Outdoor Landscape Lighting Maintenance

Posted on: October 20, 2016
By: Alan O'Neill
Posted in: Electrician

Outdoor Lighting Tips For Homeowners

As the weather warms up, many homeowners start heading outside to enjoy their yard again—and wondering if there are ways to make their yard even better. Adding outdoor lighting to your landscape is one option we like here at Blooms Landcare; lighting can help increase your home’s value, improve safety, and make it more attractive.

Landscaping lighting enhances your home’s look and safety. Exterior lighting includes flood lights, path lights, spotlights and more.

Install Landscape Lighting

Nothing makes a home more beautiful after the sun goes down than well-placed landscape lighting. And not only do they make your home look better, they can make it safer, too. After all, landscape lighting can line paths to doors to make them more visible, and they also make would-be intruders think twice about sneaking around a well-lit yard.So what do you need to get the benefits of landscape lighting? It’s really pretty easy. You’ll just need a transformer, some lighting cables, and your lights.

These are often sold as kits, but you can pick them up individually, too.When thinking about lights, check that a transformer has a big enough watt capacity to handle the number of lights and length of cable you’re looking at installing. Stronger transformers and thicker gauge cable can maintain their power flow all the way down a cable to the very last light. But if your transformer’s too weak or your cable’s too small, those last lights may look dim compared to the lights closer to the power source.

When you’re buying lights, don’t forget to pick up a pair of wire strippers if you don’t already own a pair. And you might want to consider a lawn edger to help you trench out the path of your light cable to exactly the right depth.If you want to place lights that aren’t close to a power source, invest in some good solar lights. The technology has come a long way and there are a lot of design options. They don’t require any wires, so there’s no digging and are fast to install.

Step 1: Use a small trowel to dig a narrow trench (approximately up to three inches deep) along the cable path.

Step 2:Add a perpendicular trench where each light will be located to accommodate extra cable.

Step 3:Push the cables down into the trench.

Step 4: Gently push each light stake partially into the ground.

Step 5:Connect the cable to the power pack and plug the power pack into the outlet to test the lights.

Step 6: If you like the way it looks, push the lights into the ground and close up the trenches.

Step 7: Set your timer to the dusk-to-dawn setting so your lights are only on when you need them.

Benefits of High-Quality Outdoor Lighting

High-quality, professionally installed landscape lighting does more than light up your patio. It expands your living space, making your yard safe and fun for backyard barbecues and garden parties. It illuminates beautiful architectural features, adds to your outdoor décor, and creates a focal point. Perhaps most importantly, a well-lit landscape enhances the security of your home: discouraging trespassers and safely lighting the way for guests. Call (713) 812-7070 us for your home service and repair needs.

For more related articles and info visit Blog.