built into the ground, deck and step lights are built into walls and steps. They’re mainly used to highlight the area, but also provide light for steps so you can safely climb down them without slipping or tripping.

5. Pond Lights

Similar to spotlights, but they are made to be placed under water. They can help highlight any water features you have without worrying about shorts or electric shocks.

Landscape Lights For Every Purpose

The different types of landscape lights all have their own uses. Getting the most out of your landscape lighting is knowing which light to use for which purposes. No single type of light works for every situation. Path lighting and lanterns are the most essential types for basic safety, but they aren’t going to work for everything. To create the most visually appealing displays, you have to mix them up to suit the needs of your landscape features.

We Use Only The Best

When it comes to setting up your landscape lighting fixtures, we use only the best. We prefer Vista Pro lighting, which provides high quality products made to last. We make use of LED lights because they put out a lot of light, but use very little energy, making them highly efficient. With a wide variety of styles and colors, we can tailor them to suit any home. Each lighting fixture is built to the specs of the project we’re working on, so you get something unique and perfect for your home!

landscape lightingLet Us Help You With Your Landscape Lighting

Here at Portland Sprinklers, we’re experts at landscape lighting. If you’re looking to light up your home in a way that doesn’t just give you the ability to see, but makes your home really eye catching at night, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll give your house the curb appeal it needs to really wow your neighbors!

Landscape Lighting For Beauty

infographic providing tips for effective landscape lightingLandscape lighting is about more than just seeing your home, it’s about seeing the beauty of your home. It’s easy to place some lights along a walkway so you know where you’re going at night. If that’s all you want, you don’t need much help from us, but why not make the most of it? Good landscape lighting can really make your home stand out. Want to know how? Here’s some tips.

Tip 1: Start Around Your House

While your yard can be quite a sight to behold, the yard isn’t the point of your house, your house is the point of the yard. The yard is supposed to enhance the appearance of your home, so when it comes to landscape lighting, you want to start around your home.

Start by lighting up your house. There needs to be enough light to see as you walk around it, but it should also highlight the best looking features of your home. In the dark, any light will grab the eye, so adding a bit of extra light to your home’s best features will show off why your home is worth looking at in the first place.

Tip 2: Don’t Overdo It

When it comes to landscape lighting, the goal is to draw attention to your best features. The temptation is to add more lights to the areas you want people to look at. While a bit of extra light in the right place will do that, if you go overboard, you end up drawing attention to the lights instead of the features you’re lighting. Quite often, one or two lights in the right place will do far more to highlight your home than a dozen lights trying to show off every thing.

And don’t forget, shadows are needed for the eye to recognize texture. If you over-light an object, you get rid of most of the shadows, which makes it look flatter and less real. The trick is to find the right balance of light and shadow to make it stand out.

Tip 3: Stagger The Lights

If you place all of the lights on your path in a straight line with a clear pattern, it becomes boring to look at. Patterns in nature are rarely simple and so simple patterns look very artificial. Your pathways look like airport runways instead invitations to explore.

To avoid this, space your lights out a bit less evenly. Stagger them out, alternating between one side of the path and the other. You can also place the lights so they shine down the pathway, better allowing you to mix up the patterns while still adequately placing the lights.

Be careful not to go overboard, though. The human brain is hardwired to look for patterns. It isn’t satisfied until it finds one, but if the pattern is too easy to sort out, it stops devoting attention to it. Simple patterns are boring, but no pattern at all is uncomfortable.

Tip 4: Use the Right Bulbs

Landscape lighting is a careful balance of light output vs. energy consumption. You need to have enough light to see, but you don’t want it to use so much energy that your bill shoots through the roof. It’s easy to go overboard here, too. If you use bulbs that put out too much light, not only do they cost you more power, but they also create harsh glares that are ugly to look at.

This is why we use LED lights for a lot of landscape lighting. LED lights give a lot of light, but use very little power. It’s by far the most cost-effective measure and now it comes with a variety of options to give you a nice, warm glow. The best use of LEDs is a downward focused lighting to avoid glare and use reflected light to give you a soft glow.

Tip 5: Don’t Let Out of Sight Be Out of Mind

While you shouldn’t try to light up every square inch of your yard, don’t overlook the small out of the way areas. Even the places you don’t normally look at can have natural beauty that enhances your yard.

Not to mention security. Burglars are going to be looking for places they can slip into your yard unseen. Lighting up the out of the way corners of your yard is a good way to keep them away. If they can’t slip in unnoticed, they’re most likely going to look for another place to rob.

We’re Landscape Lighting Experts

Tlandscape lightinghere’s a lot of things to consider for landscape lighting, far more than we could cover in just one article. That makes it hard to make the most of it. Fortunately, here at Portland Sprinklers and Landscape Lighting, we’re experts. We can help you find the right balance to make your home and yard a sight to behold. Your neighbors will marvel as they walk by your home at night! If you’re looking to make your home really stand out, get in touch with us today!  We’ll help you make your home a thing of beauty!