Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Efficient and Consistent Landscape Lighting

Solar landscape lights are popular, but they simply don’t work (literally) for us because of the shade around our house.  So, we have been waiting for someone to come out with LED low voltage lights for several years.

Well, we’ve finally found some at last!  New Lights 2My husband spotted these new LED Low Voltage Landscape Lights by Brinkmann in the gardening section at our local Walmart.  They are only in some stores, and the supplies and styles on line are limited.  So don’t wait to look if you are interested!  (If you live near us, I’m sorry—we wiped out their meager stock of the brushed stainless ones.)

New Lights 3Most of our old green lights were tattered, and only a few still worked.  I’ve been wanting to replace them anyway.  Here’s a new one side by side with an old one.  What do you think?  

Depending on how many you need, they are sold in sets as well as by the light.    Be careful, they aren’t packed as well as they should be, and we had to make exchanges because of some broken ones. New Lights 5     

Brinkmann also makes spotlights which can be linked in the line-up.  You can have up to 15 lights (total) per transformer.  And these little guys are bright!    

They are easy to connect and move around.  Plus, with LEDs using roughly 1/7th the energy of incandescent bulbs (according to my very smart husband who knows far more than I), these little lights can be left on from dusk to dawn and still save us money!

We weren’t sure how much light they would throw, but wow!  They are pack a punch!New Lights 6As you can see, Lucky (our cat) managed to get herself into my picture again.  See her in the tree covering up the peak of my porch?  She about scared me to death when she raced up that tree!!! 

Our only complaint about the design of the pathway lights is that you can see the LED itself—which tends to be a little bright from some angles.  Not quite as bright as this picture suggests, though (it’s hard to get just the right exposure).  We plan to plant some low-growing hostas in strategic places to filter the light.

I know it is a small thing, but I really do feel better having more working lights around the house—especially with my husband flying half-way around the world tonight. (I miss you!)  

Have a tip of your own?  Come join Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family and share it with us!

6 comments:

Courtney said...

looks beautiful and how nice to have such a great light source. i will have to look into these.

It Feels Like Chaos said...

Your new lights look really cool!

Keetha Broyles said...

Those lights are pretty amazing!!! What a transformation.

mub said...

I'm going to suggest these to my parents, I think they were looking for something similar!

Niki Jolene said...

Wow what a great find! Thanks for sharing!

:)

Ginger said...

I'll have to share this info with my husband who handles all the outdoor stuff.
Thanks for sharing.
Ginger