Give your yard a jolt: LED lighting has arrived
October 19th, 2009 | By: Fred Nystrom
It is now possible to provide accent, security and visibility to your yard with energy efficient LED lighting. What in the past was used primarily for head-lamps and flash lights is now making the transition into indoor and outdoor lighting systems.
LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting has been around for many years, but only recently has the technology been improved to produce a strong and durable light that can be used for residential and commercial lighting. The compact bulbs draw very little power–only 1-2.5 watts each compared with standard bulbs that draw 75-100 watts.
One Issaquah homeowner, in the photo below, replaced 10 outdoor flood lights, using a total of over 1000-watts, with an LED system of eight lights that use only 12 watts. Instead of replacing expensive flood light bulbs every year or so, the LEDs will last for upwards of 20 years in an outdoor environment. The payback for the low voltage system is less than five years.
Former Sammamish resident Randy King first noticed the durability and advantages of LEDs when he was Vice President of Outdoor Research, where he tracked the increasing power of LED technology over a decade. He saw the lights become more powerful and able to project the warmer color spectrum desired by most for indoor lighting.
Once he believed the technology was fully developed, Randy began to focus on bringing the low-voltage lights into homes, yards, and businesses in the Northwest. Randy’s firm, Northwest LED Lighting, has installed hundreds of LED lighting systems locally with no customer dissatisfaction or system failures–a remarkable record. The outdoor systems come with a timer programmed to turn on the lights at dusk and turn off at dawn, and adjust to changes in daylight savings time. No more manually switching the lights on and off each evening.
“The LED technology has really taken off in the past year. We’re working with several manufacturers of replacement LED bulbs that install in standard light fixtures to replace the incandescent bulbs in the interiors of homes and offices,” Randy said. “The savings can pay for the bulbs in a year. We are now replacing the florescent bulbs, which contain mercury and are dangerous to dispose of, and still provide a huge reduction in energy costs.”
Randy demonstrates the usefulness of LED systems and individual replacement bulbs as a way for homeowners to create immediate savings on their electrical bill and reduce their carbon footprint. He provides a free energy audit and reveals the savings obtainable with LED technology.
To obtain more information about LED lighting systems, contact Randy King, Northwest LED Lighting at 360.422.5387 or online at www.northwestled.com.
