Outdoor lighting can make an ordinary garden look spectacular, highlighting your landscape's best features and leaving the rest masked by darkness. With careful placing, out door lights can reveal a side of a garden landscape that is invisible during the day time- the silhouettes of trees, textures in bark and brickwork and the play of shadows on a path or wall. Outdoor lighting can create illusions too, both of space and intimacy. A seat facing towards a brightly lit garden border will feel more private for being in the dark even if during the day time the same seat is marooned in the middle of the garden lawn.
Outdoor lighting is a great way to light up your garden landscape and provide it with an attractive ambiance on a summer evening. Lighting also also makes life simpler and safer on those Autumn evenings when it starts to get dark earlier.
Coloured out door garden lights give illuminated features a two - dimensional effect, making it difficult to work out how large or distant the illuminated object is.
Lights shining across the surface of water have a similar effect, disguising the bottom of even the most shallow pool and making it appear unfathomably deep.
All of Green Onion Landscaping's outdoor electrical work is approved and given 'The Building Regulations 'Part P' Compliance certificate.' This is a government approved registration scheme for electrical installers (ELECSA). All of Green Onion Landscaping's out door electrical work is completed by a fully qualified installer.
There are three types of lighting systems available - mains powered, low voltage and solar powered.
Mains power
Mains-powered lights can either be connected to an existing lighting circuit in the house or garage or run off their own outdoor circuit with a separate fuse on the consumer unit. The method you choose will depend on how many outdoor lights you are going to have and how far away they will be from your house. Elaborate outdoor lighting with multiple lights should be wired to their own separate permanent circuit. This should always be carried out by one of our qualified electrician.
Low voltage
Low voltage garden lighting is connected via a transformer to a mains socket in the house, garage or garden shed. The transformer steps down the mains electricity supply to a very low voltage before it runs outside into your garden landscape, meaning that even if you accidentally cut through one of the cables there would be no risk of electric shock. The advantage to low voltage is that the cables do not have to be buried in the soil so deeply or protected within armoured conduit-making them simple to lay and very easy to adjust and move around your garden.
LED lighting
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and is a solid state conductor light source. LED lights generate next to no heat and are therefore very efficient. They can come in a variety of different shapes and usually consist of a cluster of smaller LEDs housed in one glass protector. LED lights can last for 10 years or more and are very durable. Their light can be harsh or 'cold' as it tends to be in one narrow wavelength rather than standard 'incandesant' lights which cover a broad wavelength and give off a warmer glow.
As new developments happen, better and more efficient lighting solutions appear. LED seems to be the light of the future at the moment as they last for such a long time, and use such low levels of electricity, but you never know what's around the corner and things like gas plasma lamps promise to be even better at providing more light for less power, so it would seem that the future really is bright!
Recent innovation in LED lighting means that LED lights can be inserted into decking surfaces or patio stones and be used to light up your decking or patio from beneath or from the side. This sort of lighting can really add a stylish finishing touch to any deck or patio, and it looks absolutely magical on a summer's evening. Lighting is available in a vast array of colours, styles and shapes too.
In certain situations it's even possible to power the whole deck or patio lighting with a solar cell, you can relax and bask in the free light from the stored energy of the sun, knowing that it's paying for itself as you sit and do nothing! It is important to note that some deck or patio lighting will need to be installed by our qualified electrician, but rest assured Green Onion landscaping is able to offer a professional electrical lighting service to you from our fully qualified electrician.
Not all lighting is suitable for outdoor use. If you decide to tackle a lighting job yourself do make certain to check that a light is suitable for the purpose you have in mind. When purchasing your deck lighting or garden lighting solution always check that the light can actually be used out doors. If in doubt check with us. We are always happy to advise or point you in the right direction or supply you with a free quotation. We would always advise that a qualified electrician fits any outdoor lighting to your garden landscape.
Outdoor lighting is beautiful and makes your garden look elegant. You can avoid all the stress of under ground cable and disturbance by getting Green Onion Landscaping's qualified electrician to install your lighting for you. We are fast, efficient, professional and importantly qualified. You will also be supplied with the appropriate Building Regulations Part P Compliance Certificate upon completion of all our electrical work, proving your electrical work is legal and above board.
Solar power
Solar-powered lights work by capturing the sun's energy during the day and storing it in a battery for use on the night. They are very easy to set up requiring very little or no knowledge of electrical wiring and can be used independently of a power source. The are not power enough to light large areas.
Solar deck lights can get your patio or decking illuminated without any carry on,with an added bonus of not increasing your electricity bill, now that has to be a bonus! After soaking up the sun rays all day, the lights from LEDs will light your way for up to five hours. You must admit that's pretty good going.
Out door security lighting
Even decorative lighting will enhance the security of your home, but on its own it is impractical, because you have to remember to switch it off each evening and morning. For security it is better to choose a light which operates with a sensor, this way the security light is activated by the approach of a person or when the light box senses that it is dark.
Flood lights are very common these days and are often combined with a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor which switches them on when a heat source is detected. By switching on only when needed these lights use a lot less electricity, so they are a fantastic way to be friendly to the environment and to your pocket. Various types of Flood Lamp exist, each suited to its own application:
- Wireless solar powered LED lamps - tend to give a very low light level but are handy for finding a key hole in the dark
- Low Energy Eco friendly bulbs - good bright light but takes a second or two to 'warm up' to full brightness
- PIR sensor controlled lamps - come on when someone walks past
- LED Flood Lamp - a new generation of high wattage, low energy lamp with blinding white light. Excellent for security.
A coach lantern or 'comfort lamp' is an attractive and practical way to light up your garden. Often a coach lap is hung on a chain, but they can also be secured to a wall or even dug into the ground, if they have a long rod, rather like a street lamp. They have the added benefit of the light source being guarded by glass and a large space between the glass and the lamp, so they are well protected from weather and other outdoor damage.
HID
HID or High Intensity Discharge lamp is a light source which generates light by sending an electrical discharge or arc through ionized gas. HID lamps are long lasting and provide a high light efficiency, modern street lamps are HIDs, as are higher end car headlights. They come in either low pressure or high pressure, which affects the colour they give out. Low pressure HID tend to be dimmer and more yellow while High Pressure HID are blindingly bright.
Domestic and Commercial
Green Onion landscaping provide a professional outdoor lighting installation service to all of the Teesside,Tees Valley area, including: Stockton on Tees, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Yarm, Ingleby Barwick, Billingham, Cleveland, Teesside, the North East and North Yorkshire.