Lighting Guide of the garden: lighting to choose, installation and safety tips

One of the pleasures most beautiful in the summer evenings, is being able to fit comfortably in your own garden, either alone or, even better, in the company of friends, to enjoy the fresh hours after the heat of the grueling days of July and of August. The darkness of the evening, however, can severely limit the enjoyment, if you do not have in the garden of an appropriate lighting system.

Lighting has a stunning psychological effect, allowing us to enjoy the garden in the late evening hours and making us look slightly cooler than those evenings spent at home instead would be very muggy.

A few well-placed light sources enable us to significantly extend the hours of usability of our garden, allowing for example to receive friends or organize dinners.

The lighting in the garden, however, performs many other tasks: some lights may be necessary to illuminate the area of ​​access to housing, ensuring safety in steps, or can illuminate areas that would otherwise remain very dark and a source of insecurity; still be used lights to illuminate and highlight areas of the garden worthy of particular emphasis, which could be fountains, ponds, water features or very spectacular blooms.

Precisely for the reasons listed above, there are few gardens that would not benefit from the installation of a few lights: However, there is a security problem, common to all the lighting outside. As is the case for the plant inside the house, for the implementation according to the law of the exterior lighting is necessary the intervention of specialized operators, especially if we think of as the main dangers of coming into contact with the ' water can have the wires and connections arranged outside: as we all know electricity and water are two things to be kept absolutely separate because their combination could have truly disastrous effects.

If the area of ​​the garden where we stay preferably in the evening is near the house, it may be convenient to use an extension cord attached to an internal socket and it comes out from a window or a door and connected to an outdoor lamp, although this is a temporary solution and not very advisable in the case of a very assiduous attendance at evening in the garden.

Moving away from the area close to the house, the type of lighting accessory most suitable and effective for outdoor dining is that which comes from the top of the pole of an umbrella at the center of the table, and pour out its light mainly on people who are having dinner, but also, in part, in the surrounding areas.

Accessories of this type are readily available in garden centers or in stores that specialize in lighting: When buying us ensure that they are impervious to water and humidity, so we can leave them safely attached outdoor umbrella or gazebo for all the duration of the summer season, with the only measure of keeping in a sheltered and dry the plug and connections with the main system.

The extension cord should never be left outdoors, as well as a holder not waterproof, because the moisture could penetrate inside the contacts and cause serious problems to the whole electrical system.

However, if we expect to use frequently a solution of this type, it is appropriate to adopt lamps and lamp holders specifically suited to a use for external, in order to prevent any possible problem.

If we can allocate spending a little higher for the lighting of our garden, the ideal solution is the creation of a permanent, professionally installed by skilled operators, with all the elements specifically designed for this purpose. These implants are generally inserted in the existing home, for which the life-saving comes into operation in the event that the external cable can be damaged in some way or moisture can penetrate into the electrical contacts.

When we have to fix several lights away from the house, for example, to brighten the trails or to illuminate shrubs, trees or bordered with flowers, we should choose low voltage lamps and low energy consumption, specific for outdoors, even if the cost d ' purchase is much higher, because ovvieremo the power loss along the path of the cable and reduce the amount of electricity needed to operate them. The income statement for the final return to our advantage in a short period.

This type of lights takes power from a low voltage transformer, for which are averted electric shock in case of contact.

The lamps of this type (usually to 24 V) are easily installed, and must be connected to a cable running inside a sheath and if necessary can be easily removed and repositioned in positions more suitable or adapted to our needs. The cable must not be buried at a depth too great, but if there is the possibility is very useful its cover with tiles, to prevent its damage by working the soil with a spade or power tools. If the cable current carrying higher voltages is needed is its greater depth in the soil.

The cable can be routed to ground level between the edge of the lawn and borders, but his burial and sheathing is necessary crossing of paths, lawns or paved areas, where the pressure on the ground of passages of people and machines may cause its damage.

 

The choice of lamps to attach to a circuit of this type is very wide: the lamps are used to illuminate large areas while the lower lamps can be used to put in prominence areas particularly decorative garden or to illuminate narrow paths. Then there are lamps that illuminate downwards and lamps that illuminate upwards, which help us in creating the desired lighting.

For ponds, pools and fountains there are specific lamps, which can remain floating or be arranged in depth. We then filter applicable to many types of lamps filters that allow us to create light: we must not exaggerate in using them to avoid the risk of falling into tacky, creating a kaleidoscope of colors that would attract the gaze too distracting him from other parts interesting garden.

Let the garden the protagonist, helping, through the proper use of lighting, to be more livable and to highlight its best parts.

 

10/11/2012

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Translated via software

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Source:

Italian version of CercaGeometra.it

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