7 Landscape Lighting Maintenance Tasks To Keep Your Residence Glowing This Winter
I’m not a new car salesman. So there’s no need for me to push the “cold weather package” on you — especially for your home’s outdoor lighting system. It’s just not necessary.
Believe it or not, the Utah cold does little to affect your landscape lighting. With the prevalence of energy efficient LED lighting, frigid temperatures actually play into your lights’ favor promoting true performance and an even longer life.
Outdoor lights are built for the elements, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a little TLC once or twice a year. To get the most out of your landscape lighting this fall and winter, follow these seven helpful tips.
Clean Lenses
Removing hard water deposits from a bulb lens is critical for maximum performance. Landscape Lighting Pro of Utah uses a proprietary solution to ensure your lights continue to shine bright.
Bury Exposed Cables
It’s not uncommon for cables to work their way to the surface and become exposed, especially in high traffic areas, near lighting fixtures or at sites where the weather has been particularly unkind. Making sure everything is back underground will reduce trip hazards around your property.
Remove Fallen Leaves
Fallen autumn leaves can end up anywhere and everywhere — especially in outdoor lighting fixtures with recessed bulbs. When leaves pile on, say, a halogen lamp, enough heat is generated from the light source to scorch leaves and possibly create a fire risk.
Adjust Lighting Fixtures
Watching a tree grow is a lot like watching grass grow, but much, much slower. That said, trees can still present a sneaky problem to your outdoor lighting by encroaching light fixtures if you’re not paying attention.
That’s why we like to adjust the downlights we use in trees once a year. This includes backing the hanger bolts out a couple turns as the tree grows and also resecuring any loose wires to the tree’s trunk.
Replace Bulb Burnouts
Thanks to the lengthy life cycle of an LED light, bulb replacement isn’t that much of an issue anymore. With LEDs, we are more concerned with their brightness. Are they shining as brightly as they were on the day of the installation? If they aren’t, we’ll replace them under our five-year warranty.
Cut Back Plant Growth
Plants fight for space. That’s what they do. And sometimes your landscape lighting gets overtaken by an aggressive hosta or three.
Cutting back foliage around fixtures will keep your lights unobstructed until next spring.
Brush Off Lights
While LEDs are known for maintaining a touchably cool temperature, halogen lights are quite the opposite and have no problem melting away a little snowfall. But when the Utah snow machine really starts to pile on the inches, a light broom is the perfect tool to loosen up and gently brush away the accumulation. Remember, this is not piñata practice!
Are You Up For A Little Outdoor Lighting Maintenance?
Your landscape lighting is a lot like your car. If you don’t keep up on the basic maintenance needs, you’re setting yourself up for bigger, more expensive problems when you least expect it.
Not up to taking care of the maintenance yourself? Landscape Lighting Pro of Utah is. These recommended service tasks are all included in our annual landscape lighting service agreement. And we’re now offering a lifetime warranty on our products and installations when our once-a-year service is included in your lighting package.
To learn more about the maintenance your landscape lighting requires before winter sets in, call (801) 440-7647 to schedule a free consultation, or fill out our simple contact form.
