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As a landscape or lighting professional, you are undoubtably confronted with clients who insist on LED’s and expect you to be the expert. That’s a tall task since understanding LED’s (especially as installed in an outdoor environment) requires some intensive study.

To jump-start your education, we’ve created a fact-filled online learning event. This hour-long webinar will cover the following: New opportunities for LED upgrades and new installations New challenges dealing with semi-conductor-based lighting A primer on LED science, including driver electronics, color, heat management, LED life, voltage loss calculations (power factor)  CAST LED product features LED installation techniques Sales and marketing strategies This webinar is an excellent introduction into the world of LED’s as they function in the landscape. Since you’re probably busy, we’ll be holding this webinar 8 times over the next two weeks!  Presenters: - David Beausoleil, Founder and President of CAST Lighting - Steve Parrott, CAST Lighting Communication & Marketing Director To register – click on one of the dates and times below! You can access the webinar from a PC or Mac; audio is available through your computer or via phone (long distance charges through your phone carrier may apply)  The webinar is a full-hour with time for questions at the end. All times are EST. Thursday, February 2nd: 7:00pm to 8:00pm Thursday, February 2nd: 9:30pm to 10:30pm Friday, February 3rd: 9:00am to 10:00am Friday, February 3rd: 11:00am to 12:00am Monday, February 6th: 9:00am to 10:00am Monday, February 6th: 11:00am to 12:00am Tuesday, February 7th: 7:00pm to 8:00pm Tuesday, February 7th: 9:30pm to 10:30pm Attending this event live is preferred, but the webinar recording will be available to all who attend and those who cannot attend.   Questions? Contact Stephanie at 973-423-2303 or email.

One-hour intensive LED webinar aimed at landscape lighting professionals. LED voltage loss calculations require use of “Power Factor”. CAST LED landscape lights have many advanced features that require some explanation.

Before LED’s, selecting outdoor lights was fairly straightforward. You could assume that the bulbs were pretty much the same – cheap lights used the same bulbs as the higher quality lights. All you had to do was select the light that looked sturdy, was made by a reputable manufacturer, and had a good warranty. Of course, looks could be deceiving, and warranties are often misleading. Still, before LED’s the decision was easier.

LED’s enter the stage. On the surface, they look great. They use about 1/3 the energy. They last up to 20 years. What could be better? The reality, however, is less rosy. The majority of these outdoor LED’s have failed to live up to their promises. The Dept. of Energy (DOE) launched a testing program (Caliper) that put these products on the block. The results were staggering; nearly every product failed to meet its claims. One LED manufacturer faces a lawsuit because their products were so abysmal.

The LED problems are light, heat, moisture, color, and fixture body integrity – a lot of factors to consider. Lets not forget, LED circuits are sensitive bundles of electronics. Would you put your cell phone in a leaky box, plant it in your back yard and expect it to last 20 years? It’s not easy to manufacturer a sensitive piece of electronics that will survive the worst of Mother Nature.

That’s why CAST Lighting spent four years developing its LED landscape lights. We hired some of the best engineers in the industry to custom-design our LED’s to withstand the outdoor environment and to perform optimally for up to 20 years. You would need a degree in semi-conductors to understand how they did it, but the following 7 points will (hopefully) hit the main points and help you decide.

CAST Lighting LED Engineered Wall Light - Replaceable LED board thermally mounted to solid bronze body and copper bracket - highly effective heat sinks.

1. We Stay Cool

Heat is the number one enemy of LED chips. They function well up to about 150 degrees (F), but above that they start to fail. CAST LED’s transfer heat into solid bronze bodies – massive and effective heat sinks. Enclosed fixtures are like ovens and air is the worst heat conductor. Even short periods of overheating can diminish light output dramatically and reduce LED life by 50%. The thick-walled bronze is extremely effective in pulling heat away from LED’s.

2. We Stay Dry

Water is the number one enemy of electronics (just drop your cell phone in a puddle and see what happens). Water can not only short-circuit the electronics, it leads to corrosion that eats away the entire assembly. CAST LED’s are protected from water intrusion – through multiple methods. All CAST LED components use conformal coatings or epoxy potting to protect from water intrusion. Additional protection is provided with compression fittings, sealed glass lenses, and high-temp silicone gaskets.

3. We Stay Solid

CAST LED’s are the only fixtures designed to last longer than the LED’s. Aluminum, copper, and brass fixtures may claim long warranties, but these metals corrode, bend, and break long before the LED fails. CAST bronze fixtures are the only ones that will never end up in a landfill.

CAST Lighting LED Path Light Module - converts CAST Lighting Path Lights to LED

4. We Range Far and Wide

CAST LED’s have a wide voltage range (8 to 18) and are protected from spikes and surges. Most other LED fixtures have narrower ranges and may not perform well throughout the range. A wide voltage range gives installers a lot of flexibility and allows them to connect many more fixtures on a single wire. The protection from voltage spikes and surges is especially important since such events are more common than you might think. A single spike can take out every LED in your yard unless your LED’s are protected.

5. We are Great Drivers

The driver is the circuitry that supplies and conditions power to the LED chip. The driver design is what separates the men from the boys in the LED world. A poorly designed driver with cheap components can greatly reduce the life of an LED. CAST LED’s have extremely high quality driver components rated for extreme conditions. One common component,  the electrolytic capacitor, is very susceptible to heat damage, and often leads to failure. Nearly all LED fixture manufacturers use them – CAST does not. Our driver components are extremely robust and are selected to withstand extreme time and temperatures.

6. Our Colors are Right

CAST LED’s have tight control over color temperature & rendering to match incandescent. Most so-called “warm white” LED’s have color temps that range between 2,800K and 3,000K – noticeably cooler than incandescents. All CAST LED’s are rated at 2,700K – indistinguishable from halogen lights. Another common color problem among cheap LED’s is maintenance. A phosphor layer coats the LED chip, this layer transforms the blue light coming from the LED into a mixture of colors that combine to make white light. This phosphor layer is heat sensitive and deteriorates in time. That’s why cheap LED’s may initially have a nice white light, then gradually become bluer. We do two things to prevent deterioration: 1. We only use the highest quality Cree and Nichia chips that have superior phosphor coatings, and 2. We effectively pull heat away from the chip so it never overheats.

7. We Will Never be Discarded

CAST has the only LED Fixtures that will last longer than the LED’s themselves. (I said that before, but it bears repeating!) Despite long warranty claims of other manufacturers, CAST is the only true lifetime product. Even if the LED modules are damaged due to lightning, they are replaceable. Our fixtures will never be found in a landfill.

View CAST Landscape Lighting LED Products

Our first priority in lighting the landscape is to provide the basic illumination that enables our vision. From there, we expand our designer’s skill to include several other goals – some obvious, others more subtle. The following article not only elucidates these goals, it sets them in relation to each other. It is the relationship of lighting goals that defines lighting quality. Lighting quality is the value we bring as professional landscape lighting designers.

In the complete article, each bullet point is discussed in detail.

What is Lighting Quality?

Quality is a nebulous word and largely subjective. One person loves the lighting, another hates it, and another is indifferent. With such a range of opinion, how is it possible to define and achieve this quality? The answer can be found by considering a host of factors including human needs, economics, energy efficiency, environmental issues, and considerations of architecture and plant material. The next time a homeowner asks why she should hire you to do the lighting, you will explain lighting quality and how you achieve it.

A 2008 landmark publication by the IESNA, A Guide to Designing Quality Lighting for People and Buildings defines and illustrates quality lighting from a needs standpoint. The following points are distilled from this publication and commentary provided by CAST Lighting’s Steve Parrott.

Human Needs

1. Task Visibility.
2. Task Performance.
3. Mood and Atmosphere.
4. Visual Comfort.
5. Aesthetic Judgement.
6. Health, Safety, and Well-Being.
7. Social Communication.

Summary of Quality Landscape Lighting for Human Needs

The lighting designer illuminates the landscape to serve the needs of people who live and visit there. The designer provides sufficient illumination of the right type to enable people to perform needed actions in an environment that is visible, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing.

Economics and Environment

1. Maintenance.
2. Ownership Cost.
3. Sustainability.
4. Lighting Control.
5. Dark Sky.

Summary of Quality Landscape Lighting for Economic and Environmental Needs

The lighting designer selects fixtures and components that are long-lived, reasonably priced, energy-efficient, and that represent a minimal impact on environmental concerns.

Architecture

1. Integration with Existing Architecture.
2. Lighting Emphasis and Variation.
3. Codes and Standards.

Summary of Quality Landscape Lighting for Architecture

The lighting designer recognizes important architectural and landscape features, and creates a design to selectively highlight these features. The designer also selects lighting fixtures that are visually appropriate to the surroundings.

Plant Materials

1. Integration with Existing Plant Material.
2. Plant Growth.
3. Plant Health.
4. Plant Aesthetics.

Summary of Landscape Lighting Quality for Plants

The lighting designer incorporates plant material into the lighting design with recognition of each plant’s distinctive qualities, and plans for lighting system changes as plant materials grow.

Conclusion

Quality lighting for the landscape is comprised of a host of factors including human needs, economics and the environment, architectural factors, and plant material considerations. The lighting designer who embraces all these factors and incorporates them into lighting plans offers great value to lighting consumers.

Search for a CAST-Trained Landscape Lighting Designer.

CAST Lighting low voltage lights used on the grounds of Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Of course, the green movement is real and important. It expresses a long-overdue awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection. And, it is more than just words, it is a cascading sequence of meaningful actions backed by personal commitment and regulatory enforcement.

In the realm of lighting, the green movement focuses on lighting that is energy efficient and focused. By focused, we mean that light is directed only where it is needed, for only as long as it is needed, and with appropriate levels of brightness. To accomplish these goals, we need to consider luminaire design, lamp type, lighting controls and other system factors. Also, since sustainability and the use of renewable resources are important, we consider materials used in the construction of lighting system components.

CAST Lighting LLC., from its inception, established rigorous ‘green’ standards for its luminaires, lamps, power supplies and other system components. Installation methods were also developed with the same intent. These standards embrace the following criteria: (These points are further discussed in the whitepaper, “Green Energy and CAST Lighting“.)

• Adherence to energy efficient low voltage (12-volt) lighting.
• Selection of lamps with highest possible lumen efficacy (lumens/watts).
• Selection of lamps with longest possible life.
• Luminaire design to maximize luminaire efficiency (‘emitted lumens’ / ‘lamp lumens’).
• Luminaire design to minimize light trespass and light pollution.
• Selection of materials in the construction of luminaires for maximum useful life and resistance to corrosion.
• Selection of materials in the construction of landscape lighting wire to maximize resistance to corrosion and maintenance of conductivity.
• Selection of highly energy efficient toroidal landscape lighting transformers.
• Establishment of landscape lighting installation methods that maximize energy efficiency of the lighting system and preserve this efficiency for an extended time.

CAST Lighting has issued a white paper explaining how its products and systems fit into the Green Energy Movement. Specific programs and organizations, such as LEED, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Progam, and International Dark Sky Association are discussed. For each group, information is provided about how CAST Lighting products fit into the associated regulations and guidelines.

Read the white paper, “Green Energy and CAST Lighting.”