LED Lighting
“LED lighting systems: Soft illumination, warm color, long lamp life and energy- efficient.”
An LED — or light-emitting diode — is chip-mounted in a reflector cup and held in place by a steel frame connected to a pair of electrical wires. When current flows across the junction of the two materials, light is produced from within the solid crystal chip. Although they offer many advantages, LEDs are still fairly new in the industry and come with some limitations. Some fixtures are designed with LED chips and technology engineered into the entire fixture and some are specially designed fixtures with replacement/upgradeable LED modules or boards. Currently both kinds of LEDs have limited wattages and beam spreads compared to halogen lamps.
Depending on the requirements of the homeowner and property, our professional designers may recommend installing an entire LED lighting system, retrofitting an existing system with LED lamps or a combination of LED fixtures and traditional low voltage fixtures using specific halogen lamps to achieve the desired lighting effects.
Outdoor LED Lighting System Advantages
- Longevity. Upfront costs may be a little higher than an incandescent/halogen system. But an LED system uses about 80% less energy than other lamps based on watts. LEDs also last 20 times longer than incandescent, reducing annual replacement and maintenance costs. As a result, the long-term energy, product and maintenance costs are reduced over the life of the system.
- Reduced lamp costs. In an average outdoor lighting system, lamps last 2,500 to 5,000 hours. LEDs average 40,000 hours. If you replace 10 standard lamps burning 35 watts each with 10 LEDs at six watts each, the overall savings will be more than $1,000 over the life of the lamps. LEDs are solid-state devices with no moving parts, glass or filaments to break. They also contain no mercury and are environmentally friendly.
- Reduced annual maintenance costs. Annual maintenance eliminates changing lamps annually. With a typical halogen system, lamps (averaging 2,500-5,000 hours) burn out once or twice a year, fixtures need readjusting and cleaning, and voltages have to be checked. Light from an LED diminishes over an average of about 40,000 hours. Then the entire fixture or retrofit module is replaced. Although an LED system still requires lenses to be cleaned and fixtures adjusted, especially in Midwestern weather, you'll save on the lower cost of maintenance and lamps.
- Warm light quality. Light from LEDs is indistinguishable from halogen. Cheaper LEDs have a blueish color, but new LEDs with specific color “binning” (2,800-3,000 Kelvin, or color temperature) now achieve a much warmer, more pleasing white.
Retrofit LEDs
In the ever evolving LED industry, new technology is arriving all of the time. Lawn Master Systems can retrofit most existing incandescent/halogen systems with traditional low voltage fixtures to LED technology. Currently LEDs have limited wattages and beam spreads compared to halogen lamps but more will be added as manufacturers improve this new technology in the industry.
LED advantages: A summary
- 40,000-hour lamp life
- Average 75% less energy use than traditional incandescent or halogen lamps
- Warm, white light (average 2,950 Kelvin, color temperature)
- 10-20-year residential warranty of LEDs with driver and electronic component modules and 2-3-year warranty for retrofit lamps
Our manufacturers use only the highest-quality, state-of-the-art, long-life and energy-efficient products. But over time fixtures need cleaning and adjustments are required due to seasonal weather conditions or landscaping changes. We offer a renewable annual maintenance program and warranties to ensure your system will continue to operate properly year after year.
“A professionally designed and installed, energy-efficient lighting system can increase the safety, security and perceived property value of your home.”
For questions about new or existing commercial/residential sprinkler and lighting systems, please complete the Contact Us form.