LED lamps come in a rainbow of colors but most of our clients want a white light. There are many different temperatures of white light with the most common being a warm white light vs a cool white light. Both of these white lights play an important part of a lighting design. Cool white light is a great when used as down lighting in a
Here at the Landscape Lighting Guru we see a lot of trash. Most of it is in the form of cardboard that new fixtures and spools of wire come in. But a lot of it is in the form of old fixtures and old wiring that has been removed to make room for new projects. There is really no reason wiring should ever go bad,
Have your exterior lights stopped working and you can't figure out why? As part of your troubleshooting, you should check your GFCI outlets. A tripped outlet is often the cause of lighting issues and it is a simple fix. To reset a GFCI outlet, you just press the red reset button on your outlet. Here is the tricky part of the troubleshooting...you should check ALL of
Well another poor tree that has grown over a ballast box due to lack of maintenance. If you have ballast boxes then please understand that they need attention at a minimum once a year. They need to be backed off the trees to prevent a rot spot from growing on the tree. Once rot happens this becomes a conduit for pest to get into the
We recently designed custom lanterns for a client using fish baskets. The baskets were retrofitted to run 120 degree warm Low Voltage LED lamps for all weather safety. The lanterns hang in this beautiful oak tree casting the most amazing shadow's on the ground and on the tree as they sway in the breeze. Do you have a custom lamp idea? Get with the Landscape Lighting Guru to
Time is up - don't use interior timer for outdoor systems! This timer was found at a recent maintenance service call. The reason it is all rusted and full of pests is because the previous lighting installation company used an interior timer (probably because they are less expensive). Wet rated timers are a little more expensive, but its the only safe thing to
With the recent rain events, we have had a few customers calling us to tell us that some of their down lights from their trees are not working. We have found two main culprits for this issue. One has been fire ants (see recent blog post) and the other has been internal damage to the micro processors from surges caused during cloud to cloud lightning strikes.
Those ants may seem tiny but they can cause a huge problem to your outdoor lighting system. In the Guru's experience servicing lighting systems, one of the biggest problems we see is ants nesting in one of the electrical components. It may not sound like a big deal, but the ants can actually ruin the equipment by either chewing through the components or bringing in dirt to
We recently had the opportunity to light up this irresistible outdoor living space for a client. We love how the tranquil paths lead you to two distinct areas - one perfect for cooking and dining and the other to fun in the sun.
There are many companies out there that can offer you outdoor lighting installation but there are few that deliver the correct design to make your home shine. The Guru believes that the lighting design is just as important as the installation. This doesn't necessarily mean that it is more expensive but rather often is the opposite, a well designed system may require fewer lights and
