1.  Invest in a Few Strategically Placed Garden Lights–Do not over light your landscape. Be sure to check the “dark sky”* ordinances in your town so that your landscape lighting design will be within legal limits of illumination.  Try a few garden spread lights to softly highlight flowerbeds, rock gardens and sculpted shrubbery.

2.  Work It Wisely—Put the ultimate control in the palm of your hand. Whether hand-held or on automated timers, outdoor lighting controls are the utmost in energy-saving and convenience to promote safety and security effortlessly and instantly.

3.  Prepare Your Patio for the King of the Grill—Task lighting is often neglected when planning your landscape and outdoor lighting design. While aiming for subtle illumination in most backyard areas, you need shielded, but plentiful focused task light over outdoor cooking stations.  An adjustable spot light installed in a rooftop corner or an attached grill light will help you to see that your chicken is thoroughly cooked and your burgers are not too well-done.

4. Watch Your Step and Provide Shielded Path Lighting —LED path lights and strip lights are available in a variety of colors and sizes to uniquely define and expand the boundaries of your outdoor living space while providing nighttime illumination for safe navigation.

5.  Go for the Life Time Guarantee—Superb new vendors are featuring landscape lighting products guaranteed to withstand the elements and weather naturally overtime without peeling or rusting.  Check out new post lamps from Northeast Lantern–all parts, with the exception of glass, are guaranteed for life!

 Say “Happy Father’s Day!” and bring it on home. Great landscape lighting will truly make his home feel like his castle. 

 Best Landscape Lighting Finds For Summer 

Path Lighting: “Nexus,” new from Hinkley Lighting featuring LED and a Bronze finish; “Dwell”  1547 from Hinkley in a Buckeye Bronze or Hematite finish.

Garden Lights: “Intaglio” Brass Crook Neck 1543 landscape light in Olde Bronze from Kichler Lighting; Tiffany path light in Antique Bronze with Green Faux Tiffany shade (P5271) from Progress Lighting.

Grill and Wall Lights: Barn Lantern from Northeast Lantern available in a choice of unique finishes including: Antique Brass, Dark Antique Brass, Dark Brass and Verdi Gris.

Step and Deck Lighting:  LED-TO24-5 Tape Lights from WAC Lighting, available in Amber, Blue, Green, Red, and White.

 Be sure that your new outdoor lighting purchases are in keeping with the dark-sky outdoor-lighting codes in your community.

*The latest landscape light fixtures are energy efficient and in keeping with new “Dark Sky” regulations.  “Dark Sky” ordinances continue to spread across the country in an effort to reduce light pollution.  Check the latest nighttime light restrictions in your town, to make sure your outdoor and landscape lighting is in keeping with new code laws.  Call your local government’s community planning and zoning office.  Fines for violating dark-sky ordinances may cost up to $100–Consumer Digest Communications, LLC.

The emergence of shielded dark-sky-compliant fixtures makes it easy to update your landscape lighting in keeping with the new laws. In addition to being environmentally friendly, these fixtures reduce glare, and they are affordable and energy saving.

A gentleman named Houston sent me this. What do you think about it? Does it apply to electricians in Los Angeles and around the Untied States?

We are nearing a renaissance of electrical contracting. Software Advice, a website that reviewselectrical estimating software, thinks the electrician will soon transition into an “energy contractor” to meet demand of the growing green construction market. This growth is being fueled by increased adoption of green and renewable energy technologies among homeowners and corporations.

Who will be there to retrofit these buildings? Electrical contractors will play a major role in these upgrades. However, they’ll need to “green” their skill set in order to take advantage of opportunities.

To start, electricians should get versed on electric- and energy-related LEED credits. LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” a program developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to rate green buildings. LEED projects are growing just as fast as the rest of the green construction market, so this is one of the areas electricians will be able to “cash in.”

Additionally, electricians should consider becoming a LEED accredited professional (AP). A LEED AP is a certification given to individuals once they pass an AP exam. The credential signifies an advanced depth of knowledge in green building practices. LEED projects get an extra point for having an AP on the job, which could be a selling-point when bidding on jobs.

To read more, visit: The Coming Renaissance of Electrical Contracting

Shoddy electrical workmanship can pose a threat to the safety of your family and home as a whole. Additionally, faulty work done by an unprofessional or unlicensed individual can leave you open to liability for injuries that could possibly earned by others. Hence, it is vital to choose the right Trenton electrical contractor for the job.

Before you hire or contact someone, write a description of the kind of work you would like to be done. It is a good move to consider your electrical needs for the future if you are adding a new room or simply improving your home. For instance, with the abundance of electrical devices and appliances available to businesses and consumers, it may be a good time to have electrical home improvements as well as to have more electrical outlets at home too.

Starting your search for the right contractor can sometimes be a challenging task but you can begin hunting by checking the Web. These days, there are so many electricians who have their own sites. But before you hire someone, make sure to do a little background check. You may see some forums regarding what people say about a certain contractor or you may ask your friends what they know about the contractor or person. You may also ask your friends and officemates if they know a good contractor.

You should enlist the services of a licensed Trenton electrical wiring professional. While this may not assure you will get excellent workmanship, a licensed professional can possibly meet your needs. Make sure the contractor is insured too. See to it to clearly describe to the contractor what you need to be done and what you expect from him. You and the contractor you are going to hire should be on the same road regarding the proposed work. Once the contractor has reviewed the list of jobs that you would want to be done, you can then gain agreement.

If the contractor proposes something different or not related to what you want to be done, ask for an explanation and see if additional work is really needed. If you think his explanation is not clear and something you cannot seem to agree, move on to your next prospect. Having an electrician should not be a risky endeavor.

Jewelry doesn’t sparkle and shine on its own – the reason a gem looks radiant is because of the way it reflects light! That being said, lighting is integral to retail design in a jewelry store. You want your displays to entice customers and show off your products in all their brilliance! Hopefully, we can help. This post will lay out options for various jewelry lighting displays.

puck lights to call attention to individual pieces, as seen in the photo to the right. Puck lighting above jewelry creates beautiful silhouettes and puts a spotlight on each piece.

If you love the look of evenly illuminated in-wall shelving displays, there is a way to avoid the spotlight effect. For a more subtle glow, install light fixtures on the inside edges of your shelves. See Xenon Low Voltage Light Strip or any of our

You’re showing off your most valuable items in the counter-style showcase, so it’s important to get the lighting right. However, make sure the actual light fixtures do not become focal points.

With a glass showcase, you need to integrate the lighting so that your display will shine, and so that it’s not blocked in any way by wires or lamp heads. The best way to do this is to install thin lighting strips inside the showcase, just below where the edge of the counter is. You can see an example in the photo to the right.

Our Your window display can be the number one determinant of store traffic. Like the counter showcase, it’s ideal if the light fixtures aren’t visible at all here so that your most alluring items take center stage.

You will likely have wall space to work with on all four sides of the window display, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to align microfluorescent fixtures against the edges for even illumination.

Depending on what types of items you are featuring, you might want to incorporate some spot lighting as well. You could use an adjustable adjustable recessed lights in the ceiling above the window display.

Insect Vision: Ultraviolet, Color, and LED Light, Marianne Shockley Cruz and Rebecca Lindner from the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology write, “Experimental work supports the idea that color perception exists in insects and that they are especially responsive to the shorter wavelengths of the visible spectrum and UV light.” Wavelengths are measured in nanometers, and shorter wavelengths of light (less than 550 nanometers) can indicate ultraviolet (UV), blue, or green colors. Cruz and Lindner also cite work that confirms the correlation between UV light from the sun and moon and how certain bugs navigate Earth. Another point to remember about bugs is that certain types, such as mosquitoes, are attracted to heat and have thermal receptors to help them find it. All of this information is helpful for determining why bugs flock to certain light sources.

The color that is emitted from a light source is important because of its ability to attract bugs. As previously stated, shorter wavelengths (UV, blue, and green light) are more visible to bugs than longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, and red light) and, therefore, will draw them closer. Incandescent, compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, and high-intensity discharge (HID) lights emit UV radiation that is attractive to bugs, and since certain types of bugs navigate by UV light from the sun and moon, a closer, brighter source of UV light can disrupt their orientation and draw them in. LEDs produce very little to no UV light, which makes them less visible to bugs. However, it is still possible for an LED bulb to produce shorter wavelengths of light (bluish-white/cool white color), which will be more attractive to bugs. Therefore, when browsing for LED lights that will attract less bugs, it’s important to choose a fixture that emits more wavelengths that are above 550 nanometers, such as warm white, ultra warm white, or yellow lights.

CCT) instead of nanometers, it’s easy to tell if the bulb will be more or less visible to bugs. CCT is measured in Kelvin (K), and different temperatures on the Kelvin scale represent different colors. An LED bulb with a CCT below 3600K will emit warm or ultra warm white light that’s not easily seen by bugs. Bulbs with CCTs of 3600K and above will emit natural or cool white light that is more likely to attract bugs.

Incandescent, halogen, CFL, and HID bulbs waste most of the energy they consume—as much as 90 percent—in the form of heat. Bugs with thermal receptors can sense the heat released by these light sources. LED bulbs produce a minuscule amount of heat, which makes them less appealing to bugs.

Bug lights are simply light bulbs with a yellow coating that decreases the color temperature of emitted light. Because of the coating, bulbs will emit a peak wavelength of light that is around 550-600 nanometers. However, you don’t need a yellow-coated bulb to reduce the presence of bugs. LED lights that emit warm-colored illumination, such as yellow malibu light bulbs for landscape applications, or From top left to bottom right: incandescent bug light, yellow LED strip lights, yellow LED malibu light bulb installed in landscape fixture, and gold-tint LED filament bulbs

Ecologist Michael Justice performed an experiment to determine the type of residential light that attracts the least amount of bugs. He used six lighting types inside of an insect trap each night during the summer. Justice also made efforts to equalize the effects of weather and the moon’s irradiance. His LED Z-Bug Bulb™ from NEBO is a bug zapper and an LED bulb in one. The bulb emits white illumination from its top and ultraviolet (UV) light from its caged center. The UV light attracts mosquitoes and other insects toward the bulb’s high-voltage electric grid and kills them on contact.

Because different types of bugs see different wavelengths, it is never guaranteed that an LED light won’t attract them. However, most bugs are attracted to short wavelengths of light and are especially drawn to UV light; they can see it better, and some use it for navigation. Bulbs that emit more short wavelengths of light (cool white/bluish color) will attract more bugs. Lights that emit a majority of longer wavelengths (yellow/orange/red colors) are less visible. Heat can also draw bugs into an area. LED lights produce little to no UV light and a minuscule amount heat, which makes them less attractive to bugs—so long as they emit longer wavelengths of light.