If you spend a lot of time outdoors designing a landscape, planning a home garden, or even just relaxing with family, you have probably come to realize that it is harder to enjoy the fruits of your labor when it is dark at night. You cannot see the vibrant colors in the flower garden you just planted without proper lighting, or the splendor of the shrubs that line the perimeter of your house. A good way to correct this problem is by installing landscape lighting lamps throughout your yard and patio. Our do it yourself landscape lighting ideas will enhance the look of your yard and house at night. Landscape lighting fixtures can be used in many different ways in your outdoor spaces. Install these outdoor do it yourself lights to illuminate the backyard, walkways and driveways, or place them around your home garden to accent the brilliancy of your plants and flowers.
Some people choose to place solar deck lights along the exterior of their porches to light the area enough to eat and entertain outdoors but also save money and energy. Many homeowners choose to put small outdoor patio lights along the sides of their porch steps or front door steps to make it easier to see the path and prevent people from tripping on the steps. There are other types of outdoor yard lights that can be used for safety purposes as well. Many people choose to install flood lights along the gutters in the corners of their houses to brighten the backyard at night. These spotlights can be set on an automatic timing system to go on around the same time that you are returning home from work or installed with a sensor that turns them on after detecting movement. For those of you who have trouble seeing your driveway plans when pulling in or out at night, you can line the edges of the driveway with small decorative scoop lights to help you see the area better.
An important consideration when searching for outdoor lighting and accent lights for a garden is what type of power source you would like to use for your lights. Aside from electricity, the most used source is solar power. Solar power lights are growing in popularity primarily because of the green movements that are sweeping the country. These lights are designed with an apparatus that collects sunlight to store in a battery located within the light fixture. The battery then converts the solar energy into energy that can be used to power the device. If you have a large garden in your yard you may choose to place one or two decorative solar lamp post lights throughout the garden to illuminate a path through your garden and decoratively accent your floral arrangements. Although purchasing solar garden lights can be a little bit more expensive than traditional electrical ones, they can ultimately save you a lot of money in electrical bills if installed properly.
In order to get the most out of your solar patio lighting you have to make sure to place the fixtures in areas that receive ample sunlight for at least a few hours during the day. If placed in a very shaded area, the device may not collect enough sunlight to appropriately illuminate your yard. Another problem that can occur with solar landscape lighting is that the lights dim and fade after a few hours of use. Nothing would be more upsetting than looking outside and seeing that the solar spot light you placed under your beautiful magnolia tree has dimmed out and is no longer showcasing this focal point in your yard. For this reason many people have recently been turning to electrical LED landscape lights. LED landscape lighting is also an environmentally friend source of light. Although there are some solar powered LED light fixtures, most devices run on electrical power. These outdoor lighting designs have recently become popular for their use as LED Christmas lights and decorations.
LED outdoor lighting can be considered better than traditional fluorescent or incandescent lighting because it consumes considerably less power, lasts significantly longer, and is also much more durable. Moreover, they have been used for many different purposes. LED lights have been created for use inside your home, in automobile headlights, outdoor lamp posts, and even holiday decorations. However, one concern that consumers have about LED lighting is that the light it produces is much more harsh and intense than other types of lighting.
For a homeowner who is just trying to accent certain areas of their yard, the extreme brightness produced by LED light bulbs can deter them from the advantages of their use. Fortunately, companies have met the concerns and complaints of customers and began creating low voltage landscape lighting that use LED bulbs. Now consumers can bask in all the benefits of LED lighting without turning their yard into a brightly lit landing strip.
