Lawn Lights

You have many options if you are considering lighting up your yard!

One very effective and very attractive way to light up your landscape at night is to use exterior recessed lighting.  Recessed lights are a great way to light up the edges of decks and patios, light up stairways, and create up lighting in various areas, including around walls, trees, and shrubs.  However, while they work great, installing them can be a pain because it involves digging holes and running lots of wires underground.  You also need to be very careful at several different steps during the installation.  Take these precautions to make sure you do not prematurely end the life of the recessed lighting you worked so hard to install.

First, make sure that the recessed light fixture is always placed level with or a little above the ground.  Placing light fixtures below ground level creates a disaster scenario for your lights.  They will begin to collect all sorts of dust and dirt, inhibiting their power to shine and during wet weather they’ll become a pool of water.  While outdoor lights are water-resistant, most are not waterproof.  So unless you plan on installing pool lighting outside, make sure your lights are a little above ground level.

Next, try to ensure that you keep mulch and other dirt and mud off of your light fixture.  Mulch especially will insulate the light and trap all of the heat it produces.  This in turn will many times cause the light to fail prematurely because the LEDs that are use in most forms of recessed lighting are very vulnerable to changes in heat.

Finally, try to never place plants or flower pots near your recessed lights or any garden lights for that matter unless you are trying to light them.  If you do this, especially if you’re using the recessed lights as your main source of deck lighting, you’ll have the light blocked and end up with a dark areas instead of a well-lit lawn.