DENVER, CO - Now that it’s getting dark before we even get home from work, well-designed outdoor lighting can be a big part of your home’s total safety package. Properly placed lighting discourages thieves, vandals and other undesirable visitors and helps guide the company you do desire on your property as they make their way from the street to your front door conveniently and safely.
You probably already have some outdoor lighting that you take for granted (a porch light, and a light over your garage door, for example), and they serve important functions, but are they doing the kind of jobs you want? Gary Stone, founder of Allstar Electrical Services doing business in Denver and Colorado Springs, all along the Front Range, often asks that question of homeowners when they turn to him for advice.
“Lighting is just as important to your home’s décor and safety on the outside as it is indoors,” says Stone whose team of electrical technicians and electrical contractors range from master electricians to apprentices. Fortunately there are solutions to outdoor safety and security that are both affordable and esthetically pleasing.
The porch light that came with the house may make it easier to find your keys and check the mail in the dark, but does it really add much to your home’s security and safety or its beauty? Even the bad guys are usually smart enough to look for points of entry that are less visible. And do you want your dinner guests to slip or trip on their way to your door?
Outdoor lighting comes from three basic sources: hi-voltage (household current), low-voltage and solar. Higher intensity lights such the fixtures used for porches, garages and alleyways are usually on your household current. In addition the light pole at your driveway entrance or near your front porch may run off of that same energy source. These may be controlled by switches inside your house or by light- or motion-sensitive switches on the fixtures.
Low-voltage lighting is typically used for landscape accents and for lighting pathways. “Working with you or your architect or landscape architect to integrate low-voltage lighting into your landscape design makes it possible for us at Allstar Electrical Services to ensure that your system is safe and easy to operate,” Stone observes. “Effective lighting can guide your guests to their destination and can highlight your landscaping. It can make your outdoor design come to life at night.”
More and better designed solar fixtures are coming on the market every year. This type of exterior fixture is virtually maintenance-free and costs nothing to operate. “Solar-powered lighting works nicely in bright-sun areas like Colorado where we get 300+ clear days a year,” notes Stone. “But solar lighting should be limited to non-critical uses like accents in the case the weather shifts and we get all our cloudy days at once.”
Whether you want to make your house more welcoming to guests, less attractive to criminals or just make sure Aunt Nancy doesn’t slip and drop the Christmas casserole in the snow, outdoor lighting is an important part of your home’s total design.
For information on effective and highly functioning exterior lighting, contact Allstar Electrical Services LLC at (303) 399-7420 or visit the Allstar website at www.allstarelectrical.com.