Landscape Lighting Tips
by Sarah Jimenez
The Fresno Bee

The experts offer suggestions about other things you need to consider about outdoor lighting.

While landscape lights can add flavor to your yard, they also attract bugs. To avoid pest bites while you entertain friends or sit in your yard, point fixtures away from the area that will be occupied. Fixtures can put off plenty of light without shining directly on you or the entertainment area.

Unless the style of your fixture complements the area, hide the source of light in bushes or flowerbeds.

Larry Holley of Lighting Resources of Fresno, Calif., says you want to see the effect of the light, not its source. Of course, if you're lighting a path, the lights will have to be placed right next to it. But attractive light heads can add to the path.

Holley recommends using PVC conduit when burying wires so they aren't damaged by water, a lawn mower or a shovel. Steel conduit is good for homes located on hard ground or rocks, where wires can't be buried. Wires that don't need to be buried should be covered by mulch or hidden behind flowers and bushes.

To conserve energy, install a manual switch that allows you to turn on your lights when they are needed or link the system to a timer that turns lights on for a certain period of time. Holley says even though low-voltage lights are energy-efficient, people need to monitor their energy consumption.

Although you're excited about all the options, don't overdo it. Gene O'Brien of Lamps Plus in Fresno says "less is better" in landscape lighting. Plus, you don't want to bother neighbors with obnoxious lighting.

Now that you know the basics of landscape lighting, head out to your yard and start measuring. And in no time, you'll have a yard you can enjoy by day and night.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)