When your saying goodbye to guests in the evening, you don’t want to send them out in the dark to fumble their way back to their vehicle. Without proper outdoor lighting your front yard can be riddled with hazards at night. Installing outdoor and landscape lighting can add safety in a number of ways as well as add pleasing aesthetics to your home at night.

Outdoor lighting can add functionality in a number of ways – it can illuminate potential tripping hazards, deter criminals, and add a pleasing look to your home at night. The trick is to have the lights positioned correctly to have the desired effects. When placing your outdoor lighting keep these areas in mind:

Installation of outdoor lighting can be different depending on the type of landscape lighting you choose. If you are using solar powered or battery powered you will not require any additional electrical work. If you are looking to install electrical lamps and fixtures on the outside your home or along a pathway it will require the wire to run underground, because of the high voltage, to the home’s electrical system. If you are unsure of how your new outdoor lighting connects to your home, or want to prepare to install new lighting, have an expert electrician do the installation for you.

Three common sources of outdoor lighting are fluorescent lamps, metal halide, and LED lighting. Fluorescent lamps are designed to run efficiently, but can have trouble starting in certain temperatures. Metal halide are highly efficient within a temperature range, but require approximately a minute to warm up – not ideal for motion lights. LED lighting is a popular choice because they are highly efficient, require no warm up time, and the bulb lasts longest, but this all comes at a higher cost.

Outdoor and landscape lighting is very important and something every homeowner should keep in mind. With so many options out there, it can be difficult to know where to start and what will work.

Image via DollarStoreCrafts.com

2. Ghosts in the yard.

If you have handy lights lining a path or driveway at your house, this idea will take no time at all. You just need to collect a bunch of old plastic milk jugs with the tops cut off or white paper bags (I suggest making the decision after you get the weather report for All Hallows’ Eve). Simply draw eyes on the jugs/bags with a black marker, and slip them one by one over each Image via MarthaStewart.com

Here’s an ultra affordable Halloween lighting project, if your preferred poison is the frightening beyond of unexplained extraterrestrial phenomena. Just fill your house (or yard) full of anchored helium balloons containing green glow sticks. Add faces with traditional alien eyes or something even more creative! If you really want to play it up, you and your family could dress up like extraterrestrials and pretend the real you has been abducted.

4. Mini mummies.

If you prefer cute décor over the more macabre, a quick project to make mini mummy candles holders only requires a jar or glass cup, some white gauze, and some googly eyes. Simply scrunch up the gauze around the jar to look like the mummy’s linen wrappings. Add the eyes, and ta-da, you’ve got a precious little mummy come back to life with candlelight. They’re a crowd pleaser, trust me.

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than to do so in Virginia, one of the first colonies to create talks of revolution against the British? Virginia had a huge rule in the American Revolution. In fact, our first president of the United States, George Washington, was from Virginia! Thomas Jefferson helped expressed reason for colonial independence from Great Britain by writing the Declaration of Independence. The last major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought in Yorktown, Virginia and that victory led to the end of the war.

Virginians have a lot to be proud about for their involvement in the American Revolution, so you know we love to celebrate July 4th big! Our fireworks are always over-the-top and our parades are the best in the country. If you’re planning to celebrate big this Independence Day, consider these activities to do the weekend of July 4th. Make this Independence Day a day to remember!

Lighting is a critical aspect in a number of industries such as manufacturing, mining, marine, packaging, and even sports. Electrical fixtures for such industries are designed for heavy duty performance and can last even in the most adverse conditions such as extreme temperatures and climate.

Apart from ensuring proper lightening and enhancing the output, electrical lighting also helps in maintaining safety in your workplace. If you have a well-lit work space, then your workers can avoid unwarranted accidents like stepping on sharp tools, bumping into equipment, etc. You can use a wide range of electrical light fixtures such as LED, magnification lights, fluorescent lamps, halogen machine lighting, etc.

You must choose the right light fixtures based on the environment you work in and the lighting demands of the space where you need to install them. Let us look at some industrial lighting fixtures that are available.

5 Types of Industrial Lighting Fixtures

In industries like mining, transportation, steel, marine, etc., there are high risks of explosions which you cannot overlook at any cost. You have to make sure that the lighting fixtures have the ability to withstand the heat and pressures that are generated by an explosion. Explosion proof fixtures meet some of the most stringent quality standards of the National Electric Code.

Indoor fixtures can be installed in a number of indoor work areas like workshops, workstations, bays, etc. As different work environments have different requirements for lighting systems, it would be ideal to contact a supplier who can offer you customized lighting requirements. Ensure that the lighting systems are capable of withstanding harsh working conditions as well as extreme temperatures.

Roadway fixtures are ideal for places where you need high mast lighting. Safety is extremely important on the roads and is of major concern for the protection of all those present on the road, which is why you need a brightly lit road. You can control the amount of light generated by these roadway fixtures to make them brighter or dimmer, based on the time of the day they are being switched on.

Every sports ground requires proper lighting. It isn’t a pleasant experience for the spectators when they can’t clearly see what’s going on in the ground/field and it would equally hinder the players from performing well if the lighting is compromised. Regardless of which sport it is, be it tennis, football, cricket, basketball or rugby, flood lights are an indispensable part.

Places like nuclear plants, mining fields, oil rigs and underwater operations require high quality and failure-free lighting solutions. It is important that there are various kinds of light sources as well as lights so that the work doesn’t halt due to lighting failure of any kind. Ideally, you must not use regular industrial lighting fixtures in such places. Make sure the lighting you use are reliable, have a long life and have low maintenance costs.