Hit The Lights: Landscape Installation

Landscape lighting can be a tricky business. The popularity of lighting among customers is growing at a rapid rate, which is good, but working with electricity is oftentimes a new challenge for landscape contractors.

Before the first trench is dug or the first bulb illuminated, a lighting system must be designed. And designing an effective landscape lighting system isn’t necessarily as simple as popping a light in the ground every 15 or 20 feet.

“Lighting is installed for various reasons – ego, security, safety, aesthetics,” observed John Binkele, vice president of business development, FX Luminaire, San Diego, Calif. “The biggest key to designing a lighting system is finding out what customers want, and that happens by sitting down with them and asking about their expectations and motives for the system and their past experiences with lighting.”

SETTING THE STRATEGY. The nature of the property to be illuminated will obviously impact the strategy behind the lighting system design. “Visibility is more of an issue on commercial properties than on residential properties because of the number of people on the commercial properties and liability and safety issues,” noted Pat Hunsigger, president, Shamrock Landscaping, Renton, Wash. “We tend to do a little more overkill lighting commercial pathways and access areas, and we’ll probably focus more on lighting the building so it is visible and we minimize any areas where people could hide.”

Hunsigger explained that depending on the building’s location, the building might not be the only area of emphasis. “The entryway either to the building or to the property is important on a commercial property,” he explained. “Uplighting the trees and company signs is important so the entryway is framed nicely, as well.”

Safety is also important for residential jobs, but these customers need to be convinced that a series of path lights from a local do-it-yourself store isn’t going to deliver a professional-quality job.

“With residential jobs, we always look at the pathways first and see if there are issues with steps or any areas that could be dangerous in the dark,” Hunsigger related. “Then the focus turns toward any specimen plant material or features in the landscape we can light that relay the structure of the yard.”

Mike Southard, national sales manager for landscape lighting, Kichler Landscape Lighting, Cleveland, Ohio, recommended that inexperienced contractors get a transformer, a battery and some accent lights and experiment, lighting different areas of friends’ homes. “Walk a property and look for interesting features to light,” Southard encouraged. “I’m a big fan of grazing textured surfaces or placing a light about 6 inches away from a brick wall or a palm tree and shining it directly up. That delivers a much more unique appearance than placing a light 6 feet away from an object and pointing the light directly at it.”

Ironically, Mike Mayberry, owner, Regency Landscape Services, Manchester, Mo., said a good lighting design hides the lights. “Hide the lighting fixture behind a plant or in a tree so that what people see is the effect of the light instead of the source of the light,” Mayberry suggested. “This eliminates the potential for lights shining directly in people’s eyes and can create some dramatic effects with shadows or spotted appearances of light shining through a bush.”

Binkele echoed Mayberry’s advice and said contractors shouldn’t be overly concerned with the aesthetics of a lighting fixture unless they plan to position that fixture in an area where it will be easily viewed. “What matters most with the fixture is its function and its ability to achieve the designer’s goal, whether that be uplighting, downlighting or pathlighting,” said Binkele. “The other important features of a fixture are its durability and maintenance requirements. A lamp that lasts 1,000 hours will have to be replaced about every six months, so you want the fixture to be accessible and the light to be easy to replace.”

Activating the system using a transformer is another important consideration. “If the transformer only has a timer to turn the lights on and off, then you need to show the customer how to adjust the timer so they can make change as the seasons change,” Binkele commented.

A popular alternative to a timer is using a combination of a timer and a photocell that automatically turns on the transformer once it is dark enough outside to need the lights. Then the timer is set to turn the lights off at a certain time so they aren’t left on all night long. “We primarily use a combination of a photocell and a timer to operate the system, and we’ve also installed some systems with motion sensors so if the lights have gone off and someone walks across the property the lights will go back on,” noted Mayberry. “But those sensors can be problematic, so I wouldn’t really recommend them.”

Southard was quick to emphasize the importance of properly locating the transformer on the property. “Putting the transformer in the wrong location can make the system susceptible to voltage drops,” he explained. “So you want to avoid making the runs of wire any longer than necessary, and sometimes that means adding a new outlet somewhere on the house to use.”

Another key point with transformers relates to selecting the correct size. Century Rain Aid, Madison Heights, Mich., recommends that after adding up the wattage of lights to be used on a job, divide that number by 0.8 to allow for “leg room” to an extra light to a system later.

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.

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