LED Advantages
There have been some great advancements in lighting in the last few years. Most notable is the development of the light emitting diode, LED.
Some of the advantages of LED's include:
1-
Energy savings. Compared to our designs of past years, we calculate a 70% to 90% reduction in energy consumption.
2-Long Life LED manufacturers claim 50,000 hours of useful life for the LED's we use in our designs. This is more than double the lamp life of mercury vapor and 10 to 20 times the life of incandescent lamps.
3-Safety LED's work with 12 volt low voltage power or 120 volts. The low voltage option increases the safety of the installation.
4-Color LED's come in the several different color temperatures which enables us to mimic mercury vapor or incandescent light.
5-Size LED's can be very compact because they are available in low voltage, and many fixtures can be run off 1 small transformer. This provides more options and flexibility when designing.
6- Green No toxins, no mercury to go along with lower energy consumption.
7- Savings The initial cost is more for the LED, however, the energy savings and maintenance savings will more than pay for themselves in 1 to 3 years, depending on usage. (The greater the use, the greater the experienced savings will be.)
LED Lighting Trials and Tribulations
The LED arrives on the scene at a time when there is a national mandate to be kinder and gentler to the planet.
Some manufacturers, in their haste to cash in on this opportunity, are putting lamps and fixtures on the market that are ineffectual.
We have an impressive collection of useless LED fixtures.
Specifiers of LED lamps and fixtures should be wary of colorful catalog glossies or impressive specs.
The best way to ensure you're ordering a worthy luminaire is to test it or talk to someone who's used it.
Otherwise, the buyer should beware.
Manufacturers are also not being shy in their pricing.
This reflects engineering costs to develop new technology, but it may be seizing an opportunity. Either way, if the price is high and the fixture doesn't perform, it's a tough spot for the specifier to be in.
Safer, Smaller, Less Costly Low Voltage World
LED's Impact on Design
LED's are a further endorsement of low voltage lighting. LED's use little energy and function at full brightness between 9 and 18 volts. Voltage drop is a non-issue. LED's can be installed in series. There is little need for multi-tap transformers, running heavy gauge wire, doing "T" installations or running multiple lines. Low voltage means less line voltage, which means less 18" deep trenches resulting in reduced costs.
Magnitude: Big scape versus small scape
Having spent many years as a "big tree illuminator", I can say it's not all it's cracked up to be. Having done many moonlight installations, there is an upside and down side to being high up in a tree. Because low voltage fixtures are smaller, they of necessity have to be lower in the tree. This is not necessarily a bad thing, simply because at lower heights they are less egregious to the homeowner and neighbors.
Up lighting big trees makes a big statement, but also requires big energy. Lighting the tops of 90' trees is not easy to see from the ground unless you are back a reasonable distance from the tree, or spend a lot of time craning your neck looking straight up. It makes sense to light what is closer to eye level and this can be done most effectively with low voltage LED lighting.
Indiscriminate lighting of large trees takes away either upllighting or downlighting can cause wonder as to the purpose. Only when executed effectively with breathtaking artistic aplumb is this wonder silenced.
It seems incongruous to celebrate nature by running wires and electricity through it. In an attempt to embrace nature we offend and taint it. Complicit and compromised, perhaps, but undeterred we have, in spite of ourselves, created some magical, if not completely natural, environments for our enjoyment that are both sensible and artistic.
