The importance of maintaining your outdoor lighting system

Landscape lighting systems require regular routine maintenance. Inside your home, all you need to do is replace the light bulbs when they burn out. But in the outdoor environment, your lighting fixtures are exposed to a very different variety of conditions that can render them less effective and leave your beautiful lighting system less than perfect, even inoperable.

It’s not an intensive or expensive proposition (not like the spring opening of the pool) but it’s just as important.

Your specific needs will vary depending on your situation, but in general, all outdoor lighting systems are exposed to dirt, rain and water, even snow and ice. Accessories are designed to withstand moisture, but calcium and lime deposits; Hard water scale and dirt will build up on the lenses, drastically reducing light output. Because your lights are in gardens, they are close to plant material, which grows and changes with the seasons, throwing plant material onto and near fixtures and can obscure the intended light output.

Often gardeners, homeowners or landscape maintenance personnel accidentally knock lamps out of place while gardening, bury lamps with mulch or debris, blow leaves on lamps, or compromise the perfect orientation of light beams towards their intended subjects.

Sometimes homeowners plan to take care of maintaining their lights themselves. Very often, they will change the lamps for models of lesser quality or with incorrect beam distributions. Worst of all, they install voltages that are different from those intended for the system or for individual wires or circuits. This simple error can really compromise the functionality of the system and can void the manufacturers’ warranties of accessories or transformers.

Be sure to hire trained, licensed, and insured installation and maintenance personnel to help ensure your system is operating at optimal levels. The best option is to go back to the licensed electrician who installed your system. If your system was not installed by a licensed electrician (many low-voltage systems are installed by landscapers, landscape irrigators, and homeowners themselves), choose a reputable outdoor lighting company that offers a maintenance plan to keep your system looking great and work optimally. Ask to see their maintenance plan. You must cover all of the items listed below.

With regular service, your landscape lighting system will perform as designed and enhance your property with beauty and elegance season after season.

ENSURE THE PROPER ORDER OF WORK

Technically, your system is working properly due to proper power, voltages, amperages, and circuit loads. When these are incorrect, due to faulty installation or changes made after installation, you need a professional electrician with a good meter to determine where the problems lie. Your electrician must test your voltages and amperages, troubleshoot your system, and correct these problems to ensure that your system is in proper and safe operating condition.

CLEANING

Maintenance should include cleaning fixture housings and removing mineral deposits from lenses. This can be accomplished by using solvents or by scraping them off with razor blades. A good lens cleaning can make a big difference in the light output of the lamp, up to 30-40%.

Remove any mulch or debris that has accumulated near the attachments, or on the guards or deflectors. This debris can not only block intended lighting effects, but can also pose a fire hazard in some cases. Keep fixtures free of debris at all times and advise your landscape maintenance personnel to refrain from blowing leaves into or on fixtures.

ADJUST, READJUST AND REFOCUS LIGHTS

The landscapes are organic and constantly change with the growth of plants and the change of seasons. As plantings mature, it is often necessary to re-target the light beam or make adjustments to the beam spread of lamp selections. A good landscape lighting maintenance deal should offer to relocate your fixtures to some degree, improving the appearance of the lighting and enhancing the appearance of the plants.

ADJUSTING CLOCKS AND TIME CONTROLLERS

Sometimes your system doesn’t turn on when you’d like, or your clock needs to be adjusted for daylight saving time or the changing of the seasons. Ask your lighting professional to do these adjustments for you and leave them with the programming instructions. Try simple fixes before calling for help at midnight.

1) Has the breaker tripped? restart it

2) Has the timer battery run out? replace it

3) Is your transformer plugged into the outlet? plug it back in

REPLACEMENT AND LUBRICATION OF O-RINGS, SEALS AND GASKETS

Some accessories require gaskets, seals, and o-rings to ensure a positive seal against the elements. These wear down with age and are affected by heat. They crack and become brittle and need to be replaced and lubricated periodically.

REPLACE THE LAMPS

Maintenance is extremely important with halogen bulbs. MR-16 halogen lamps are particularly susceptible to declining performance over time.

Tungsten-halogen lamps operate on a “halogen regenerative cycle”. In conventional gas-filled tungsten filament lamps, tungsten molecules evaporate from the hot filament and deposit in a thin film on the inner surface of the lamp, reducing the luminous flux and lamp efficacy by two. ways.

First, tungsten deposits on the bulb wall form a film that reduces light output, and second, evaporation of tungsten from the filament reduces the diameter of the filament wire, increases resistance, and thereby Otherwise, it decreases power, lumens, and color temperature.

We recommend replacing all lamps every 2 years and replacing all lamps in the system if 1/3 have burned out. Any burned out lamps will affect the operation of your low voltage lighting system. Applying “bulb grease” will help prevent corrosion on electrical connections and help improve conductivity.

Retrofit LED bulbs can be used in some fixtures as an energy efficient replacement for MR-16 halogen lamps. The size and shape of the lamp housing determine whether they are appropriate for your lamps.

TRIM AND PLUM

As your plants grow and mature, they may block light or darken fixtures. As ground covers grow taller or extend flower stalks, they can compromise the intended appearance of the light path. During your maintenance, have your technician trim and prune plant materials, which affect the light’s appearance, and add mounting studs to increase the height of ground-mounted fixtures.

Tree-mounted luminaires require special attention to ensure that the tree can grow safely without damage and that the wiring is in good condition.

REPAIR AND REPLACE ACCESSORIES

Finally, as with all electrical or mechanical devices, wear, time, and the effects of the elements can create damage that requires repair or replacement.

Some fixtures have replaceable items such as sockets, screws, lenses, and stakes, while in some cases replacing the entire fixture is a more suitable option.

Your personal service should offer options and convenience for your maintenance plan, and your system maintenance should be customized to your needs. If your lights turn on automatically every night, you use your system frequently, or you have a lot of fixtures, you may choose to perform maintenance several times a year to ensure the perfect enjoyment of your lighting design. Systems that are used for only a few hours a few times a week may only need annual maintenance to stay in good working order. Regardless of how often you have maintenance, make sure a professional does your job and always insist on a written agreement.

MAINTENANCE COSTS

Costs are typically determined on an individual basis and are determined by several factors, including the number and type of accessories, the accessibility of wiring, and the age and type of system. As with any service, do not pay upfront.

Starting with a reasonable service call rate and hourly troubleshooting charges, you should ask the service provider to provide you with an itemized list of recommended work, a price list of materials, and a final detail of the work performed. In most cases, your payment will be expected at the end of the service.