Don’t Let Your Landscape Lighting Make You the Neighborhood Nuisance
Posted by Landscaper | Filed under Landscape Lighting Advice, Outdoor Tree Lights, Planning Outside Lighting
In the grand scheme of things there are social snafus and then there are social snafus. The ones that make headlines include George Bush senior vomiting during a state dinner, George Bush junior giving a head of state a massage and John F Kennedy calling himself a jelly doughnut (for the record, Ich bin eine Berliner means I’m a jelly doughnut where as ich been auch aus Berlin more closely represents what he wanted to say). There was also a French lady who publicly announced that all she wanted out of life was a penis. Granted, the accent was to blame (she meant happiness) but you can imagine the guffaws.
On the not-so-grand a scale are the little snafus that have unintended consequences. In keeping with the theme of this blog, that means landscape lighting mistakes that can really piss off your neighbors.
You wouldn’t be the first and you certainly wouldn’t be the last were you to painstakingly setup the most amazing landscape lighting scheme only to wind up with lights shining directly into your neighbor’s windows. Nor would you be the first to hear about it either directly, through nasty note or through a community board investigation. The good news is that you can do a great deal to head off any potential ill-will.
It’s worth repeating as I have in other posts, that planning is your friend. Take the time to layout your design on paper before you begin work. As you do your garden walk through and jot down on paper where you’d like to place lights, stop at each location and look beyond your own garden to see where light spillover might intrude on your neighbor. This doesn’t mean you can’t place a light in that location, just that you’ll have to work with angles and accessories to ensure you’re not intruding on their lives.
As you put your lights in and test the angle of light they cast, step back and look over at your neighbor’s property. Any light spilling over onto their house or windows should prompt you to work on the angle a bit to eliminate the spillover. Don’t assume that the small amount of spillover is fine. What looks good from your angle may be glaring from theirs.
Not every light you install will warrant such careful consideration. Path lighting is designed to spread a pool of light downwards and is low enough in intensity to prevent offending all but the most easily offended neighbor. If you have such a neighbor, the kind who is just looking for something to complain about, you probably can’t win anyway.
On the other hand, spotlights or outdoor tree lights are often elevated above fence height and produce directional light. These can easily wind up illuminating areas of your neighbor’s property so you should pay particular care as you put them in. When you purchase such lights, invest in louvers for them. Not only will this allow you additional flexibility as you paint your yard with light, it will give you even more control over how much of that light spills over to where it isn’t wanted.
As mentioned, outdoor tree lights are a cause for concern. In fact, lights mounted in trees are probably the single greatest offenders here. When you mount lights in trees for moon lighting or down-lighting a seating area, you do so with your guests in mind. You do everything you can to avoid blinding them with light. The problem is that the angle from which you are viewing may look perfectly fine but the branches which are obstructing your view of the light sources may not be doing so from your neighbor’s perspective.
Even all the caution in the world doesn’t remove the obligation to be neighborly. When everything is installed, knock on your neighbor’s door and let them know you’ll be turning on all your landscape lighting that night to ensure none of it is a nuisance to them. Advise them to check in all their most occupied rooms and to let you know if any of the lights are bothersome. If they sign off on your project, you’re good to go and you may just have made a new friend by being courteous and considerate of their feelings.
Finally, think about using timers. For the most part a fully outfitted landscape lighting scheme won’t require timers. Most of us will only use our deck lights most of the time and reserve the full light-show for when we have guests over. For those who like to have all the lights blazing in the evenings and who might plan to go away on a vacation, ensure your timers will turn off your lights at a reasonable hour so as not to disturb your neighbors with the ambient glow.
There’s no reason you can’t enjoy the beauty of landscape lighting and keep the peace with your neighbors. A little bit of planning, testing and consideration go a long way. And while you’re at it, invite your neighbors over to your gatherings now and again. They’ll be far more tolerant of your lights if they get to enjoy them now and again rather than just being forced to endure them from a distance.
Tags: landscape lighting, landscaping lights, outdoor landscaping lights, Outdoor Tree Lights
The Good and Bad in Choosing Landscape Lighting Kits
Posted by Landscaper | Filed under Planning Outside Lighting, landscape lighting kits
If you’ve considered outdoor garden lighting but have balked at the cost of having a professional do the work, there is an option that requires only minimal tools and expertise to get the job done. Landscape lighting kits offer an accessible option at a reasonable price for those of us who don’t live in mansions but still want to beautifully illuminate the hard work we’ve put into our modest gardens.
While you may be able to accomplish your goals with a landscape lighting kit, they are neither a fool proof nor perfect solution for all people and all settings. The do-it-yourself approach comes with problems of its own and kits have their limitations. Today’s post will hopefully help guide you through your decision so you can draw an informed conclusion about whether or not a kit is the best option for you.
Clearly the greatest advantage of using a landscape lighting kit is realized in terms of cost savings. Kits can hit some remarkably low prices. One example is a 14 piece light set made by Malibu and available on Amazon for a paltry $52! At those prices you’d almost think yourself foolish NOT to buy it. But before you make the leap, read on.
The cost benefits of kits exist for two reasons. The first is that you do all the work. Rather than having a landscaping professional charge you a sometimes painful amount for the work, you need very minimal skill in electrical work and tool use to get these things in the ground. That said, you will still be investing several hours of your time to get things done. That’s fine if you’re pulling in a middle class income or less, but a well paid lawyer or consultant might actually save more having a pro do the work.
The second (and more important) reason an outdoor lighting kit might cost so little sometimes results in a big disappointment for the consumer. To keep costs down, those super inexpensive lighting kits are made of plastic. That in itself isn’t so bad, but plastic doesn’t respond well to high temperatures. That means the bulbs in those plastic lights have to be relatively low watt bulbs in the range of 20 Watts (for spotlights) or 10 to 15 Watt (for accent lights).
Are low wattage bulbs really such a bad thing? Well, that depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If your goal is to define a border, like along a path, for safety then a low watt light kit is perfectly acceptable. The pools of light cast by these bulbs will be fairly anemic, though, providing less in terms of illumination than you might hope. Essentially, the light itself becomes a beacon of demarcation rather than the fairly inadequate pool of light it will cast.
The 20 Watt spotlights might be fine for illuminating relatively small specimen plants and, used correctly with the background in fairly close proximity, may even allow you to pull of some shadowing effects. Likewise, you can probably uplight smaller tree trunks though you may need to double up on the spotlights to do so. You’ll certainly be hard pressed to effectively uplight the branches of larger trees. Incidentally, we’ll speak a bit more about outdoor tree lights in our next post.
An additional down side is that you’re very limited in style with a kit. You’ll receive a set of one or two different kinds of lights. Generally you’ll get a standard set of post lights for borders and/or a few spotlights. Should you subsequently deem a spot to be better served by recessed lighting or prefer another style entirely, you’re back to square one. There isn’t a lot in the way of creative freedom.
Sounds a little grim so far, but stick with me. My intent here isn’t to turn you off to the idea of inexpensive landscape lighting kits, but to manage your expectations a little. There are certainly upsides to these kits such as, as already mentioned, affordability. I’m even willing to give credit for their plastic construction. Wait, didn’t I just condemn these lights for their plastic construction? Well, yes, because of the low wattage element. But there is a plus.
Plastic landscaping lights may be cheap to construct, but they’re surprisingly tough and durable. In addition, the designs are all but indistinguishable from metal models at night without very close inspection. Another great point is that landscaping lights are subject to all kinds of abuse from people tripping on them to damage from lawnmowers and weathering. Replacing a single metal light can be an expensive proposition. Replacing a single plastic light is a whole other matter and very cost effective.
Ease of installation is another feature you just can’t beat with landscape lighting kits. A few simple tools, a bare-minimum understanding of electrical work and you’re pretty much good to go. Do your research ahead of time, though, to ensure you have everything you need to get the job done.
A final perk with lighting kits is that they allow you entry into what would otherwise be a fairly expensive hobby. For a fairly low cost, you can experiment with placement and approaches to find what you like best and scale up from there.
There are some other issues we could discuss (both in favor and against) but the key is simply this. Know what you’re getting and what your limitations will be. For some of you, inexpensive garden lighting kits will be the perfect fit. Others, with grander ambitions or property to light will be better served by a professional solution or by piecing together their own set of lights that fit their specific needs.
Tags: garden lighting kits, landscape lighting, landscape lighting kits, landscaping lights, lighting kits, outdoor lighting kit, Outdoor Tree Lights
