If you want to minimize any secondary illumination from your outdoor light fixtures and only send the light where it is needed, you should take a look at Dark Sky compliant light fixtures. These fixtures are perfect for saving energy as well as reducing the annoying extraneous glare. The wildlife in the area will love the decrease in light pollution and light clutter. You will enjoy a considerably lower utility bill month after month.

If you want to enjoy the benefits of Dark Sky lighting for your home you can retrofit the existing fixtures on your homes exterior and start to enjoy the money saving, eco friendly Dark Sky light fixtures. We would be happy to help and are available for any questions you many have.

The simplest way to get Dark Sky Compliant lighting is to look for the International Dark-Sky Association’s (IDA) stamp of approval on products as you’re perusing the selections available to you. Otherwise, there are several key features built into night-friendly fixtures you can look for. In a nutshell, you’ll want to check for the following distinctive dark sky features:

1. Choose fixtures that feature flat lenses rather than round ones at the base of the fixture. Flat lenses work to reduce any light spillage and glare.

2. Fixtures that have a reflector located at the inside top of the casing are desirable. This feature works to reflect the light down.

3. Choosing fixtures with flat lenses instead of rounded lenses will greatly reduce the glare and any light spillage.

If you’ve already purchased outdoor lighting and don’t relish the thought of replacing every fixture on your home’s exterior, you may want to consider retrofitting with light shields. These cylindrical enclosures cover the top and sides of your fixture to cut up-lighting. They come in a variety of shapes and colors, and can usually be matched nicely to your existing fixtures to provide a seamless look to your home’s exterior.

By taking advantage of the features of Dark Sky lighting you will be able to save money on your utility bills. Any time you save energy, you will save money. It has been reported that the nation wastes around $1.5 billion in light energy each and every year. There are huge amounts of light being sent upwards where it is absolutely useless.

The city of San Diego recently had all of their outdoor lighting fixtures retrofitted to full cut-off lighting. It took the city just three years to make back the mmoney they spent on the modifications. Now they are enjoying the benefits and saving over $3 million annually on the cost of energy.

Obviously the typical homeowner spends nowhere near what city governments spend on utility bills. Even though your bills are not in the millions, you can still save money. Remember, any time that you use less energy, you will spend less money. Using unnecessary light will slowly drain money from your wallet. By installing full cut-off, specifically-focused light fixtures you will need fewer lights, smaller bulbs and less money to pay your

Tags: family, Gardening, home, home improvement, Landscaping, lighting, outdoor lighting

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 3:25 am and is filed under Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.