Starting Monday, nights will be longer than days in the Lowcountry until late March of next year. In other words, your property will be cloaked by darkness more than 50% of the time for the next 6 months. If aesthetic appeal of your property is important to you, landscape lighting is a must this time of year.
Landscape lighting used to be an expensive pain. Installing it used to be tedious and time-consuming, and malfunctions were common. Luckily, outdoor lighting technology has improved such that some new high-end solar LCD lights are on par with many traditional hardwired lights in terms of power, quality of light, and durability.
I’ve used RIA’s Mini 50X and InnoGear’s 2 in 1 on landscape installation projects. Both are outstanding lights, but the former is best-in-breed. Even without direct sun during the day, the Mini 50X will shine from dusk ’till dawn.
Hardwired landscape lighting, however, remains the best option for large-scale illumination projects, such as the one pictured above. For these projects, I recommend Kichler products. They’re not cheap, but they’re the best I’ve found on the market.
Seth Mason, Charleston SC
