4 Landscape Lighting Maintenance Tips for Winter in Hopewell Junction, NY
You may not be spending as much time outdoors to enjoy your landscape this time of year, but your landscape lighting still needs attention. This type of lighting ensures your safety at night and provides a nice view when you look outside during a snowfall. And perhaps even more important, the maintenance of your landscape lighting in winter ensures that your warmer evenings will be enjoyable—you won’t want to waste any precious time missing out on your landscape lighting scheme once the warm season arrives. Follow these landscape lighting maintenance tips during the winter months so that you can increase the longevity of your Hopewell Junction, NY, fixtures and bulbs.
Replace and Clean the Bulbs
In the doldrums of winter, when you spend most of your time at home, indoors, you may be more likely to notice problems with your outdoor light bulbs, and you may find they simply need cleaning and not replacement. If you are experiencing a dim light, it may just be a dirty bulb. Over time, bugs, dirt, and other debris may build a layer on the outside of the bulb, ultimately making it dimmer. Enclosed fixtures are particularly susceptible to this effect since enclosed areas are where bugs like to hang out. Drastic changes in temperatures can cause light bulbs to short, especially incandescent lighting, so it is common for the lights to go out during the winter months. If you are using incandescent lights, talk to an expert at Lehigh Lawns & Landscaping Inc. about the benefits of switching to LED bulbs. These bulbs have a longer life span and will reduce the need for maintenance.
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Lighting System Inspection
The extra hours of darkness in the winter may prompt you to look into a full check of all of your wires, controls, and fixtures for any signs of wear and condensation. An evaluation will ensure that your lit walkways and driveways will remain safe for the rest of these dark months. It can also be helpful to have all of the lines that run throughout your property checked, too. Over time these lines can become weak especially during freeze-thaw cycles, leading to a short that could turn off all of the bulbs on that line.
Swapping Fixtures
Just like the bulbs, winter is a good time to see if you need to have your fixtures replaced. While the electrician is swapping bulbs, ask them to take a look at all of your fixtures to see if they are still structurally sound and free of rust. Broken or damaged fixtures can lead to shorts in that fixture. If water were to get in, then it could possibly short the whole line. If you have the option, you could consider swapping all of your exposed fixtures to cast bronze as it is known for being especially durable and corrosion resistant.
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Adjusting the Brightness
A visit by landscape lighting experts could lead to adjustments that are useful in the winter months. For instances, you could look into having the lights dimmed by about 5-10 percent. Tree spotlights could be turned down even more, if possible, because they don’t need as much illumination this time of year without their leaves. Another reason for a brightness check is the effect of snow—since it’s extremely reflective, you may find that your normal settings are too bright this season.