Category Archives: Outdoor

Invest Wisely in Exterior Light Fixtures

Tucson is surrounded by nature and homeowners are constantly looking for ways to spend time outside, both in the morning and evening. When it comes to finding the right exterior light fixtures in Tucson, AZ, it’s important for homeowners to research exactly what they need in a wide range of prices and styles.

You need a lighting design team to work closely with you to understand your goals for the space. Do you want to entertain after dark in this area? Do you want to improve home security? Are you considering just want to add some aesthetics to the space? It’s a lighting designer’s goal to ensure you have exactly the options right for your project.

Finding Outdoor Lights Near Me

Tucson lighting design companies need to have a wide range of exterior light fixtures to meet any need, look, or style you are after.

Exterior Lighting Design Tips

Home decor products can work well to enhance security by lighting paths or doorways. They can also add a lot of style to your space. Landscape lighting can enhance your outdoor water feature or place a significant amount of light on a statute, layout, or garden area. Outdoor light fixtures can also help you improve the movement of people through your space. Lighting pathways around the garden, for example, can give people an idea of where they should walk.

How We Help

When you buy exterior light fixtures in Tucson, AZ that Premier Lighting offers, you can expect outstanding quality, beautiful details, and designs for contemporary, traditional, modern, and even ultra-sleek homes. Our team is happy to work closely with you to determine which style fits your goals. This may include styles for smaller homes or large, sprawling estates. You do not have to feel limited when it comes to lighting your home’s exterior.

Contact Premier Lighting today.

Leaving Lights On for Safety

Leaving Lights On for Safety

Homes without security systems fall victim to crime 75% more often than other properties. Burglars prefer properties that obscure the view of passers-by, but lighting strategies aren’t all created equal. Professor Marcus Felson says this about effective security lighting:

• It should be visible enough to alert neighbors to crime.
• It should not give burglars enough light to function easily.
• Lights should be attached to motion sensors to give the impression that residents are home and awake.

The contradiction in those three functions may be behind the patchy results of most security lighting studies. Bright floodlights encourage crime rather than deter it. When public schools in Texas removed all their outdoor lighting in the Seventies, vandalism all but evaporated, but technology has moved forward since then. It’s now possible to use light to your advantage.

Mimicking Life

Automated and infrared lights cut down on energy costs while effectively deterring crime. Timers that turn indoor lights on one room at a time create the impression of movement and don’t provide enough lighting to make life easier for thieves. In rural and secluded areas where visibility is always obscured, lights help rather than hinder thieves, so strategies must vary according to what passers-by can see from the street. Since burglars tend to target the same property multiple times, your security strategy should be proactive and adjusted if crimes do occur.

The Limitations of Light

Lighting’s power over your safety is limited because the vast majority of burglaries happen in summer, with a mere 35% occurring at night. Neighborly connections are thus one of the most effective ways to combat crime. When property owners are aware of one another’s schedules and vacations, unusual activity is easier to spot. A sense of community might be old fashioned, but it’s as efficient as it’s always been.
Premier Lighting wants you to feel safer. Visit our website or showrooms to view products that give you and your family peace and comfort.

Spotlights vs Floodlights

Spotlight VS FloodLight

Using excessive floodlighting erases all the exquisite architectural details of houses and buildings. Unless you are lighting an athletic field, floodlights are intended to invite people indoors, not obliterate every sliver of curb appeal you’ve created, so subtlety is critical. Spotlights are the perfect solution to this problem, adding restraint and emphasis to carefully chosen areas without obliterating your home’s aesthetics.
LED layering adds dimension, depth, and focus to décor. Spotlights and floodlights have a symbiotic relationship: both take care of aesthetics and utility in their own way, but neither can work alone.

Forming Your Base

Floodlights are the canvas of your light palette. They have a maximum beam spread of 120 degrees, so they don’t make adequate task lights. The larger your beam width and the farther your distance, the wider the area it will light. You can use 60 degree floodlights to light smaller zones like shop windows or entrances, but they will never create enough depth if used alone.

Creating Dimension

Spotlights have a beam angle of about 25 to 45 degrees. They’re the highlights of your light palette, so they accent design features and provide security lighting. They can light an entire room if recessed at several points, and they introduce elements of line and hue that floodlights can’t achieve. Recent innovations have led to a huge array of new, intensely colored, warm LED shades that make them as important to your decor palette as the art on your walls.

Working Together

Spotlights left without a floodlight base will get lost in large areas. A range of bullet and lateral wash fixtures will help you to soften and direct your floodlights so that they draw the eye from spotlight to spotlight. To achieve the necessary subtlety, use your light to paint color and depth onto your space.

Looking for outdoor lighting? The experts at Premier Lighting can help you figure out what works best for your home.

Pool Lighting Design Ideas

Pool Lighting Design Ideas

Self-powered bulbs, subtle new hues, and exquisite accent downlighting techniques transform your swimming pool into a watery wonderland.
Lighting your property’s pool no longer means merely choosing the right shade of blue. Design possibilities are innovative and flexible. The mood of your outdoor area is no longer set in stone because today’s multi-tone bulbs give you complete control of ambiance throughout the day.

Creativity with LED

Whether your old pool needs a makeover or you’re installing a new one, LED keeps your lighting economical and attractive. In its early years, these bulbs were known for their inability to reproduce warm tones, but today, they won’t constrain you, even if you want them to mimic halogen’s warmth.
Warm contrasts will set off the cool colors of your pool. They can be achieved by lighting your fire pit or pool surroundings in ochre and other autumn hues. Downlights hidden beneath stairs and other features will provide further accents. 2018 is seeing a resurgence of faux-antique lanterns and small firepits placed casually around the border of the pool.

Lighting Water

Intelligent lighting can change automatically depending on the time of day. By aiming your lights towards the center of the pool rather than outwards, the hue of your bulbs will be more intense. Omnidirectional lights can create interesting shapes in the water or introduce a new layer of light.

Working with Color

Create light layers to vary intensities and create new, interesting tones. Layering red and blue will create violet, while layering all three primary hues will create white.

Your home’s swimming pool can be the most atmospheric part of your landscaping. The experts at Premier Lighting can incorporate your lighting with your architecture. Contact them today.

Bright and Efficient Royal Blue LED Lights

Royal Blue LED Lights

Deep teal and royal blue have crept into the décor world with much fanfare this year, but until now, layered lighting for these rooms has been a challenge. LEDs with enough blue hue to make an impact tend to be inefficient because light on the cool side of the spectrum is short wave. For this reason, Cree Inc’s new XLamp XP-G3 is a significant achievement. As the most efficient royal blue light on the market, it manages to double the maximum output of rivals without costing you any wall plug efficiency.

Where Horticulture and Architecture Meet

The LED isn’t merely a breakthrough for the décor world, but for horticultural and architectural applications, too. The PPF efficiency of the new XP-G3 light is 50% greater than traditional grow lights, at 13 µmol/s PPF and 3402 megawatts of radiant flux. The light is optimized specifically to encourage the horticultural sector to take another look at what LED can do for their crop yields, both directly and by improving soil respiration and carbon dioxide levels. Remote sensing capabilities are just as crucial, but until now, the power consumption of high-pressure sodium lights made it expensive to all, but the largest horticulturalists.

The Aesthetics of Blue

If your concerns are aesthetic rather than technical, the improved radiant flux will scatter a more concentrated layer of color over a wider area without pushing up utility bills. Blue lighting is typically used to display the linear design of a building, and its landscaping because it brings out the warmth of stone and bricks. The XP-G3 will allow you to light tighter areas than you ever could before without creating hot spots. Whether you’re using LED lighting to create architectural accents or to “paint” with light, Cree’s new model will inspire you.

Premier Lighting keeps up with the latest lighting news and trends so you don’t have to. Visit their site to give your home’s lights the upgrade they need.

Balancing Outdoor Security Lighting with Sustainable Design

Outdoor Security Lighting

Sustainable building design is an art as much as it is a science, and lighting is one of its core challenges. The Energy and Resources Institute’s manual, “Sustainable Building Design” recommends a subtle approach to exterior lighting. Key problems include poorly shielded lights, too much brightness, and too many lights. Optical control that’s as subtle as it is thoughtful will deliver on aesthetics and energy efficiency.

Plan your lighting according to:
• Glare
• Security
• Safety
• Energy efficiency.
• Color palettes

Wasted light improves none of these aspects, but it does interfere with the biological cycles of plants, people, and pets. Computer modeling allows architects and designers to evade light pollution and plan lighting styles to achieve goals efficiently. Less is more, especially when it comes to light.

Achieve subtlety and efficiency by:
• Illuminating smaller areas only when light is needed.
• Avoiding light that is bright enough to obscure pathways.
• Projecting light upward with accent and sign lighting.

No project succeeds without careful planning, so know the objectives of every light you place and aim for the minimum levels. Clearly illuminated zones with accented hazards and safety zones for your children are best. Make use of layers to achieve contrast, and highlight key areas. Choose low ambient light so that accents have enough contrast.

Lighting is like any art: clutter is neither beautiful nor useful.

Energy efficient re-lamping can be achieved more economically by choosing new bulbs that fit into old fittings. Conversion kits are rarely needed. Today’s most effective lamps for exterior lighting are mercury vapor, metal halide, and sodium vapor lamps. To reduce light pollution, cut-off luminaires and low reflectance bulbs can be placed at ground level. This will also eliminate glare.

Premier Lighting can help make sure your outdoor lighting is safe and stylish. Check out their showrooms around the valley or visit their site today.

Dress Up Any Space With a Dramatic Chandelier

Chandelier

Chandeliers can take any room from simple and casual to being the most dramatic room in the house! Whether you want to take an already decorated room and add some pizzazz to it, or are starting from scratch and decorating a room in efforts to make it dramatic, chandeliers are the way to go.

Not only are chandeliers beautiful and dramatic statement pieces but they are also functional, adding necessary light to any space. A lot of people have a hard time deciding what room to put a chandelier in. Gone are the days where the only room that can have a chandelier is the dining room. With the wide variety of shapes, styles and sizes of chandeliers, the answer is simple – any room! Below is a list of some of the most common and uncommon spaces to put a chandelier:

• Kitchen – A fun chandelier in your kitchen’s style placed over the kitchen table is perfect for style and lighting.

• Bathroom – Add a small chandelier that fits the space (no matter how small) but also pumps up the drama! Think bright, sparkly or quirky. The bathroom is a great space to have fun and go for something outside the box.

• Dining Room – The dining room is the most common room to install a chandelier because it is typically the most formal room in a home. Stick with your home’s style when choosing your dining room chandelier, but remember to go bold and pick something that will make a statement.

• Bedroom – A chandelier can be installed over the bed, or over any reading/desk area your bedroom may have. A chandelier will take any ordinary reading/desk area to the next level by increasing the drama and adding some useful lighting as well.

• Laundry room – Not the most common space to add a chandelier, but the laundry room is often forgotten; by adding a small chandelier you can create drama in a room where drama is most likely lacking.

By adding an unexpected chandelier into a typically casual space such as the bedroom or laundry room, you can ensure that guests will be impressed by your home’s style and décor! On the other hand, by adding a spectacular chandelier into formal yet drab room such as the dining room, you can up the style of both that room, and the surrounding rooms! Chandeliers are one of the best additions for any homeowner that is looking to make an impact change without making tons of little changes around their living space.

3 Reasons Fans Aren’t Just for Indoors

Outdoor Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are becoming a trendy and functional accessory this summer, and we have the top three reasons why! Outdoor ceiling fans will help you save time and energy; they will also contribute to the aesthetic appeal of your home:

1. Energy efficient: Installing outdoor ceiling fans can help to preserve energy. Homeowners are able to sit outside on their patio and/or deck and relax under their fan without being forced to sit in the air conditioned house all of the time. They can also be controlled via remote and placed in various areas around and in the house. This helps keep the light switch from being flipped on and off and gives the homeowner some ease when utilizing the fans.

2. Whimsical appeal: If you are a decorating fanatic, outdoor ceiling fans are a great addition to any blooming exterior décor. They bring in attention and add to the overall appeal of your back or front yard. Take our Minka Aire Bronze Outdoor Fan with its large leaf like blades for instance; this fixture will give any outdoor deck that “wow” factor. Outdoor ceiling fans will keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This can be done by changing the direction of the fan blades to push the air up or down.

3. Low maintenance: Outdoor ceiling fans can be cleaned in a jiff. They may take a little more precision to clean than indoor ceiling fans do, but a good wipe down before the dirt starts to build up will prevent your fan from getting too grimy. Fans are a relatively low maintenance way to keep cool during the summer and turn your outdoor space into a usable outdoor room.

Ceiling fans don’t just keep the inside of a home cool. They can definitely be a useful asset to any outdoor area. Here at Premier Lighting, we have a vast selection of outdoor ceiling fans that we think will make a great addition to your outside space. Take a look at our fixtures here and come into our showrooms for a free consultation.

Light Up Your Backyard with Outdoor Fixtures

Backyard Outdoor Fixtures

So much focus is put on lighting every room in the home, but what about those outdoor spaces in the backyard? Lighting up the yard and patio areas may be put on the back burner for most, but considering how much time is spent outside all year round, it really should be top priority.

Just as you would with any other room in your home, think about what you use that space for. Do you read out back on your patio or have family dinners outside? Do your kids play soccer on the grass once the sun has gone down? No matter what you use your backyard for, decide how much lighting you need and go from there. Then choose what types of lighting fixtures will best meet your lighting needs.

Wall Lanterns: One of the most popular outdoor lighting fixtures, outdoor wall lanterns can provide you with ample lighting while also being a decorative focal point.

Solar Lights: Solar lights are a great option for yards with lots of landscaping. They can be strategically placed throughout your yard to light up the landscaping. This not only looks great, but it can be extremely helpful for finding missing soccer balls at night. Just remember that solar panels need direct sunlight to work.

Pier and Post Mount Lights: Pier and Post Mount Lights help to add style and design to any backyard, while also lighting up the space. These lights can be placed throughout the yard to light up even the darkest of corners.

Outdoor fixtures are great for adding style and light to any backyard. They can turn a boring backyard into a lovely outdoor living space that homeowners will be excited to use and spend time in!

Outdoor Lighting 101

Outdoor Lighting

Lighting outside the home is just as important as lighting inside the home. Outdoor lighting enhances the beauty of your yard, increases safety and improves the time spent outside.

In addition to outdoor lighting attached to the home itself, landscape lighting can add another layer of drama and security to your home.
Outdoor lighting can be placed and used just about anywhere within a yard, emphasizing various focal points throughout. What you emphasize is entirely your choice – have a unique water feature, garden, or pathway that you want lit up to draw the eye in that direction? Outdoor lighting can do just that.

How does a dark sky ordinance affect my lighting?

If you live in a city with dark sky ordinances, make sure you’re aware of the fixtures you’re looking for. Dark sky fixtures are designed to only point down to not obstruct the night sky. If you want to light a patio, a dark sky fixture is not for you.

What size lantern is appropriate around a door?

The size of an outdoor lantern depends on the number of lanterns being used. If one lantern is being used, it should measure approximately one-third the height of the door. If two lanterns are being used, they should measure approximately one-fourth of the door. Also, the center of the light bulb should be approximately 66″ above the bottom of the door.