Find the Best Brightness and Color Temperature for Your Outdoor Spaces
Are you ready to revamp your home’s landscape lighting? Or install a system for the first time?
Landscape lighting has the power to dramatically enhance how your home looks and feels after dark, accentuating architectural details and landscaping. Not only is outdoor lighting visibly appealing, but with more visibility, you’ll protect your home from burglaries and accidents.
As lighting designers and installers, we get asked many questions about landscape lighting. People are often perplexed about which lights are best for outdoor use: halogen or LED bulbs? It may seem like a low-stakes choice, but the lights you choose can dramatically affect your outdoor lighting experience (and energy use!).
Here’s all you need to know for your River Forest, IL home.
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What are Halogen Lights?
A halogen light bulb is an enhanced version of an incandescent bulb (the regular Edison kind). The difference is that halogen lamps use halogen gas to increase light output, which is why they are often used outdoors and as car headlights.
What Are LEDs?
LED stands for light-emitting diode. Unlike incandescent lights, it doesn’t generate heat to create light. This makes it much more energy efficient, and since it doesn’t have filaments that burn out, LEDs last much longer.
Which Is Better for Landscape Lighting?
Although halogen landscape lights may seem cheaper, they only last for about a year. On the other hand, LED lights shine for ten times longer. LED lights can also produce the same amount of light as halogen lights using 85 percent less energy, so you’ll save greatly on electricity bills. LED lights can also be intelligently controlled and automated to follow schedules and adjust their appearance with the help of Lutron.
Are LEDs Bright Enough for Outdoors?
LEDs in the past were known for being too bright in many settings. However, modern LED lights are available in a variety of brightness levels. And with your lights synced to a smart system (more on that below!), you can adjust the brightness as low or high as you’d prefer. From candlelight dim to ultra-bright, the choice is yours.
What If I Want Warm or Cool Lighting?
When your LED landscape lights are integrated into a lighting control system, you’ll have the ultimate choice over how warm or cool you’d like white lighting to appear. You can even choose fun, festive colors for parties or events. Green, blue, red—any shade is possible with a lighting system like Lutron. Some people prefer warm, campfire-hued lights, while others like stark white. You can change your mind anytime through your phone or tablet app.
A sophisticated lighting system is simple to use and brings luxurious convenience to your outdoor spaces. Interested to learn more for your Chicago-area home?
Contact Acoustical Vision to learn more about our automated lighting solutions today!