I was recently scrolling through Facebook looking at pictures of food and cat videos when I happened across a targeted ad from a manufacturer who shall remain nameless (I am certain many of you will be keenly aware of who I am referring to). In the ad the manufacturer...
People often ask me how much landscape lighting costs and it’s a tough question to answer. It’s almost like asking how much does a car cost? I can probably get a car that runs, has no AC, no stereo, and will overheat every 20 miles for less than $500....
How Long do LEDs Last? Be sure to scrutinize when someone tells you that your LEDs are going to last 50,000 hrs. A lot of contractors (and manufacturers) are misleadingly using their L70 rating to tout the lifetimes of their fixtures and lamps. An L70 rating is just an...
Part II: Landscape Lighting Manufacturing Processes In Part I of this series I discussed some different metals and metal alloys used to manufacture landscape lighting. In Part II, I am going to discuss finish types, and the various ways to shape metals. There are many and is important to...
Types of Landscape Lighting Fixtures Part I: Landscape Lighting Fixture Material Landscape lighting fixtures can be made of plastic or composite materials, as well as different metal types. The most common types of metals are aluminum, copper, brass, bronze and stainless steel. There are many manufacturers out there (and some...
Just like anything else for your home, there are a wide range of outdoor lighting products you can purchase. There are several factors to consider when making selections as well. Because the variables are so vast, I am going to approach this topic in several parts. In Part I,...
I recently had to rent a car while my wife’s car was in the shop. I was upgraded to a Cadillac XT5 from the Toyota Corolla I had paid for. It was a nice treat to get to drive around in a car I only dream about owning. I...
If someone tells you that they charge $250 per fixture or that they can install 12 Lights for $2500 it might be a red flag. What that tells me is that they are not considering your specific job and are just trying to sell the maximum number of light...
It still amazes me that outdoor lighting is generally the last thing that anyone thinks about when purchasing or building a home. That is probably the worst thing about being a lighting designer. We always seem to get called way after everything else is completed which makes the installation...
I’m going to level with you here. No one NEEDS a lighting designer. Anyone with thumbs and half a brain can wire some fixtures together and stake them into the ground. Sure, there are a few more laborious aspects of installing outdoor lighting like tunneling under sidewalks, burying and...
