When lighting is used in subtle or limited ways landscape lighting can be very effective. The designing of the landscape lights can help in making an extension to your home décor. When done correctly it can add definition to outdoor spaces and provide beautiful atmosphere. Placing landscape lights by trees, shrubs or flowers can bring into focus at night what may not be so obvious during day time. It can take them from simple to absolutely beautiful with the correct lighting added to them.

Landscape lights can also provide safety along pathways, sidewalks and driveways at night. The darker it is at night the harder it is to see these paths. The darker it is the better the landscape lights seem to work. Placing them along the edges of the pathways and driveways helps to guide one along safely. They also are great to use on steps for added safety as well as the beauty.

While low voltage landscape lights are wonderful for the beauty they can add to one’s home, you may also want to consider the security they can add and how they help deter intruders. Areas that are illuminated can make it possible for you and your neighbors to see if any intruders are on your property. Some low voltage lights can produce enough lighting to make it quiet easy to see what is around or on your property at night.

Landscape lighting is not just for walkways or gardens either. They can accent your home when placed correctly on the features of your home. Using narrow beams of lights to highlight any sharp features or edges and using wide angled lights on the flat surfaces looks best. It can take your home from dull and lifeless and transform it into an art of beauty at night.

When considering your budget and how much you want to spend on low voltage landscape lights you may also want to consider the life of them. Incandescent lamps last between 750-1000 hours. Halogens will last 3500-5000 hours. Fluorescent lamps will last up to 10,000. Fluorescent lights have a lower power consumption which should be something else to consider. The fittings used on the landscapes lights last longer on the fluorescent lights because they do not become as hot as the other type of lighting. With all this in consideration you may want to go with the fluorescent even if they are more expensive. Over time they can prove to be worth the extra money you may have to spend.

Designing the layout is very important. Decide what is special to you and where you want the lights to focus upon. Also it is good to create a point of interest by highlighting something in particular such as a tree, shrub or an architectural aspect. Creating a combination of lights and shadows can produce dramatic effects. Placing lights around water and pools can create a pretty mirror effect and/or add a tropical feel to the area.

Installation: Installing low voltage lights can be easy to do even if you have never done any type of electrical installation in the past. You can find them prewired and ready to install with weather proof transformers, sealed connectors and pre-installed lamps. Each light fitting is connected to a string of wire and you plug in the lamp in the place you want it. Once you have finished placing them and have connected them to the wire, you connect the transformer to the main voltage and turn them on. The instructions will come with your purchase that will guide you through the steps.

Low voltage landscape lights have been made to be weather resistant. The fact that they are low voltage will reduce any risk of electrocution if any wires happened to become exposed and touched by anyone or anything

If the low voltage landscape lights you have bought are to be installed separately it is recommended to have a qualified electrician to install them for you. It is also a good idea to have a timer or a daylight sensor so that the lighting will automatically turn on and off when they should. If you know that you will be adding landscape light before you have started landscaping, you can lay conduits or duct in your lawn and garden to prevent having to dig later when you run the lights.

If you decide that you want to go with solar lighting for your landscape lights you may find some disadvantages to them. They give out for low levels of light and they will grow even dimmer as the night goes until they run out of battery power. The advantage to solar landscape lights is they do not require any wiring or external power source.