In Austin and central Texas, spring quickly turns to summer; we look for the higher temps right after Memorial Day. With that in mind and with the outdoor entertainment season upon us, don’t you think it’s about time to go to Outdoor Living Spaces 2.0? It’s a safe bet that your yard has changed a lot over time: trees grow taller, bushes fill out, flowers bloom and then are replaced seasonally. But maybe your lighting hasn’t grown or changed with your landscape. Or worse yet – maybe you don’t have outdoor lighting (gasp).
If you don’t currently have lighting for your outdoor living spaces and you know someone who does, you should ask them if they would ever go without outdoor lighting again. Our experience has taught us that the only homeowners saying they could give up their nighttime illumination are those who have had a bad encounter with products or installation. They like the lighting, though, and would love it even more if it looked and operated the way they expected it to work. What we hear is that those who have really good lighting love it, and those with bad lighting at least like it. Pretty much everyone would rather have outdoor lighting than not.
Now let’s say that you do have some lighting, but it’s been several years since it was installed. If it is an older system it might be halogen or incandescent lighting, and the bulbs burn out often. Maybe the landscape has grown a lot since the system was installed, so it just doesn’t look right anymore. Or perhaps you’ve had some problems with the system not operating when it’s supposed to.
I’m very happy to say that all of these concerns can be addressed and corrected – and sometimes at a cost considerably less than you may have thought.
Most professional grade outdoor lighting systems can be easily converted to LED these days. By doing so, additional lighting can be added without needing to buy another expensive transformer. Many people are very surprised by that fact, and I’m told that some folks have been informed by other contractors that it’s always better to just start from scratch. Although I would agree that starting from scratch may be the right choice if the lighting products that were originally installed are not of good quality, often times the system can indeed be saved. If the existing products are well-made, professional grade products, there is no reason to trash the whole outdoor lighting system and start over. The test here is this: if the light fixture will not outlive the LED lamp going into it, the system should probably be completely replaced. But if the fixtures are in great shape and will last at least 10 more years, I say re-lamp them with LED and save a bunch of money.
Good transformers should last for decades. When the design needs to be expanded, we can reduce the load on the transformer by around 75% by converting a halogen landscape lighting system to LED. Then you could actually add almost 3 times as many lights on that very same transformer. Since you can now add so many more lights to the current system, you can upgrade the design to properly illuminate the landscape that has grown and flourished in those outdoor living spaces over the years. A more mature landscape that is well accented will always look a lot better than new young plantings any day. Refreshing your lighting on your bigger, more beautiful landscape will look better than ever at night!
Now is the time to take your 1.0 landscape to the 2.0 upgrade – and we can help you do that. Contact us here and we’ll set up an appointment to assess your outdoor lighting needs.
