Here is your landscape lighting maintenance checklist
Just like any other system in your home, say your air conditioner or irrigation system, regular landscape lighting maintenance must be done. I’m sure you wouldn’t go a year without changing your air conditioner filter and I’m betting that you check to make sure your irrigation sprinklers aren’t throwing water in the street from time to time. Would you even dream of not changing the oil in your car at least twice a year? I didn’t think so.
You spent some good hard earned money on your professional outdoor lighting and these lighting systems need some regular attention to protect that investment.
Here is a landscape lighting maintenance checklist to go by when servicing your outdoor lighting system.
- Turn your system on. It’s much easier to know what’s not working with the whole thing up and running.
- Check the operation of any control devices that may be in use. This may be a photo cell, timer, switch or remote control, among other things. We always suggest replacing the batteries in digital timers once a year.
- Replace any burned out lamps (light bulbs) you may find. It is critical to only replace the lamp with the same wattage lamp that is burned out. If you increase the wattage of the lamp you could overload the circuit and if you decrease the wattage of the lamp you could increase the voltage going to your other lamps, causing them to burn out prematurely. Use a di-electric compound on the pins of the lamp to help fight corrosion in the socket. (This is mostly pertaining to halogen or incandescent lighting but LED lamps do fail from time-to-time as well and may need to be changed)
- Check for leaning fixtures (a torpedo level comes in handy here), clean debris and water stains from lenses and trim any vegetation from near the fixtures. Plants grow and sometimes they will grow right over the light, blocking the desired lighting effect.
- If you have tree mounted fixtures, you’ll need to check the attachment brackets and hardware to insure the tree is not consuming the wire and hardware by growing around it. Wire should be attached with stainless steel screws which can be backed out as the tree grows. If your installer used staples here, they should be removed or the tree will most likely grow around the staple and wire which will cause the wire to short out eventually.
- Check voltage readings and amperage readings on the primary and secondary side of the transformer and compare those readings to the originals which should have been taken when the system was originally installed. If there are differences, there may be a problem in the system which requires attention.
- Check terminal lugs in the transformer to insure they are tight. As wires heat up and cool down they can loosen the terminals which can than cause arching between the wires and the terminal lugs of the transformer.
If all of these tasks are done at least on a semiannual basis, your system should last for many years. All NightScenes technicians use this checklist along with a couple of company policy items each time they perform a full maintenance service on an outdoor lighting system.
Our technicians are also proficient in working on all major brands of professional grade landscape lighting products. We can also handle warranty issues on brands such as Kichler, FX Luminaire, WAC, BrillianceLED, Clarolux, Sterling, and many others.
If you would rather that we provide this service for you, we do offer renewable annual maintenance agreements and we can service any professional grade low voltage outdoor lighting system on the market. Please contact us here and we’ll do everything we can to insure your outdoor lighting system looks great and lasts for a very long time.
