When you think of outdoor lighting you think of floodlights to light up the house and its environs in the night for safety and security. You may also think of decorative lighting for the garden. Then there is highlighting to show off your landscaping or architectural beauty. In all these cases the outdoor lighting involves running wires carrying high voltage to the different light points. You may run the wires underground or overhead. However you run the wiring, you have to be very careful that there is no chance of electrocution. Underground wiring is prone to water infiltration and damage by normal activities like gardening or some sports (cricket, for instance). If the insulation of underground wiring is damaged, high voltage electricity can leak out. Overhead wiring can break in storms and fall to the ground. Fatal accidents can occur to human or animal victims. Electrical short circuits can cause fires to break out, injuring people and damaging property. If you are thinking of rewiring your current outdoor lighting system, or if you are planning to install one for the first time, you should opt for the low voltage solution.

The concept behind the modern outdoor lighting system is straightforward and simple. You replace the traditional lighting system which utilizes high voltage circuitry operating at 120 volts with a modern lighting system operating at a low 12 volts. Some systems use 24 volts. Whichever voltage is chosen, these low voltages pose no threat at all to life or limb or property.

The outdoor lighting system is supplied low voltage electrical power by a transformer that steps down the high voltage of 120 volts from the mains supply to a safe and low 12 volts. Some outdoor lighting systems run on DC which means that they can be run even when the mains fails. Low voltage lamps are available in the market. You can choose incandescent lamps if you like. But incandescent lamps are very energy-hungry. It is better that you go in for high efficiency lamps like the latest LED lamps that have just appeared on the market at affordable rates. LED lamps consume just one-fourth of the electricity consumed by incandescent lamps with a comparable light output.

Installing an outdoor lighting system is very straightforward. You can hand the installation over to a contractor or you can do it yourself. The low voltage electricity running through the wires is safe to touch and handle barehanded. So you don’t need to switch off the mains every time you handle the wires. Even official and legal formalities are easier to implement with low voltage outdoor lighting system. The fire hazard still remains but you can avoid that by using high quality fire resistant cabling and by installing MCBs at strategic points in the wiring system.

So just how much money can you save with LED lamps? Well consider that they typically use about a quarter of the electricity of standard lamps. That’s a 75% savings every month on your outdoor lighting bill. Figure that out over the course of a year or even ten years, and the numbers become significant. Then when you add in the fact that these bulbs will last at least 10 times longer, the savings get even better. And as an added benefit you won’t be forced to change the bulbs nearly as often. As we all know, outdoor lights always seem to go out when we would least like them to, like when the temperatures are sub-freezing.

The wiring for low voltage outdoor lighting need not be buried underground. Because the load of LED lamps is so low, the wiring is commensurately light. This means that you can change the wiring around quite easily whenever you feel the need for a change (of outdoor lighting, that is). This is a very handy feature when your house has many special features. Highlighting them all at once is garish, and that defeats the very definition of highlighting! So one month you can highlight the gable roofing, the next month the side elevation, and the colonial columns the following month. The same applies to the landscaping or wooded area around the house.

Changing your outdoor lighting system to a low voltage outdoor lighting system using LED lamps will be a power and money saving idea. You’ll be contributing to environmental conservation as well by reducing the demand on large power generating stations. The main benefit of a low voltage outdoor lighting system is that you are now completely free from the risk of electrocution accidents. You can watch your children play out there and not have the teeniest fear about them getting a fatal shock. What could be better than that?

Shouldn’t you make the lighting outside of your house look as nice as the lighting inside? Visit www.contemporary-lighting-accents.com to find out how low voltage landscape lighting can safely illuminate your house’s exterior and learn how solar outdoor lighting can be a real cash saver.

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