Have you noticed that the days are getting shorter?
Every September we celebrate the official beginning of autumn, and we begin to lose about a minute of daylight every day. Although that doesn’t seem like very much, over the course of a month, it adds up to a half hour of lost daytime! Shortly after the equinox, (about 6 weeks now, being in November) in most of the country, we’ll also be setting our clocks back an hour for the end of daylight savings time and lose a whole hour in one day!
This brings a few things to my mind. First, here in central Texas our summer days are very hot and it’s just flat uncomfortable to be outside until very late at night — and even then it’s not easy in the mid-summer months of July and August. So the cooler fall and winter evenings are much nicer to get outside and enjoy. And it won’t be long before it’s dark when we get home from work — which means there may be challenges to moving around safely on your property. Finally, there are always some issues with timers that come up whenever there is a time change.
I actually like spending time outside in the fall and winter evenings, and it sure is wonderful when it’s not so dark and scary looking out across my yard. A little bit of soft lighting makes this time outside much more comfortable for everyone, even a big tough guy like me. There are creepy and menacing things skulking around out there in the darkness. Even if it’s just a skunk – I want to see it, so I need some lighting!
Also important is that we want to be able to navigate safely when the sun goes down. I notice that as I continue to age, my eyesight is not as good at night as it used to be; it takes longer for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Arriving home after dark, or entertaining in the evening gives me pause to insure that my walkways are well lit reducing the chances for a fall and causing serious injury for myself or my guests.
Finally, there is the whole timer issue. It seems that many lighting companies will still install the old mechanical timers that must be constantly reset for changes in time — which actually happens every single day. Starting on the first day of winter, the days begin to get longer (in the northern hemisphere) bit by bit, and the nights get shorter. Then the first day of summer is the longest day of the year, and each day after gets just a little shorter. So these mechanical timers will always need to be adjusted, or it results in lighting systems operating during daylight hours unnecessarily, or failing to come on until after dark. Both instances can be expensive, though in very different ways. We have never installed these type timers in our systems. Way back when we first started out, we used a digital timer with a battery back-up, along with a photo cell, to insure the lighting would not operate until it was dark enough; therefore, we only had to adjust the timer a couple of times a year. Now we have a truly great advancement: astronomical timers! WE LOVE THESE THINGS! We can program in your zip code (or longitude and latitude) and the timer automatically adjusts every single day. It even adjusts for daylight savings time! Now we simply change the battery once a year when we’re already on the property for the semi-annual spring or fall maintenance check, and the system is always working properly when needed.
We hope you will enjoy these more pleasant temperatures coming soon in the fall and winter. Please let us know how we can help you feel a little safer and more comfortable during those cooler but darker hours.
