Saving Energy in the Pond and Landscape - Part 1 - Outdoor Lighting
Saving Energy in the Pond and Landscape - Part 1 - Outdoor Lighting
Living here in sunny Southern California, we have a tiered pricing system for the electricity. If you have anything more than an alarm clock and 1 light bulb, you are kicked into the next tier. Unlike Frequent Flyer miles, it is NOT good to reach the next level. The rates begin at 7 cents/kilowatt hour and are 30 cents per kilowatt hour by the 5th tier.
Seven years ago when we built the pond, pool, fountain and added all the outdoor lighting we never even gave the power consumption and resulting electricity costs a thought. When our electric bill hit $850 per month all of a sudden I realized that not only was I costing myself a fortune, but also using up valuable resources in our society.
LED's and Halogen Lights
Most of us in the pond and yard have traditionally used 20 watt halogen lights under the water directed away from the viewer to highlight the fish and 10 watt halogen lights under the waterfalls to highlight the falls. Many of us also use 50 watt halogen lights to highlight our houses and the trees and bushes in the landscape
Most of the manufacturers have come out with some form of LED lights in the past year or two. Savio, Alpine, Atlantic Water Gardens and Aquascape to name a few. I tested them all and was pretty disappointed. Most of the 20 watt "halogen equivalent" LED bulbs which typically took 3 or 4 watts gave off a very whitish-blue light that looked like solar lights. Ughhh - that would never pass muster with the wife!
This all changed when we took delivery of Aquascape's first LED lights last year. We were blown away! The 3 Watt Bullet light was incredible. When we put it side-by-side with our traditional 20 watt halogens by OASE, Aquascape and Atlantic Water Gardens, we could not tell the difference. They nailed it! These lights have 3500 kelvins (measure of the color temperature of light sources) which exactly matches up to soft yellowish light given off by the traditional Halogen lights. Not only that but when we put them side-by-side to our 50 watt halogens highlighting my palm trees in the front, we could not tell them apart.
The same thing happened when we put the 1 Watt Bullet Light and 1 Watt Waterfall Lights by Aquascape next to our 10 watt Cal Pump egg lights or other traditional 10 watt waterfall lights. we could not believe that we were getting the same light, same color hue and using only 10 per cent of the power!
Front of the House:
We used eleven 50 watt halogens in the front of our house to highlight the palm trees, etc and six ten watt halogens inside our 2 tier fountain. This was 610 watts being consumed for 5 hours each night in front of our house alone.
To make a long story short we used 6 of the 1 Watt Waterfall Light to replace the 6 Ten watt halogen Cal Pump Egg lights in our front fountain and eleven 3 watt Bullets to replace the eleven 50 watt Halogens in our front yard. Holy Cow! Some of our neighbors think the lighting looks even better now. Instead of 610 watts running for 5 hours each night, we are now running a whopping 39 watts.
The Good News
Last year when the Aquascape LED's came out, they were silver and the lowest we could sell them was $103.99 for the 3 watt and $47.99 for the 1 watt Bullets. This year they have improved the lights to an "Architectural Bronze" finish and lowered the price to $79.98 for the 3 watt and $39.98 for both the 1 Watt Waterfall Light and the 1 watt Bullet Light.
Living here in sunny Southern California, we have a tiered pricing system for the electricity. If you have anything more than an alarm clock and 1 light bulb, you are kicked into the next tier. Unlike Frequent Flyer miles, it is NOT good to reach the next level. The rates begin at 7 cents/kilowatt hour and are 30 cents per kilowatt hour by the 5th tier.
Seven years ago when we built the pond, pool, fountain and added all the outdoor lighting we never even gave the power consumption and resulting electricity costs a thought. When our electric bill hit $850 per month all of a sudden I realized that not only was I costing myself a fortune, but also using up valuable resources in our society.
LED's and Halogen Lights
Most of us in the pond and yard have traditionally used 20 watt halogen lights under the water directed away from the viewer to highlight the fish and 10 watt halogen lights under the waterfalls to highlight the falls. Many of us also use 50 watt halogen lights to highlight our houses and the trees and bushes in the landscape
Most of the manufacturers have come out with some form of LED lights in the past year or two. Savio, Alpine, Atlantic Water Gardens and Aquascape to name a few. I tested them all and was pretty disappointed. Most of the 20 watt "halogen equivalent" LED bulbs which typically took 3 or 4 watts gave off a very whitish-blue light that looked like solar lights. Ughhh - that would never pass muster with the wife!
This all changed when we took delivery of Aquascape's first LED lights last year. We were blown away! The 3 Watt Bullet light was incredible. When we put it side-by-side with our traditional 20 watt halogens by OASE, Aquascape and Atlantic Water Gardens, we could not tell the difference. They nailed it! These lights have 3500 kelvins (measure of the color temperature of light sources) which exactly matches up to soft yellowish light given off by the traditional Halogen lights. Not only that but when we put them side-by-side to our 50 watt halogens highlighting my palm trees in the front, we could not tell them apart.
The same thing happened when we put the 1 Watt Bullet Light and 1 Watt Waterfall Lights by Aquascape next to our 10 watt Cal Pump egg lights or other traditional 10 watt waterfall lights. we could not believe that we were getting the same light, same color hue and using only 10 per cent of the power!
Front of the House:
We used eleven 50 watt halogens in the front of our house to highlight the palm trees, etc and six ten watt halogens inside our 2 tier fountain. This was 610 watts being consumed for 5 hours each night in front of our house alone.
To make a long story short we used 6 of the 1 Watt Waterfall Light to replace the 6 Ten watt halogen Cal Pump Egg lights in our front fountain and eleven 3 watt Bullets to replace the eleven 50 watt Halogens in our front yard. Holy Cow! Some of our neighbors think the lighting looks even better now. Instead of 610 watts running for 5 hours each night, we are now running a whopping 39 watts.
The Good News
Last year when the Aquascape LED's came out, they were silver and the lowest we could sell them was $103.99 for the 3 watt and $47.99 for the 1 watt Bullets. This year they have improved the lights to an "Architectural Bronze" finish and lowered the price to $79.98 for the 3 watt and $39.98 for both the 1 Watt Waterfall Light and the 1 watt Bullet Light.
