AS MANY AS IT TAKES (and not one less)

22 May AS MANY AS IT TAKES (and not one less)

by Mike Gambino

This article will focus on quantity of fixtures and not quality which I will save for a future post.

Prospects will sometimes say at a design consultation “I don’t want too much lighting”. What exactly does that mean and  how much is too much ?

This statement can be interpreted in many different ways.

I don’t want bright lighting, which is difficult to decipher for the designer as this is purely a subjective feeling and a matter of personal perception. What is too bright to one may be just enough to another.

I don’t want too many fixtures which can be interpreted to mean I don’t want to spend too much money. And again too much money is a number in the owners mind which most do not care to divulge at anytime which can only complicate and slow the process down even further.

Or it can mean they simply do not want what they perceive as too many fixtures for whatever reason and yes again that is impossible for a designer to understand what the owner will feel is too many. Is it 100 is it 50 is it 10 ? Who knows and I’m not even sure a prospect does sometimes.

“Less is more” is also a statement made on occasion which also leaves a lot to interpretation.

Less illumination?

Less money?

Less of me?

I think its meant to imply more subtle , understated, less attention grabbing only the prospect knows for sure what it means to them though.

A Gambino high performance landscape lighting system is a low voltage landscape lighting system. It operates on a safe, energy efficient and effective 12 volts of power as compared to the 120 volt power that normal house hold appliances operate with.

Effective lighting is only achieved by placing the light sources relatively close to their intended subjects. Yes, there are certain instances, such as fill-in or transition lighting where a light source will be placed several feet from its target to create a specific effect.

But for the most part the fixtures need to be situated relatively close in order to be effective and to avoid unsightly glare.

Placing fixtures close to their subjects limits light spread. That means it may take 3 times as many fixtures as one would suspect to properly illuminate a space.

In addition, multiple lower wattage lamp fixtures, in most instances, create much better effects than fewer higher wattage fixtures.

Three twenty watt halogen uplights will give better coverage than two 35 watt halogen uplights of the same degree beam angle and spread. This will result in a higher initial cost of materials for a project however an energy savings will be realized over time because the 2 fixtures are consuming 70 watts where the three fixtures are only consuming 60.

This has always been in my experience a very difficult concept for some to understand.

Investing smart money now to save money later while enjoying optimum system performance. It sounds like a win-win situation.

This is especially true with the advent of new 12 volt LED landscape lighting technology.

My design philosophy is to specify only enough fixtures and minimal wattage that is necessary to accomplish the task effectively.

A good landscape lighting designer/specifier strikes a balance between what is necessary to achieve the goals of the project and is also a responsible steward of their clients budget.

When a prospect asks me how many fixtures to effectively illuminate their yard I will always respond As many as it takes and not one less.

The take away from this article is to not equate fixture quantity to system brightness and do not mistake that higher fixture counts lead to higher system monthly electrical operating costs.