Here are just five good reasons to convert your current outdoor lighting system to LED lighting:
5. There are now so many different LED fixtures and lamps available that the design options are simply incredible! We now have tiny fixtures that can be hidden away in all kinds of places, helping us to hide the light source which is always a big plus in professional design. We also have a wider variety of color options with LED that were hard to achieve with regular halogen lighting.
4. Lower energy use. I know, most of you probably thought that this would be at the top of the list as number one – surprise! Yes, LED lighting does use a lot less energy than any of the other lighting options, but the cost of energy in central Texas is fairly low, so it would take a lot of time to recoup the cost of LED if you were only counting on energy savings. Buy hey; reducing your global footprint in any way is a step in the right direction!
Here is a photo of a lens with baked on hard water deposits
3. Easier to clean! Halogen lighting burns VERY hot and it bakes our hard central Texas water onto the lenses of the fixtures. This is extremely hard to get off, and roasted on calcium really has a bad effect on the lighting design plan. It severely impedes the light output of the lamp, and also adversely affects the beam spread. The labor cost involved in cleaning this scorched calcium off of the fixtures is HUGE.
2. Frees up space on your transformer. Most systems installed before LEDhave transformers loaded to at least 80% — and in those cases, according to the National Electrical Code, they are at maximum capacity. This means that you could not add anything to the system without overloading it. By converting even a few fixtures to LED, you can then have enough room to add a few more lights where your landscape has matured, where you added a special piece of art, or changed your outdoor living space in some way. Of course, if you converted your whole system to LED, you could install four times as many lights as you had originally!
1. Less maintenance expenses! The most expensive part of an outdoor lighting system is its annual maintenance expense. It’s the dirty little secret in the outdoor lighting industry. Once a professional outdoor lighting system is installed, it (just like anything else) must be maintained. Even when using the highest quality products, light bulbs burn out, plants grow, wire becomes exposed, lenses get dirty, and more. All of these things must be done at least twice a year on a halogen system. The cost of lamps and the labor involved can get pretty expensive, depending on the size of the system. With LED however, the fixture or lamp lasts about 10 times longer than a halogen product. It takes far less time to clean the lenses and therefore the technician may only need to visit once a year — and even then, he’s usually in and out in less than half of the time.
On average, converting a system to LED can pay for itself in just a few years. Larger systems pay off sooner than smaller systems, but it all averages out making it a valuable investment in your property.
BONUS: Since most existing halogen systems are pretty much maxed out, converting it to LED will likely prolong the life of the wiring and connections since the load will be cut by close to 75%. This could extend the life of the infrastructure by several years.
If you have an older outdoor lighting system that you would like us to convert for you, please drop us a note here. Thank you.
