There are thousands of professional grade outdoor lighting systems out there that are in constant need of maintenance. It seems that every time you turn around, another light bulb is out somewhere. Does this sound familiar?
Professional low voltage halogen lighting systems have very tight voltage requirements to operate at their maximum efficiency. Each lamp requires between 10.8 and 12 volts of electricity. Less than 10.8 volts and the lamp is receiving too few volts and will darken; more than 12 volts and it’s overpowered causing premature burn out. Professional grade transformers make balancing a system a little easier with voltage taps that range between 11 and 15 volts. (Some actually go higher than that, but those transformers are not listed for use in low voltage landscape lighting. Even though some contractors do use them, I will limit my comments to UL1838 listed transformers which max out at 15 volts and are rated for use in low voltage landscape lighting systems.)
To maintain the proper voltage to each lamp, the installer may have to use the higher voltage taps on the transformer to compensate for “voltage drop” which is caused by the total wattage on the wire traveling over a certain distance. Then one of the light bulbs burns out. This could be due to any number of reasons, but let’s just say it had lived its expected life. That lamp was on a wire along with probably 4 or 5 other light bulbs. When it burned out, the electrical load on that wire was reduced, pushing more voltage to those other light bulbs on the same wire. As I stated before, too many volts to a lamp will make it burn out more quickly. As each of the subsequent bulbs go out, it creates a more rapid progression of burn-outs almost like popcorn popping. This is the primary reason the outdoor lighting company wants to visit your home every 6 months or even more often, so they can find those burned out light bulbs and get them replaced as soon as possible before the domino effect begins.
Naturally, all of these visits (service calls) cost you money. Not only are you paying for the cost of each light bulb, you’re also paying the time/labor expense to replace them and check everything out. Over a period of 2-3 years, you will have had all of your light bulbs replaced at least once. Needless to say, if you have a large lighting system, it can be pretty expensive to keep it looking great at all times.
LED lights on the other hand have a very wide range of voltage operation, usually anywhere between 9 and 15 volts (but some go as high as 24 volts). Since they do have such a forgiving range of operating voltage, they can’t be over-volted by a professional low voltage lighting transformer that is listed under UL1838. This eliminates the progression of problems caused by losing a single lamp on the line. And these lights are also generally rated for about 40,000 hours of use or about 13-18 years depending on how many hours a night they are operating.
So, since these LED products are so maintenance friendly, they actually save a lot of money in replacement and service calls. Don’t get me wrong, even LED outdoor lighting systems still have to be maintained: Lenses will have to be cleaned. Vegetation will have to be trimmed around the fixtures, and the fixtures may even need to be moved and adjusted to accommodate plant growth. But these things are simple and can be done very quickly. There should not be any material expenses for many years once the LED system is in place, and the annual service check should not take very long at all in most cases. We have noticed that LED system maintenance takes 50% less time than a halogen system, meaning the service charge is also significantly less. In our experience, it costs half as much in labor cost to maintain an LED system; and the material costs are 100% less — unless there is a failure of some kind in the LED product, which is almost always covered by the manufacturer warranty if it’s a quality LED product.
It’s easy to see how converting a current halogen landscape lighting system to LED can save a lot of money over a pretty short period of time. If your outdoor lighting system is more than five years old, you may want to look into an LED retro-fit. For those of you in the greater Austin and hill country area, contact us here and we will be happy to take a look. If you are somewhere else in the United States, we may be able to recommend a quality contractor in your area.
