Landscape Lighting Ideas: Low Voltage Landscape Lighting

The velocity of light dominates the scientific knowledge of man, all human standards of time and space depends on light-velocity. Where there is no light there is darkness. Landscape lighting ideas are inspirations drawn from the natural play of light and shadows.

Well-planned landscape lighting adds elegance and beauty to the looks of the house. Lighting can hide obvious landscape problems while highlighting the positive features by just illuminating the right thing. Spotlighting brings out textures more effectively while using different angles can be more dramatic. Underwater lighting works best in fountains and ponds, with the light source placed back from the area to be illuminated. Use of colored lighting to highlight a tree or using the brighter lights around tennis courts, pools, and other activity areas increases the visibility and at the same time is safer also. Silhouette lighting, provides the special effect by illuminating large outdoor surface areas like walls using a wash light fixture. This causes objects in front of the lighting to appear as silhouettes. The landscape lighting ideas are endless, just be creative however refrain from overdoing.

Low voltage landscape lights increases security by lighting paths, pools, drives and entry areas. Landscape lights types are usually mounted on built-in stakes, and are flexible and movable. Low-voltage landscape lighting systems have several advantages. Most importantly, low-voltage landscape lighting equipment is easier to install. Except for the transformer that's connected to a 120-volt circuit, the entire system runs on harmless 12-volt current. Another advantage of low-voltage wiring is lightweight and can be laid on the ground or buried just below the surface. Once installed, 120-volt systems are relatively permanent, while outdoor landscape low-voltage lighting fixtures can easily be relocated if one wishes to change the lighting scheme. Another advantage of low-voltage lighting equipment is that it can be relatively inexpensive.

There are many installation techniques, placement and combinations, which can increase home security, safety, and enjoyment. For example you might like to consider the solar powered landscape lighting, which completely eliminates wires and transformers. And because there is no wire, these lights can exactly be placed at the desired location. These solar lamps have a photoelectric panel that charges a battery during daytime and when the sun goes down, a light sensor or photocell activates the lamp. Added advantage with the solar powered landscape lighting is they are low cost and flexible plus its illumination is very low and very soft adding elegance to the entire set-up. They also prevent accidents as chances of getting entangled into the wires are completely eliminated so, they're really great compared to the old landscape lighting that had wires and transformers.

Another low-voltage alternative to explore is fiber optics lighting. In fiber optics lighting individual strands of ultra-pure glass conduct light from remote sources. Underground plastic coated fiber optic cables are very flexible in laying as they can be molded into concrete walkways or walls. These are versatile types as fiber-optic fixtures can be placed wherever needed. Since no electricity or heat is transmitted through these cables, fiber optic lighting is ideal as it provides maximum protection against fire and accidents.

One shortcoming of low-voltage lighting is less lighting power. However, such problems can easily be dealt with by using bright 12-volt halogen lamps, which can be very effective when used to flood an area with light. The low-voltage lighting transformer that powers the system must be sized to match the combined wattage of the lamps used. Another disadvantage with low voltage wiring is that the wires are not buried deeply and are more prone to being damaged and requires constant supervision to avoid the possibility of any accident, however if one goes for fiber optics lighting or solar powered landscape lighting such disadvantages can be completely eliminated.

Creativity is one of the basic requirements…don’t be afraid to take chances, explore your imagination but to light correctly, key in on architectural features also. One can try moonlighting, which is a design technique that illuminates general outdoor areas for increase in safety, security and aesthetics of the house. If done properly one would like to spend more time outdoors. Special type of fixtures and lamps are selected for the required brightness and amount of illumination, which are usually placed above the eye level. By various means we keep on trying to convert our fantasies and dreams into realities…why not when you have the means…light your world with low voltage so that you save energy and at the same time feel safe even when it is dark…