Because your landscape and security lighting help keep you, your family, and your property safe, as well as add elegance and curb appeal to your home, maintaining them should be a priority. Read on to learn a few things that your residential technician in Columbus would want you to know about keeping your outdoor lighting in top condition during the winter months.
Touch Up Your Landscaping
Over the course of a year, it’s not uncommon for wiring and cables that were once covered by landscaping to rise to the surface. To help protect these cords from wear and reduce the number of trip hazards on your property, take a walk around your yard and cover up exposed cables by burying them with landscaping materials like mulch, sod, and gravel.
Also, be sure to trim back any hedges, tree branches, or other types of growth that are growing too near to your outdoor light fixtures.
Use the Right Outlets
If you’re planning to decorate your home with holiday lighting this season, then using the right kind of outlet can be critical for both safety purposes and for maintaining your lights. To help prevent electrical fires, any outdoor lights that you use should be plugged into outlets that are protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).
For this reason, before you begin decorating, ensure that your outdoor outlets are all GFCI-protected by checking them for “test” and “reset” buttons. If your outdoor outlets look like normal ones, then contact an electrician about GFCI installation before you begin plugging in your holiday lights.
Clean the Light Fixtures
While any burnt-out bulbs should be replaced, of course, cleaning the surfaces of all the working bulbs that make up your outdoor lighting can help them shine with renewed vigor. Also, while you’re at it, consider brushing off dust and debris from the light fixtures, as well.
Finally, if your outdoor lighting isn’t looking as impressive as you’d like by the end of this process, then consider hiring an electrician to install a few more fixtures around your property.
