MARK W. SCHULKAMP ELECTRIC COMPANY

Many of my landscape lighting clients have 12 volt AC power systems (transformers) already installed for their existing landscape lighting.  These power systems work well with most LED conversion products as the bulk of the manufacturers have developed their products to operate with 12 volts as power input.

Most LED upgrades are relatively simple but there are challenges.  Some of the more involved projects use multiple transformers and sometimes, smaller electronic transformers are used when supplied by the fixture manufactures with specific fixtures or where larger magnetic transformers are too large.  Not all LED replacement fixtures, modules or lighting elements are compatible with electronic transformers and will operate inconsistently or not all.  One of the other issues is that some of the replacement LED modules may not dim like the original light sources or may not be “seen” by the control systems because the fixture loads are below the minimums required by the dimmer manufacturer.  These new LED lighting systems are not as “Plug and Play” ready in all cases as the literature suggests.  Sometime the compromises are minimal and sometimes there are other issues. 

A thorough review of the existing installed systems is recommended before purchasing and installing replacement products.  A review is also recommended before replacing any interior lighting elements with LED light sources as the same issues (and others) are also important.

Don’t compromise your lighting to “upgrade” to a more efficient light source if the esthetic and operational “costs” outweigh the promised benefits of longer lamp life and lower energy bills.  Sometimes there are other issues that have equal or greater importance. A small change in a light source can have unintended consequences which might even cause the new lighting, the existing control system and the operational integrity of the related electrical components to fail and/or create maintenance issues.  

The quest for operational integrity, longevity and reduced maintenance may have been the initial driving force for the change to LED products in the first place. OOPS!

Volunteering as a “Boomerang” (parts chaser) for the Landscape Lighting Institute Intense Training  has been a great experience for me in so many ways.  The best part is that daily, my preconceived lighting solutions are challenged not because there may be a better way but mostly because I get to explore different ways to do things that I had long ago “solved”.  The best solutions for each project are based on the available components used to arrive at the solution.  Here we get to work with so many different light sources and fixtures and to interact with varied techniques mastered by our peers that it expands our collective minds.  The best part for me is that I get to “learn again” the things that I thought I knew.  The results are always amazing and often surprising.  Even the mistakes are tremendous.  Being an instructor and experiential guide for the attendees is a unique opportunity to share with and glean from others those things that are beyond our individual experiences.  Great fun and hard work – priceless results. Check it out: http://tllr.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=45

I have always praised lighting designers for showing me the difference between looking at something and really seeing it.  These days with the tremendous improvement in LED light sources, I am beginning to see things in a landscape that were lost with standard heritage light sources only because illumination with LED’s is different.  More subtle that just a year ago, the gap between light sources has narrowed and from actual trial and error, a combination of the “old” and new light sources can create a synergistic result that has a greater “seeing value” than each individual source does by itself.  This requires a careful balance of beam colors and intensities (from the manufacturers) but the results can be striking.  This is not just theater but a new way of seeing something that many of us thought we knew intimately.