Specialty and Architectural Lighting — Landscape & Outdoor

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy warm days and cooler evenings outdoors. But while soaking up the sun, it's easy to forget about your home's lighting. Proper lighting maintenance can improve energy efficiency, enhance safety, and keep indoor and outdoor spaces looking bright and inviting. Here are some essential...

With the change to Daily Savings Time, the switch to Spring, and the lengthening of the days and more wet weather, it's only a matter of time before bugs will be back in force around your home. But you don't have to suffer (as much) from creepy crawlies and flying...

Among all the factors to consider when buying an LED outdoor luminaire – here is another: connected controls. Increasingly, commercial building codes are expanding outdoor lighting requirements to include automatic shutoff and modulated light levels based on occupancy or time of day. This level of control, common for commercial interior lighting,...

One of the fastest growing segments of the LED commercial lighting market is site, area, street and parking lot lighting. Owners of commercial property and municipalities in particular are looking at LED solutions for new developments or to replace HID fixtures in existing applications. In this post we will look...

Photocontrol devices use photocells to determine ON/OFF status of outdoor lighting based on the ambient light level. While generally understood as responding to visible light, some photosensors also respond to infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Normally used for roadway, area, parking, flood and security lighting, photocontrols automatically control the...

LED lighting excels in cold temperature environments. At Pegasus Airfield near McMurdo Station Antarctica, the runway is illuminated with LED lights. Temperatures range from a high of 12°F down to 0°F and lower. Large commercial cold storage facilities are often illuminated with LED lighting. Finally, one of the fastest growing...

A significant contributor to electrical energy use in the U.S. is outdoor area lighting. Street and roadway lights, walkway and park lighting, surface parking pole mounted fixtures and building mounted wall packs are all designed to illuminate space at night to provide safe passage and security for vehicles and pedestrians....

Halloween is just a few weeks away. While you have probably given plenty of thought to your costume, have you thought about decorating your house or yard? While most decorated houses have the typical tombstones, skeletons, spider webs and ghosts, the ones that stand out have one thing is common...

Outdoor lighting, whether landscape or building mounted, can add significant visual appeal to both commercial and residential buildings and spaces. When designed and implemented properly, lighting around a building enhances the architecture, showcases plants, rocks and sculpture in the landscape and guides visitors safely to the entrance. In addition, exterior...

The next time you walk through your downtown after dark take a minute to notice the lights – on buildings, on poles and post tops, along sidewalks. How many of these light fixtures put the illumination only where it is required to meet the purpose of the fixture installation? There...

Cities and states can enjoy numerous benefits by switching from high pressure sodium to LED lights in street lighting fixtures and traffic signal lights. These benefits included better visibility for drivers, lower power consumption for street lights, and reduced maintenance when compared to the old lighting technology. On the negative...

If you are anywhere close to the Midwest or Northeast parts of the United States, you've probably had more than your fill of winter. You may even start shivering just at the mention of the phrase "polar vortex." With one of the most brutal winters finally behind us, it's time...

The sounds of Spring. Rain and thunderstorms, birds that are finally coming back after a long winter, and ZAP! That's right, it's time to talk about bug zappers, an invention that has come a long way since it was first patented in 1934. How Bug Zappers Work Bug zappers, despite...