The installation of landscape lighting is a project that you should always enjoy exploring. Most people find it to be a lot of fun, since the only thing that limits you when doing landscape lighting is your imagination. Of course, you also need to take into account a few practical issues when carrying out such a project. For instance, it often makes a lot of sense for you to come up with landscape lighting that will be cheap for you in the long run. The fact that the cost of power is increasing means that this is necessary for you to end up with a sustainable lighting project. Fortunately, there are various options you can explore with your outdoor lighting to ensure that you end up with this. Some of these include:
The use of energy saving light bulbs
This is the most common way of making outdoor lighting cheaper in the long run. The fact that the cost of such bulbs has reduced in many parts of the world due to various government subsidies means that it’s cheaper today than it was in the past.
Consider using LED lighting
The other way to cut down on the cost of electricity for outdoor lighting is by choosing to use LED lighting rather than the regular bulbs. LED lights tend to consume a smaller amount of electricity compared to regular incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. In addition to that, they also produce very little heat which means that there is very little wastage.
The fact that they can produce a light of very specific wavelengths means that if you want to, you can also use the LED lights as grow lights to encourage the growth of the plants in your yard even at night. To top it all off, these types of lights usually last much longer than other options. This means that you will spend very little to buy them, and you may find yourself using them for years before needing any replacements. There is no better way to get good value for money from lighting.
Buy solar-powered lighting installations
If you are thinking of using poles to install the outdoor lights, you can also save on the cost of running the lights by installing solar panels on top of the poles. This is a method of managing lighting that has been used in many parts of the world with a high degree of success. The basic way in which this type of lighting works is that during the day, the sun shines on the solar panels and charges the batteries within the unit. At night, this power is then used to run the bulbs, which means that you will spend very little or even no money on lighting.
In the past, you would need to use bulbs that are designed for DC currents, since this is the way in which power is stored in the batteries. Today, however, there are more advanced lighting units that can work with any types of bulbs since they include an inverter that converts the DC current into AC power. When you combine this with energy efficient bulbs, you will find that the power harnessed from the sun will be more than enough to run the lights, and that you will not need to spend much more on lighting.
Strategic lighting installation
For outdoor lighting to be energy efficient, you should try to install as few of the bulbs as possible. In order for this to be possible, it would be necessary for you to think through the way the lights need to be installed. Arbitrary installation of the lights is not recommended, since this might lead to the use of more than enough bulbs.
There are some studies that have even come up with formulas that you can use to determine the lowest number of bulbs you need to provide the maximum amount of lighting in a particular space. Taking advantage of such information will help you a lot. Not only will it help you reduce the cost of running the lights, but it will also help minimize the initial cost of outdoor lighting installation as well as the cost of maintenance of the same.
Automate the system
Another effective albeit slightly expensive approach would be to use an automated system to run the lights. The commonest method of doing this is by having a switch that will turn on the lights when the ambient light is below a particular threshold, and then switch them off when it’s above that threshold. This means that you can have the lights and not bother about switching them on and off, but still be assured that they will not be on when they are not supposed to be.
The above are some of the strategies you can employ to get outdoor lighting that is cheap to run. By working with a quality contractor, you would be in a good position to get more tips on how to do this in addition to the above pointers.
