Keep the home lights burning

 

Landscape lighting adds beauty, security to homes

 

By Robin D’Angelo

C & G Staff Writer

     If you see your home as a work of art, Paul Eddleston will find a way to create the best accentuating displays imaginable.

   The Birmingham resident and owner of Illuminata Creative Exterior Lighting has made a living out of turning landscaping into lightscaping — works of art with outdoor lighting that can range from $2,000 to $110,000.

     Eddleston first began his career as an electrical engineer, but soon afterward entered the field of landscaping, and eventually found a way to put the two together to create art.

     “My approach is more holistic — I like to look at the overall space, when most people would just light up some plants,” Eddleston said.

     His two- to three-hour consultations consist of scouting the neighborhood around the home first, in order to stay flush with the architectural style and general ambiance. The more Eddleston can find out about the homeowner personally, the better his final design will be.

     “You have to diagnose before you can prescribe, and the more you know about a person before you design their lighting, the better,” he said.

     The design of the lighting system breaks into three elements: power supplies, a control system, and low voltage lighting. Eddleston uses only brass and copper lighting fixtures in a low voltage system, as opposed to the more mainstream aluminum.

     “Painted aluminum tends to chip, because the garden is a pretty hostile environment with the heat cycles, the moisture and the acidic soil,” he said.

     Copper and brass fixtures can run from $250 to $350 per fixture.

     There are step-lights, used to light outdoor stairs, path lights, and up-lights or directional lights, which can be mounted in trees or on the ground.  Eddleston uses six or seven different manufacturers for one job to achieve the best quality of lighting possible for each home.

     “The lighting is like Mozart’s music — pure, with the least amount of notes to make it work,” he said. “One too many or one less will spoil it.”

     Eddleston also handles maintenance of the project after it is completed, consisting mostly of changing light bulbs.

     “Down-lighting from trees, or anything attached to a tree, will cause more maintenance because the tree is a living, growing thing and that will have some effect on the wiring,” he said.

     The fixtures themselves require little to no maintenance, aside from periodically wiping off garden dirt or grime.

     “The neat thing about the brass and copper fixtures is watching them evolve. It’s nice how they change, so the homeowner shouldn’t feel obligated to keep polishing the finish,” he said.

     The lighting is controlled by a timer inside the transformer, as well as with photocells, which can detect dusk and dawn, requiring little attention from homeowners.

     “Basically I’m taking the existing lighting, controlling it and incorporating it into the entire look, which is an alternative to the traditional ways of lighting a garden,” Eddleston said.    

     “Glare is a sin – glare equals light pollution, and my fixtures cut down on the visible light sources.”

     Elite Lawn Irrigation of Rochester has also provided landscape lighting for the past 20 years.

     Spokesman Wesley Campbell said Elite provides free estimates and allows homeowners to choose the different colors and varieties of lighting they prefer.

     “Landscape lighting adds security to your home, and brightens up the shadowy areas behind trees and illuminates the sides of your home,” Campbell said.

     “You may even get a discount on your insurance for lighting up your yard. You pull up in the driveway and the lights are always on, and you can walk around outside at night. Many systems even have motion sensors, so if someone is prowling around after your lights have turned off, they’ll come on again.”

     Campbell said that although landscape lighting is becoming very popular, homeowners should be aware that professionally installed systems are not cheap.

     “Our fixtures are aluminum, and can range from $100 per fixture to $300,” he said.

     Campbell said the light bulbs are generally good for up to 4,000 hours, and are usually replaced once a year or slightly longer.

     “If you run the system from dusk to dawn, it might be less than a year, but I run my lights for about three hours every night,” he said.

     “I have to do some maintenance on the bulbs, but it’s not a major deal.  We mostly get calls from people who have ran over the lights on accident, or who have squirrels eating their tree wires.”

     You can reach Robin D’Angelo at rdangelo@candgnews.com