You are able to make a garden water feature shine, light up an entire pond from inside, highlighting an attractive statue, or raise the expression of a particularly gorgeous tree. You can install garden fountain lights either as lighting inside or outside the water feature.
Safety First
You need to know that all lighting should be connected to a Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) outlet for your own protection, What a GFI outlet does is to very quickly detect problems in a circuit, such as a short, and immediately cut the power
Experiment Before You Buy
Before you start shopping for garden fountain lights, try out different effects with a strong flashlight or a spotlight on an extension cord. Focus for simplicity and nuance. Do not let yourself get carried away and change your garden water feature into an amusement park, but keep your eye on elegance.
Types Of Water Feature Lighting
There are numerous types of in garden fountain lights, and each one produces its own special effect, depending upon how you position it. Almost all designs demand lights that have dark, subdued cases. Chromium steel or white casings can be obtrusive, particularly during daylight.
Garden fountain lights, either in white or colorations, add drama to a sprayer. A few garden water lights also come equiped with transparent rolls of various colors. Colorful light, nevertheless, should be used sparingly–it can easily become tacky.
A lot of garden fountain lights have built-in timers that let you to automatically turn the lights off and on. You can also put in an independent timer in the lighting setup to control the entire display. This is actually a better idea since you don’t have to set multiple timers. Timers not only save you the hassle of manually regulating the light, they also save on your electricity bill.
Guidelines For Installing Your Water Feature Lights
The first rule in setting up your fountain lights is to never have them shine directly on the water since they’ll produce a harsh glare. In ponds, lights need reasonably clean water to be efficient. Muddy water obstructs too much light and decreases the light’s effectiveness substantially. If you have fish in your water garden, allow dark areas where they can back away from the light. Fish need a great deal of crevices for safety. And never brighten the entire pond, particularly all night. If possible, place out-of-water lights to hide their casings and cord underneath a deck, behind a stone, or tucked into the leafage of a shrub. Any type of lighting you prefer, be sensitive to its effect on the neighbors. Do not direct the lights in such a way that they shine into their windows.
Use Of Low Power Landscape Lights
Contrary to normal 120-volt lights, installation of low-power landscape lights is a breeze, even for novices. And they are fairly safe because of their low voltage. Numerous low-voltage lighting schemes are sold as kits, complete with instruction manuals.
Installing a low-voltage system begins with installing a transformer, which cuts down the regular home current from one hundred twenty volts to twelve volts. Set up the transformer connected to a GFI receptacle close to the water feature, using the manufacturers directions. Even 12-volt systems should utilize a GFI unit to prevent shocks. Most transformers are plainly mounted next to an electric outlet and plugged into it.
Other Lighting Options
New solar landscape lighting units have recently improved in their ability to stay lit for a longer time. Also, on some of the earlier solar lights, the light was very dim, and the color poor. Check them out in the store as a possible alternative to the low-voltage lighting.
Another new alternative is LED lighting. It can be purchased in both low-voltage and solar units. Again, check them out in the stores and decide if you like them. Many people are not happy with the color and harshness of the LED lighting systems.
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