Five Common LED Landscape Lighting Myths

a guest post by Gracie Edgell

There are quite a few erroneous yet widely held beliefs about LED landscape lighting that cause many folk to either shy away from installing any in the first place or to make mistakes when they do try and install outdoor lights. Which is a shame since it’s really neither difficult nor expensive to achieve a great looking result in your garden and/or patio.

So let’s start with the popular idea that LED garden lighting is best left to professional lighting designers and installers. It’s not hard to see why the professionals might prefer not to shatter this particular myth, but the truth is that getting a designer look is really quite easy. Just cheat and copy one you like and think would suit your lifestyle. The world is not short of garden shows, articles and books to adapt ideas from.

Next we have the school of thought that holds that a garden isn’t properly lit unless it’s visible from space. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The point of landscape lighting is to create different aspects at night and enhance key features (water, ornaments, interesting shapes etc), not to light the garden up like a football stadium. Outdoor lighting should complement the natural setting and even around functional area such as the deck you should veer more towards restful than dazzling.

There is also the associated belief that, in addition to being bright, it must also be extensive. But the fact is that if you overdo it and put in too many lights you lose the very thing that gives outdoor lighting its unique quality – the darkness. It’s the contrast and the fact that you can’t actually see those areas that aren’t lit that provides much of the visual appeal. Using low voltage LED landscape lighting with slight restraint allows you to create a different look at night by hiding some parts of the garden and accentuating others.

To finish off, we get to two pervasive myths that relate to specific types of landscape lighting, and first up is the idea that solar lighting is free. Well, it’s true that you don’t need to provide any electricity in order to run those nice solar deck lights that are so popular of late. But that’s not the whole story.

Aside from the initial purchase, solar lights work by recharging batteries and these have a finite number of recharge cycles before they won’t work any more. So there is the cost of the batteries to consider, plus it has to be said that solar garden lights do have a far from exemplary record where longevity is concerned. Put simply, these have to realistically be considered disposable items. They certainly have a valid place in most landscape lighting schemes, but free they aren’t.

Finally there is the outdated notion that LED landscape lighting is not powerful enough. Sure that was a fair criticism a few years back but now? Forget it. LED is very much the way forward for all types of lighting and the garden is no exception.

Outdoor LED landscape lights are these days just as bright as conventional incandescent light bulbs, but with many more advantages. Very low running costs, virtually no heat, very long lasting, extremely robust and endless variety in colors and effects are just five good reasons to consign this particular myth to the same bin as the preceding four.

So to sum up: you don’t need to pay an expensive professional; brightness and quantity are not actually important; solar lighting is not the same as free lighting; LED garden lighting is very much a force to be reckoned with.

Related posts:

Solar Garden Lights vs Low Voltage Lighting

The Low Down on Solar and LED Deck Lights

How To Moderate Your Garden Lighting Plan

The Truth About LED Grow Lights

Outdoor Solar Lights Save Money And Help The Environment