The Times, They Are A Changin’

Written by Justin Gaynor

The Times, They Are A Changin’

We are a little over a week into Daylight Savings Time and what a great opportunity to do some recalibrating in our lives.  That is why Illumination FL designs its custom landscape lighting systems with our customer’s convenience in mind.  The systems we install make use of transformers to convert high voltage power to low-voltage making our network of installed lights eco-friendly and easy on your wallet with regard to the cost of powering the system.  These transformers have options when it comes to the adjustable timers that they utilize to turn the lights on and off.  Let’s explore this topic a little further…

Types of Landscape Lighting Timers

There are three types of timers that we use in our professional landscape lighting designs: mechanical timers, digital timers and web-based timer / switches. 

Many people are familiar with mechanical timers from the use of their irrigation and pool pump timers.  These timers are very low-maintenance and easy to adjust; however, they do need to be manually adjusted.  Luckily, this is not too difficult of a task. It requires only the rotation of the dial to the appropriate location to set the time and the proper placement of pins to set on / off times.

Digital timers are, without question, our favorite component to use in our designs.  Their simplicity, coupled with the automatic adjustment feature for daylight savings time are just two of the benefits.  Also, the on / off switch is not limited to setting a specific time, rather, we normally set it to turn on at dusk for your specific time zone (in our customers situation, Eastern Standard Time) and then to turn off sometime during the early morning hours, if not dawn.  This is a great option and the one we typically recommend.

The last option that we are going to talk about is the web-based alternative.  This tends to work really well for our international customers and ‘snowbirds’.  This system is composed of a WIFI gateway and WIFI module (or modules).  As a web-based alternative, clients that utilize this system can control their Illumination FL Landscape Lighting System from their mobile device, tablet, laptop or computer.  While this is a more costly option than the other two timers, the level of control you have while away from your property is helpful to our customers that embrace WIFI and mobile technology.

Adjusting Your Timer

Each timer is unique in how it is adjusted or reset due to a power outage or other inconvenience.  The best thing to do is to thoroughly read the instruction manual so that you are familiar with the operation of your Illumination FL Landscape Lighting System timer.  The instruction manuals for the timers are available through our office.  We can either mail you a physical copy or email you a link to the instruction booklet in a PDF or other digital format. 

However, if you don’t want to mess around with it, we have another solution…

Maintenance and Service

At Illumination FL, we offer professionally designed and installed LED landscape lighting systems, garden lighting and other outdoor lighting configurations.  These systems, while extremely high quality are still exposed to the tropical elements here in Florida.  The ongoing growth and maintenance of tropical landscaping which can result in severed wires or broken fixtures during normal landscape maintenance is also a factor.  These are just some of the reasons that we offer customizable maintenance packages and have a service team on call to keep your investment looking and working the way you expect it to for years to come.

Thank you for reading and for your business.

Illumination FL

Your World, Illuminated.