Which outdoor lighting is right for you, LED or low-voltage halogen? In short, either can work and make your home look beautiful with the right outdoor lighting design. At Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, we work with our clients and their budgets needs and goals to recommend the best fixtures for your property. Both have their pros and cons, but both have the ability to highlight all the best parts of your property.
What the image above shows is that when done right, and with the right fixtures, LED and halogen lights can create the same desired effect. You’ll notice the color of both bulbs is very similar, and that’s because of the quality. High quality low voltage and LED lighting will both have a color rendering index, or CRI of over 80, which is what’s needed for outdoor lighting applications. Make sure you check your fixtures CRI as older technologies, LED specifically, may produce a substandard light.
Energy efficiency is important when choosing an outdoor lighting fixture. For residential lighting, LEDtakes the cake on being the more energy-efficient and longer lasting than halogen cutting down on maintenance costs as well. Even on properties where we primarily use halogen lights, we will recommend LED outdoor fixtures for those in hard to reach areas like up in trees or on the peaks of the home. The reason? To cut down on maintenance and the cost to repair it if something goes wrong. With LED you can install it and forget about it (for a while at least).
Where halogen fixtures come out on top is the initial price. Halogen’s initial price is reasonable where the LED’s can be rather expensive depending on what you need.
If you have questions on different types of outdoor lighting technologies or what would work best on your property, contact your local Outdoor Lighting Perspectives location.