Go Green Forever » Lighting

Garden Lighting: Seeing Your Way in an Outdoor Living Space

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:08:24 +0000

With the great trends toward using your yard as part of your house, more and more people are discovering how to best utilise their patios, decks, and gardens as dining or living rooms. These outdoor living spaces can be usable all year long in many areas. One of the challenges to using your outdoor spaces in this manner is lighting them. There are many elements in a well designed outdoor living space. A good arrangement of furniture, clear access to the inside of your house, noise levels from surrounding streets or properties, all of these things help determine how useable your outdoor space will be. But, even the best designed outdoor living space can be ruined if there isn’t appropriate lighting. There are myriad types of lighting that you can use in your garden depending on the effect that you want to achieve. You can use spotlights directed at particular areas of the garden that you want to highlight to give the area a magical feel. Hanging lanterns are a nice option to string across a space or between trees. Strings of lights can be wrapped around tree trunks to create a unique effect. Pathways can be lit with lights that you spike into the ground alongside your walkways. Even ponds can be lit with submersible lights if your fish don’t mind. The other major choice in backyard lighting is that of energy sources. If you want your lights to come on automatically when darkness falls and you don’t want to have to pay for the electricity to run the lights, solar lighting may be just what you need. Most solar systems work well even when the days are overcast as well. Another method for outdoor lighting is using candles or groups of candles to provide a warm flickering glow. The downside to using candles is that they need to be supervised as they can be a fire hazard, especially in the hot dry summer months. The nice thing about candles is that you can set them out single in jars or cluster them for more intense light. There are many kinds of lanterns available for myriad different looks. If you have well-placed electrical sockets in your backyard then you may want to opt for electrical lighting. Most strings of lights require a plug in, though some types are available with battery power. There are even outdoor lamps akin to living room lamps that are designed for outdoor use. Take a good look at the parts of your garden that you might like to highlight with your lighting and also how much lighting that you will need to best utilise your outdoor living space. If you make your lighting decisions based on your needs, then you will end up with a space that is usable instead of a dim uninviting space.

Lighting Products For The Consumer

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:13:22 +0000

The choice of lighting products by regular consumers is increasing due to the various lighting technologies that bring different advantages to the consumers and are used in different applications. With so many models, coming in all possible sizes and shapes, people find it easier to opt for a personal style when decorating the interiors of their residences, at least when it comes to lighting fixtures. This phenomenon has a simple explanation: the use of light is no longer reduced to simple illumination purposes, but goes further than this status towards self-expression, mood lighting, accent lighting, architectural lighting and even landscape lighting. Most people still choose the lighting fixtures alone and their choices vary between three “root-styles”: elegant, traditional and contemporary. The average consumers choose their light sources based on price (cheaper are winning), but some take into consideration other factors as well and the most important is energy efficiency. Dimming the light is one way to cut back costs but it also saves energy and extends lamp life. Compact-fluorescent lamps and light emitting diodes (LEDs) are also very popular choices. LEDs are quickly expanding into the world of architectural lighting into many specific applications once occupied by metal halide or tungsten halogen lamps (think MR16 sized) such as spot lighting, marker lighting in stairs, railings, and doorways, and wall washing. Wall washing is when a light or series of lights, usually but not always colored, are positioned and often aimed (physically or through the use of lenses) to spread a wide swath of light onto a wall. Colors can be used for moody effects and colors can be blended from lamp to lamp even within a single fixture. Today light sources can be used to create a mysterious atmosphere, to enhance the mood of a room or to spotlight an artwork. When it comes to mood lighting, there’s nothing better than concealed light sources to highlight a painting or backlights to generate a warm glow behind curtains or pieces of furniture. Nowadays, people have varied preference on lighting and lighting products. Some even buy based on want, rather than on need. The most important thing is you know which lighting product will achieve the purpose, regardless if it is aesthetics or functionality.

Solar Yard Lights – For Reliable Alternative Lighting

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:48:54 +0000

For owners and developers consumors nature simply clean and green environment, they will surely think twice about using devices using solar energy Hoflicht for the home and external environment. These alternative lighting devices, not unlike the solar lamp post, and completely share the energy of the sun in a good cause. Everyone knows that energy from the sun, clean form of renewable energy. And around the world already polluted and desecrated alarming level, the positive gadgets such as solar lighting certainly a great help in reducing if not eliminating the pollution around us. Exactly how the operation of the House of solar collectors, solar lamp garden gather energy from sunlight and convert to alternative energy. Solar energy is used to make the solar system, garden lights running during the night. The cost of purchasing your own set of sunlight, the court is not as high. In fact, prices of these devices at a reasonable level if they are shared outside light gadgets running on electricity compared. Users and owners should be a purchase as a single investment, for example to reflect the cost of the operation of these solar gadgets, is practically zero. Suffice it to say that solar garden lights, gadgets are so effective, if not better than the ordinary electric light. You are in lighting and lighting in the courtyard and also the ways and the rest of our domestic environment effectively. Certainly, it will not last long if the owners more aware of the efficiency of solar devices.