Does ILD use special types of fixtures for fountain lighting?
We use a variety of surface-mounted lights and LED underwater light fixtures to light ponds and residential fountains. Most clients who call us have noticed that their fountain looks great in the moonlight, but not so great in their standard outdoor landscape lights. We specialize in creating the most innovative and eclectic fountain lighting upgrades that will improve the centrality and attractiveness of these water features on the landscape.
Can we buy a fountain lighting kit and do it ourselves?
First, it is never safe to install tree lighting or electrical yourself around water. Because a fountain can look like anything from a cherub pouring water from a vase to a fairy queen holding a magic bird bath, there is no one-light-fits-all fountains kit on the market. Even fountains that do not have ornamental statures are nonetheless three-dimensional keynotes on any landscape. They need the expertise of a outdoor lighting contractor with experience in outdoor lighting, architectural lighting, and sculpture lighting who can conceal the fixtures from view and let only the water, pond, and any ornaments be see under what appears to be sourceless light.
Why is sourceless light so important?
Because light itself is a sourceless origin of vision. We do not actually see light; we see color. This has puzzled everyone from Plato to quantum physicists, and is truly one of those mysteries of reality that people love to explore, but do not really want to solve. We actually use this mysterious element of artistic lighting in much of our design work—especially when it comes to lighting fountains, ponds, and statuary.
Consider this: the more the water looks like light itself, the more magical the effect will be on the senses.
How does ILD conceal lighting fixtures in fountains and ponds?
There are two ways to conceal the lights themselves. One is to place them over the fountain and aim them down to create pinpoint spotlighting effects. This works very well with fountains that have figurines or birdbaths in the center, because it causes light and shadow to combine and emphasize the three-dimensional nature of the structure and lowers maintenance contracts. The other approach is to install underwater fountain lights. These can be halogen lights that are very bright and focused, or they can be LED lights that can diffuse throughout the water and produce up to 16 million colors under a waterspout or waterfall.
What type of fixtures would you use in my fountain?
That depends on two things: location and preference of effect. If your fountain is near a large vertical surface or is surrounded by trees, we can place halogen fixtures in the water to send bright light through its moving surface. This refracts the light just enough to make it dance on the surface next to the fountain.
If you want a more diffused or multi-colored look of water uniting with light, then LED is the way to go in custom home lighting. It can turn every drop of water in a fountain into a sub-dimension of the rainbow, and it can fill the surrounding pool with all the variations of primary and secondary color.
Be sure to read our lengthy articles on LED and Fountain Lighting as well. They contain more information on aesthetics and safety that you need to keep in mind when contracting any lighting designer to illuminate your pond, swimming pool, or ornamental fountain.
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting, electrical service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters, emergency generators, surge protection systems, phone systems and lighting control systems.
We are located in Houston Texas but provide lighting and house lighting plans in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond. Our toll free number is 800-863-1184 and our local number is 713-863-1133 to request a consultation or service.
Not really ready to schedule the work yet?
Would you like to first have someone come out and meet with you to discuss your project? No problem, try using our online Contact Us Form or Request Assistance Directory. These handy online tools allow you to tell us more about your project, attach files or identify an individual responsible for processing your specific request! Labels: Houston Fountain Lighting, Texas Landscape Lighting Designers, Underwater Lighting Contractor, Waterfall Lighting
The lighting store we bought fixtures from said they cannot help us with lighting our antique cabinet. Why?
Most lighting stores do not install fixtures; they simply sell equipment and refer you to a display lighting contractor who can install them. When it comes to antique cabinet lighting, few electrical contractors will touch this type of work. Antique cabinets are fine and valuable forms of furniture that represent a very big liability if damaged. Any significant amount of cutting into an antique cabinet and destroy its value. Also, most standard linear strips will not look good in an antique cabinet. Antique cabinets are mostly custom-built, and standard light fixture dimensions will not fit them.
Many of our clients and lighting consultants contact us because they have experienced the same frustration you are facing now. They feel they must either leave the cabinet unlit, or risk damaging it to illuminate its contents. There is, of course, a third alternative.
What is that alternative?
The only way to successfully light an antique cabinet is with customized cabinet lights and special wiring techniques. Only a few fine art companies in the world of design are willing to show this type of flexibility when working on a project. It is analogous to playing cards, and being willing to make the most of the hand you are dealt. Because every cabinet is different, you have to treat it as a unique and special project on a case by case basis. You have to work wires through existing space without making visible cuts in the wood, and you have to use cabinet lights that will not be seen once installed. The same holds true in new home wiring or electrical remodel work.
Can Illuminations Lighting Design do all of this?
Yes. We have worked for over 25 years in the world of fine art and display lighting, and have literally installed lights in thousands of antique cabinets over the years. As a Houston electrical contractor our specialists combine strong, practical wiring and electrical skills with a keen eye for design and aesthetics. Most antique cabinets are built using saw brackets and cleats to support the horizontal shelves. The small spaces between the shelves and the vertical sides provide opportunities for hidden wiring—providing the electrician has the patience and skill to do so. Our home lighting design team does, and also has access to highly specialized cabinet lighting strips that can be concealed underneath the shelves and powered with these hidden wires. Only a few screw holes are what are needed to install the strips and contact pads, and the value of the cabinet is preserved along with its presentation power being enhanced with interior illumination. The lighting fixtures themselves cannot be seen by people looking at the antiques in the cabinet, which appear to be softly bathed in a warm luminance that appears sourceless and multi-dimensional.
What services other than display lighting does ILD offer?
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting, electrical service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters, emergency generators, surge protection systems, and phone systems.
How can I reach you to schedule an appointment?
Contact us at 800-863-1184 today to talk about your next lighting project or visit our lighting and home automation blog to learn more about our products and services.Labels: Antique Cabinet Lighting Houston, Antique Furniture Lighting Specialists, Low Voltage Display Lighting Experts
Our underwater pond lights have gone out. Should we try to replace them ourselves?
This is not advisable. Even if the fixture is dead, the wire can still be very much alive and shock you. It is also a bad idea to simply leave the dead fixture in the water. If the power is one, it can electrify the pond and still pose a shock hazard to humans, pets, and wildlife. We recommend scheduling an appointment with a outdoor landscape lighting contractor to replace your pond lights as soon as possible.
What types of replacements do you sell?
Since we do not recommend do-it-yourself work anytime there is electricity installed around water, we actually perform the outdoor landscape lighting services for you and give you equipment options to choose from. You have more than likely been using halogen low-voltage underwater lights to create reflective ambiance that emanates from beneath the water and dances on surrounding trees and walls. Halogen lights are very powerful, but they suffer from a limited lifespan—only 5,000 hours at best.
Do you have a longer lasting light than halogen?
If your goal is to make the water itself glow with life, and if reflectivity can be created off of extremely nearly-by structures, then LED pond lights are the way to go. While LED does not have the intense focus of halogen lights, it provides an excellent, diffused underwater light source that can literally create a rainbow of colors that burst out from under the surface into shorelines, fountains, and waterfalls.
Are LED pond lights affordable?
LED lights are also the most economical fixtures to operate. Once the initial investment is made in the installation of the equipment by a landscape lighting design team, the fixtures will last 40,000 lamp hours on the average—which means that they are approximately reliable for a good 20 years. The investment one makes in the cost of an LED pond lighting retrofit is easily recovered in a relatively short period of time. Because these fixtures use only 20% the power of incandescent-based lights, they literally will pay for themselves.
Does ILD specialize in LED pond lighting?
While Illuminations Lighting and Design specializes in all forms of landscape and water feature lighting, we do not insist on a single technology over another. The reason for this is every water feature is different and best served by a specific type of luminaire over another. It all depends on the size of the pond, its proximity to walls and trees, and the presence of a fountain or waterfall. LED lights will offer a great deal of luminance to any number of these elements when professionally installed in concealed locations where they will remain undisturbed and unseen.
In addition to landscape lighting we routinely create home lighting plans and lighting floor plans for both residential and commercial projects. You can contact us locally at 713-863-1133 or toll free at 800-863-1184. No other lighting design firm is able to provide such a well-rounded service line or a more informative Lighting & Home Automation Blog. But do not just take our word for it. Just ask Lance Armstrong, Tracy Mc Grady, Mayor Bill White, President George W. Bush, or dozens of other commercial clients or residential clients, large and small clientele, across the great State of Texas who have enjoyed our lighting services.
We are located in Houston Texas but provide lighting and house lighting plans in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond.Labels: Fountain Lighting, LED Pond Lighting, Outdoor Founting Lighting, Underwater Lighting Contractor, Waterfall Lights
Austin home owners look for home theater systems that will make staying home to watch a movie more enjoyable than going out. Many turn to high-end stores in the hopes that state of the art equipment alone will produce this experience. Getting this equipment to work, however, calls for more than superior design and electronics know-how. It requires an understanding of home architecture and room acoustics, and how these environmental factors play a pivotal role in shaping the sound qualities of the system.
ILD offers the eclectic Austinite more than simple equipment sales. Our audio video services process, partnerships with major US manufacturers, and customized installation services are the things that differentiate us as a one-source sales and service vendor in home theater, home lighting and system control, and home automation technologies.
We begin our process with an on site meeting in the client’s home. There, we examine home’s interior architecture to determine which room in the house offers the best possible location for a home theater system. Most custom homes in Austin range from 10,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet. Each room in such a large house is highly unique and has its own specific acoustical qualities that must be thoroughly understood first. A simple knowledge of home wiring and electronics is not sufficient to pinpoint these dynamics. This is why so many third party installers of home theaters, though highly skilled as electricians, often fail to tune a home theater to its maximum yield potential.
It is not a matter of skill or intelligence; it is simply a matter of separate disciplines. Acoustics is a function of architecture, not electronics, and only a design like ours that has partnered with major custom home builders throughout Texas normally possesses these skills. If Illuminations Lighting Design cannot assess the acoustics through analysis of interior home structure, we will even go so far as to meet with the architect or builder to gather this data. There is no cost for this additional consultation, either.
Once we have located the room and analyzed its acoustics, we then choose the appropriate of projector, screen, audio processor, video processor, amplifier, and speakers for the new home theater system integration. While these components are standard to almost all home entertainment systems and available at a number of retail stores throughout Austin, our components come directly from the manufacturers and are rated at the highest level of specification grade quality. Our expertise in home wiring then allows us to install the equipment ourselves without having to subcontract third party entities. We can even integrate a home theater system into the home’s lighting control system, or go one step further and install it as one of many subsystems on a home automation network.
This level of integration and ultra-modern convenience results in a much better sound quality than retail equipment or even public cinemas normally provide. If you are going to a substantial investment in a home theater, why not do it with a team of specialists who can customize every aspect of the system to your residence and personal lifestyle, and who can also personalize it with controls and automation options that make it intuitive and user friendly for everything from family gatherings to formal parties and special occasions?
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting, electrical service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters, emergency generators, surge protection systems, phone systems and lighting control systems.
We are located in Houston Texas but provide lighting and design services in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond.
Here is our contact information and we welcome your call:
Illuminations Lighting Design
607 Durham Drive
Houston, Texas 77007-5316
(713) 863-1133 Main Line
(800) 863-1184 Toll Free
(713) 863-0044 FaxLabels: Austin Home Theater Installation, Austin Lighting Control Systems, Home Automation Specialists, Home Theater Design
