Outdoor LED Lighting – Raleigh-Durham, NC
Lately, there has been increased interest in LED (light emitting diode) landscape lighting. Several of the manufacturers whose low-voltage products we use (including Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting©, Kichler®, B-K Lighting, Inc.©, Phillips Hadco®, Nightscaping®, Kim Lighting©, RSL, Copper Moon™ , and Focus Industries™) are now also offering LED landscape lighting products. LEDs are being heavily promoted because they require less electricity and they theoretically last longer.
But as Janet Lennox Moyer, renowned authority on landscape lighting and design and the author of The Landscape Lighting Book, writes in the July, 2010 edition of Landscape Contractor magazine, “[halogen low-voltage] MR16s CAN last as long based on dimming, and actual results don’t support the concept that LEDs are better. One of the initial ideas was that [LED] fixtures can be smaller, but in order to control the heat the fixtures have gotten bigger.”
Clients interested in outdoor LED landscape lighting should be aware that, currently, LEDs are substantially more expensive than low-voltage fixtures and lamps. In addition, there are only a handful of different lighting intensities and beam spreads available in LEDs.
Although LED product manufacturers and suppliers tout the longevity of outdoor LED lighting, according to Ms. Moyer, in testing, a high percentage of LED products failed to provide as much light or last as long as manufacturers’ advertising has suggested. In addition, while the total lamp life of LEDs may be greater than halogen lamps, over time, LEDs produce less light, although efforts are underway to extend the efficacy of LEDs.
Improvements and advances are being made in LED landscape lighting technology. Not too long ago, the entire fixture had to always be replaced when an LED expired. There are now LED replacement modules available and fixtures on the market set up to accommodate them. In addition, the color rendition (or the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of objects faithfully in comparison with a natural light source) of LEDs is being improved, but it is not yet always uniform.
It is our belief that it will soon be possible to retrofit most existing low-voltage landscape lighting fixtures with LEDs. Recently we have begun receiving information about LEDs available in a choice of socket types; however, many mainline landscape lighting product manufacturers have not yet made those LEDs available to their distributors and wholesale customers.
We at NiteLites, Inc. want our Raleigh-Durham landscape lighting customers’ systems to look as good 10 years from now as they do when they are first installed, so we are using LED landscape lighting products on a limited basis and only for specific applications. We strive to be on the cutting edge, but we do not expect our clients to take risks on imperfect or unproven technology. Once outdoor LED landscape lighting products more uniformly meet acceptable standards, we will regularly specify their use. The biggest hurdles to overcome at this point are replacement lamp costs, improved and more uniform color rendition, and improved lamp efficacy.
To read Ms. Moyer’s article in its entirety and to learn more about the PROS and CONS of LED landscape lighting, click here. ( Click on previous issues tab to access Ms. Moyers’ article in the July 2010 edition.)
Raleigh-Durham customers – For a free, on-site, no–obligation, landscape lighting estimate contact us online or call us directly at (919) 781-2443 today!
Proudly serving Cary, Raleigh, Durham, Apex, North Raleigh, Morrisville, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Clayton, Garner, Zebulon, Wendell, Knightdale, Wake Forest, Oxford, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Carthage, Burlington, Rocky Mount, Greenville, Wilson, & other Eastern North Carolina towns and cities.
