Outdoor Lighting – What’s possible?
Outdoor lighting has come a long way in recent years. There are some very exciting innovations that make life easier for you, and light up the exterior of your home and garden really beautifully.
Given the time of year, before we discuss lighting in more detail, we just had to cover off…
Christmas decorations
To be honest, we do worry about people’s safety during the festive season. Many people get injured every year while they are putting up their decorations. Not only do people fall from heights, but also fall victim to fire and electrocution.
It really isn’t worth becoming another one to add to the statistics. We urge you to contact us if you have grand plans for lighting up your home and impressing the neighbourhood. We can make sure you have the right sockets in place, and even set it up to come on and go off at specific times of the day.
We are insured and have the equipment to handle outdoor electrics too – so you know it is in safe hands.
Security lighting
If you already have halogen security lighting you might want to consider replacing it with LED. LED will help you reduce energy bills, as well as giving you the same, or often, even better light output. For example, a modern LED floodlight with a 38 watt rating will replace an old 500 watt halogen floodlight. And you won’t have to worry about replacing bulbs regularly either.
If you don’t already have it, it is worth considering motion detector lighting. This is triggered by movement in the darkness. An alternative is lighting that comes on automatically when it gets dark, and turns off again at dawn. This saves valuable time fiddling with time clocks during the year, and is very popular with our commercial and managing agent clients for blocks of flats, and garage/parking areas.
Do give us a buzz if you’d like some help with modernising your security lighting.
Decorative lighting
You may have tired, old lighting – maybe some of those coach lanterns? The quality of the light is probably quite poor in comparison to more modern lighting – it tends to be much yellower and quite dull. Modern lighting is usually a brighter, whiter light that is more effective.
Again, decorative lighting can be set up with a sensor to light your way to the front door – no more rooting around in your handbag for your keys in the darkness! Perfect for taking out the dustbins and all those other tasks we seem to do after dark in the Winter months. Like security lighting, decorative lights can be set up with sensors to turn on in the dark and turn off at dusk. We can additionally fit a timer, so the light is not on during the night, and wasting electricity.
There are a myriad of options, so let us know if you would like some advice.
Smart lighting
You’ve probably heard of some of the smart systems that are around now, such as systems for electronic doorbells, and heating thermostats. We will look at both of those in future articles. But did you know, it’s also possible to have smart lighting?
Using a wireless light switch – which means no mess inside the house for cables etc – you can control the lighting outside. You can make a focal point out of different features in your garden, and control it all from the comfort of your sofa! Many offer an app that you can download onto your phone so you can control the lighting even when you’re not at home – all you need is an internet connection. You can also program the lighting to come on and go off to suit your schedule.
Smart lighting is suitable for indoors or outdoors, so do contact us to find out more about how you could benefit from it.
