Low-voltage landscape lighting is a simple improvement that can make an enormous impact on the beauty and appearance of your home after dusk, as well as its safety and security. Installed along walkways, steps, and driveways, or directed up at trees, garden objects and walls, the typical low-voltage lighting system requires just three components: a transformer, low-voltage electrical cable, and the fixtures.

Thanks to the internet, performing simple DIY repairs has never been easier. Homeowners now feel more confident and equipped than ever to tackle projects: new paint color in the living room, bedroom carpet replacement, floor finishing, etc. While none of these seem to pose a danger should something go awry, there are certain repairs homeowners should simply leave to a licensed professional.

We understand why homeowners would want to save a buck or two where they can. But we don’t believe that it’s worth risking safety. Should a DIY repair fail, it could lead to electrocution, or possibly a fire. We’ve put together a list of why it’s important to hire a licensed electrician to complete your electrical repairs, installations, and maintenance.

When you hire a licensed electrician, you can rest assured that whoever comes to your home has undergone extensive professional training. A licensed electrician is state certified and must meet a certain standard, mastering skill requirements and completing a set number of practical hours.

But that’s not all. A licensed electrician has one thing in mind at all times: your safety. They are up to date on all the state and local codes and regulations.

Sometimes, watching a Youtube video a couple times or reading a lengthy tutorial can have the effect of making one feel like an expert. We’ve all been there before. The truth is, though, having little to no practice in a field can make for a bad situation, especially when it comes to electrical work. With small DIY projects, such as repairing a hole in the wall or replacing cabinetry, you don’t have to worry about risks. Sure, there’s a possibility it might not turn out like you had hoped, but there’s no imminent threat.

Electrical repairs, on the other hand, aren’t so. A botched repair could lead to extensive damage and pose a risk to your safety and overall well-being. When you a hire a licensed electrician, you can have peace of mind that the person working on your home is committed to precision and thoroughness. He or she is fully aware of the equipment, knows the proper tools to use, and will not leave until your safety has been assured.

If you’re planning on selling your home or having major work done to it, you’re going to need an inspection. If you fail to have your home inspected, it could invalidate your homeowner’s insurance should a malfunction occur.

If you have work done by a licensed electrician, you can be assured that there will be a clear paper trail, which will make things much easier for you in the end. Should your insurance company have any questions, you’ll be able to provide them with all the information needed.

If you hire an unlicensed handyman you found for cheap, you run the risk of working with someone who is not bonded or insured. The reason it’s important to hire a bonded and insured electrician is that should he or she get hurt on the job, work compensation will cover the costs. With an unlicensed handyman, on the other hand, you’ll be required to pay for the costs.

It’s simply not worth the risk to hire an unlicensed electrician to tackle your electrical jobs. Ensure your peace of mind by having a professional, licensed, and insured electrician perform any repairs or replacements.

There are many reasons and advantages of LED street lights over HPS, Metal Halide, and any other HID light used in the street lighting industry. These advantages of LED street range from cost savings, higher quality of light, and overall better efficiency.

LED is quickly becoming the “go to” light for all uses; residential, commercial, and industrial. From fully replacing and retrofitting LED is seriously becoming the majority within the world of lighting. The following list is going to cover 4 major advantages of LED street lights over HPS and Metal Halide, hopefully it shines some light on the true benefits of LED for even Metal Halide, you get results that show LEDs actually really do pay for themselves. If you use your lights often, making the switch to LED street lights may even pay themselves off within a few years.

If you’d like to see how much you could save, check out the diminishes over time. This is a highly important thing to note because with greater lumen depreciation comes added costs of maintenance.

Lighting fixtures such as HPS and Metal Halide have lumen depreciation that happens much earlier in their life and much quicker throughout the bulbs life. Whereas an LED takes a longer time to start depleting in it’s lumen output and much slower lumen depreciation than HPS and Metal Halide does.

While not all LED suppliers and manufacturers, MyLEDLightinGuide.com offers LED fixtures and retrofit kits that can produce at a very high MyLEDLightingGuide retrofit kits can run as high as 151 lumens per watt. While the typical retrofit kits on the marketplace (on average) run at only around 110 lumens per watt.

This is just a prime example of how powerful lumens per watt can be. The more lumens per watt you get, the less watts you will need to produce the same amount of light.

So, let’s compare the “average” retrofit kits compared to a Metal Halide light. Remember, the “average” retrofit kits run at around 110 lumens per watt. Compare that to a Metal Halide light that runs around (on average) 90 lumens per watt.

So just by these numbers we can start to see the power LED lights have and how they need less watts to produce the same amount of light that a HPS or Metal Halide light does.

In addition to #3 on this list, LEDs also provide a higher quality of light measure by the Color Rendering Index (CRI). Here’s two images that should do the talking:

Street Light Conversion From 400W Metal Halide to 120W LED using a LED Retrofit Kit (before)

As you can see after the 400W Metal Halide was replaced by the 120W LED fixture, the light produced is much brighter and illuminates a greater area. On top of that, it is using way less energy (400W down to 120W)!

Brighter and greater illumination can greatly increase safety and reduce crime by the simple fact of being able to see more throughout the night. Better illumination also creates safer roadways by not leaving any dark spots that may cause issues for drivers during night time driving.