Author: Marley Frederick

Power-Saving Ideas For Landscape Lighting

Marley Frederick

Landscape lighting adds a whole new dimension to your home’s outdoor spaces after sunset. It illuminates tripping hazards and makes your garden glow, making it perfect for entertaining guests or just enjoying the view.

Landscape Lighting

Lighting techniques such as uplighting, downlighting and cross-lighting showcase the beauty of hardscape and softscape features. These lighting options are also energy efficient and easy to maintain. Click Here to learn more.

If you’ve put a lot of time and effort into making your home and property look its best, why let it disappear once the sun goes down? Thoughtful landscape lighting accentuates architectural features, highlights prized plantings, and spotlights focal points to create a visually stunning environment that’s equally appealing day or night.

Illuminated walkways, driveways, and entryways add safety for guests as they enter or leave the property, reducing trip and fall hazards. A well-lit exterior also enhances security by deterring intruders and providing peace of mind for homeowners.

Landscape lighting is a versatile design element that can be used to set a festive tone for special occasions, such as a wedding or graduation party. Special effects like transitioning light patterns can add a one-of-a-kind ambience that makes your event truly memorable.

Water features can be a beautiful addition to your property, and highlighting their beauty with landscape lighting adds a magical touch both day and night. Reflective lighting techniques like uplighting and cross lighting highlight a feature by illuminating it from multiple directions, helping to reduce shadows and increase clarity.

Other lighting methods, such as downlighting or moonlighting, create a more subtle and natural effect by illuminating an object from above to highlight its silhouette. This technique is perfect for accenting a statue, gazebo, or trellis.

The materials used to construct landscape lighting fixtures play an important role in their overall aesthetic appeal. Fixtures made of brass, copper, and stainless steel offer a classic, timeless look that will only get better with age. While these fixtures are more expensive upfront, they will last longer and require less maintenance than cheaper options, saving you money in the long run.

For a truly mesmerizing visual, underwater lighting can be used to illuminate ponds, fountains, and other water features. This method of illumination can double the visual impact of these water features by creating a mesmerizing reflection both day and night. Another great way to enhance the beauty of water features is through refraction lighting, which utilizes strategically placed light fixtures to create an illusion of movement in fast moving water.

Safety

Aside from creating beauty and value, landscape lighting also offers safety benefits. Well-lit pathways, stairs and entrances minimize the risk of slips or falls after dark, while illuminating potential hazards like uneven terrain or tree roots. In addition, if your home is visible from the road when it’s dark, landscape lighting can act as a deterrent for criminals who are less likely to target homes that are brightly lit.

There are several ways to incorporate landscape lighting into your design to achieve the safety results you want. For example, accent lights can be positioned to highlight walls of your house or architectural features of your property, while floodlights can be used to illuminate sidewalks and driveways to improve visibility. You can also use a combination of different techniques to create a safer walkway through your yard, such as lighting up a path with multiple fixtures instead of just one or two.

Another important consideration is the quality of the wiring that runs your lighting system. You’ll want to invest in a solution that can withstand the elements, such as a marine-grade tin-coated wire, which is resistant to corrosion and rust. Aside from ensuring long-term performance, this type of wire helps reduce electrical costs by increasing the efficiency of your lighting fixtures.

Regardless of what style of lights you use, the most important factor in maintaining the safety of your landscape lighting is regular upkeep. Keeping your lights clear of leaves and other debris is essential to avoid fire risks, while regularly checking the bulbs for signs of wear or burnout will help keep them functioning properly.

When you have a professional landscaping team on hand to provide upkeep services, you can rest assured that your landscape lighting will always be in good working condition. Not only will this prevent costly repairs, but it can also save you on utility bills and legal fees in the event of accidents. Contact us to learn more about our landscape lighting installation, upkeep and maintenance services. We proudly serve clients throughout central and west Florida, including Tampa, Bradenton, Lakeland and more.

Energy Efficiency

The yard and garden of a home represent a huge investment of both time and money. Adding landscape lighting creates an enchanting atmosphere for evening gatherings, enhances safety along walkways and accentuates architectural features of the home. However, many homeowners are concerned about the impact of landscape lights on their electric bills. This guide will shine a light on the best power-saving ideas for landscape lighting.

ECO-EFFICIENCY

Landscape lighting uses the least amount of energy of any exterior lighting, making it one of the most environmentally friendly options available. LED technology offers unparalleled energy efficiency. It also reduces maintenance costs and extends the life of the bulb. Moreover, LEDs offer the same luminous feel of traditional incandescent bulbs. With these benefits, it’s no wonder that this type of lighting is rapidly becoming the most popular among homeowners and businesses.

A properly designed landscape lighting system can reduce your electricity bills significantly. Lighting experts will work with you to create a layout that maximizes the use of natural lighting and highlights the features of your home or business. They can also help you save on energy expenses by incorporating motion sensors, which will activate only when there is movement in the area. This will prevent the lights from staying on all night, which will lead to significant savings.

There are two main types of landscape lighting: line voltage and low-voltage. Line voltage landscape lighting requires licensed electricians to install. It runs on 120 volts, which can be dangerous for anyone coming into contact with the wires. Low-voltage landscape lighting runs on 12 volts, which is safer for people to touch and less likely to cause shock. It’s also easier to install, as it doesn’t require buried wires.

Another great benefit of low-voltage landscape lighting is its flexibility. It can be mixed and matched on one transformer line. However, it’s important to carefully calculate the wattage of each fixture to avoid overloading the transformer.

Up-lighting accentuates dark shadows that contrast with the bright lighting, down-lighting creates a gentle, “moonlit” effect, and cross-lighting is used to show off non-uniform shapes in a landscape feature or building. Using a combination of these techniques is often the best way to highlight the most impressive aspects of your hardscape or softscape.

Maintenance

Landscape lighting is more than just an aesthetic improvement for your property, it can also boost your home’s value. However, to reap these benefits, your lighting system must be properly maintained. Fortunately, this is fairly simple and easy to do.

Maintenance typically involves checking for damage, replacing bulbs and cleaning fixtures. Depending on the style of lighting, this may include cleaning internal reflectors and lenses to prevent dirt buildup or fading. It also includes cutting back plants, trees or shrubs that are too close to the lights. This helps ensure proper illumination, avoids damage to the fixture and, in some cases (especially with older fixtures that give off a lot of heat), reduces fire hazards.

During an inspection, a professional can also make sure that the lights are pointing correctly. This is important because, over time, the weather and even the smallest of movements can change where the fixture is aimed. This can result in a light that isn’t casting its intended effect, or worse, one that could be a tripping hazard for you and your guests.

While it is a good idea to perform some maintenance on your own, an experienced residential landscape lighting contractor can provide more comprehensive service and a deeper level of expertise. They can help you maintain your investment in the long-term by identifying issues before they become problems and by providing advice on how to fix them.

A quality lighting company will also be able to offer you energy-efficient options like LED bulbs that can last up to 10 times longer than halogen bulbs, so you won’t have to replace them as often. They can also advise you on how to choose the right bulbs based on their lumens, color temperature and beam spread. Plus, they can show you some of the other features that are available, such as motion detectors, timers and smart integration. These can all make your lighting system more efficient and versatile. Then you’ll be able to enjoy your outdoor lighting for years to come.

Neural Reset Therapy

Marley Frederick

NRT is a soft tissue massage technique that takes a neurological approach to healing. This new movement-based technique works with muscles, fascia, nerves, and ligaments. During an NRT session, the therapist at https://massagereset.com/ carefully checks each area of your body to locate any tight or painful areas and then resets are performed for dysfunctional muscles. This can help you find pain relief that lasts!

What is Neural Reset Therapy?

Neural Reset Therapy

Neural Reset Therapy (NRT) is a very unique soft-tissue therapy that is different from traditional massage, but equally as effective. NRT utilizes an advanced manual technique to reset the nervous system to release a muscle from excessive tension. When the muscle is properly reset, knots, pain and tightness disappear, and mobility is improved. The science behind NRT is based on principles discovered by two great scientists, Sherrington and Pfluger, who investigated the nervous system over a century ago to uncover its basic operating laws. The results of NRT are far more efficient and reliable than traditional therapeutic methods such as deep tissue massage.

During a session, your therapist will check each of your muscles to locate trouble spots. They will then perform a number of resets for those areas. These resets may involve tapping with a reflex hammer on a specific muscle or asking you to follow a simple instruction such as “hold your arms out in front of you, lightly push against my arm.” These brief stimulations send messages through the receptors embedded in the muscles to the spinal cord. These new signals will allow your muscle to be optimized neurologically. Then the muscle will be freed of its dysfunction and your pain will melt away within seconds.

In addition to releasing muscle and joint pain, neural reset therapy can help with issues like chronic sinusitis, chronic back or neck problems, hip or rotator cuff problems, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow and many others. Unlike acupuncture’s needle-based approach or chiropractic care, neural reset therapy is gentle and virtually painless.

It also can be used to relieve lymph congestion, which is important for optimum health and healing. Lymph congestion causes a buildup of toxins, overworked immune systems, and other conditions that lead to disease and pain. The removal of these toxins and the normalizing of the lymph flow in the body can often eliminate these conditions and provide long-lasting relief.

How is Neural Reset Therapy done?

Neural Reset Therapy (NRT) is a recently developed form of bodywork that offers rapid muscular pain relief by working directly with the nervous system. Muscles are controlled by the nervous system and proper application of NRT resets the nervous system to release a muscle from excessive tension. Once the nervous system is “reset”, knots, pain and tightness disappear, and joint mobility and posture improve. NRT is not an energetic method but is based on sound physiological and neurological principles.

During an NRT session, your therapist will thoroughly evaluate each muscle for pain and tightness. The therapist then activates the receptors embedded in a specific muscle by asking for it to be held in a position, moved in a specific direction or lightly touched. This brief activation sends a message through the spinal cord and relays it to the brain. The new signal often significantly reduces or eliminates the pain in a tight muscle within ten seconds.

In a NRT session, your therapist may use their hands to lightly touch the surface of a muscle or gently tap on a specific part of that muscle with a reflex hammer. This triggers the mechano-receptors to send a message through the spinal cord and relays that message to the brain. The new signal often significantly decreases or eliminates the pain in a stiff muscle within ten seconds.

Your therapist may also perform additional manual procedures such as applying traction, stretching or compression to the affected muscle. NRT sessions are quick, effective, pain-free, completely safe and done while you are fully clothed. It is much more efficient and less painful than deep tissue massage and the results last as long or longer than those obtained with other therapeutic approaches.

At HAC, we are one of the few facilities in the area that is offering this cutting edge work to clients. HAC has certified a number of practitioners in NRT. We host a series of three workshops each year for NRT (Neural Reset Therapy): NRT for the Upper Body, NRT for the Lower Body and Advanced NRT. If you are interested in learning this powerful technique, please contact us to discuss upcoming courses.

What is the outcome of Neural Reset Therapy?

Your body has specialized nerve bundles called mechanoreceptors. These receptors respond to pressure, velocity, vibration, stretch and more. NRT involves the therapist activating these mechanoreceptors in a muscle by moving it in a specific way, this sends a signal back to the spinal cord and resets the dysfunctional muscle to normal optimal neurological tone. This results in pain either significantly dissipating or disappearing, often within a matter of tens of seconds.

NRT is a gentle and highly effective form of bodywork. Unlike acupuncture, which relies on needles to activate the meridians, and chiropractic, which focuses on spinal adjustments for pain relief, NRT at Carlsbad Massage Reset focuses on the underlying cause of pain by reprogramming the nervous system. This non-invasive approach makes NRT a much more relaxing technique, and it can be performed while you are fully clothed.

Using precise touch, the therapist locates areas of painful or tight muscles. Then, the therapist performs a series of resets in these muscles to ease the tension and return them to a healthy state. The therapist then rechecks the areas to make sure that all resets have been successful.

Once the muscles are relaxed, the knots and pain are gone, the joint mobility improves and posture corrects. NRT is a very powerful tool for addressing pain related to sports injuries, chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia, autoimmune disorders, degenerative diseases and more.

The therapist will also work with the client to identify other trigger points and areas of restriction that are contributing to their symptoms. Together they will develop a treatment plan to address these issues and eliminate the pain, discomfort and limited mobility.

Neural Reset Therapy can help with a wide range of conditions including neck and back pain, fibromyalgia, shoulder and hip pain, knee and foot pain, and even tenacious chronic pain. It can be used in conjunction with other treatments or on its own. It is a comfortable and effective alternative to acupuncture and chiropractic, as it doesn’t require the undressing or anxiety associated with needles. It is an excellent tool to add to your overall wellness routine and improve your quality of life.

Are Neural Reset Therapy sessions painful?

A session of Neural Reset Therapy is gentle and relaxing. However, because this technique works with the nerves and muscles it can be a little more intense than traditional massage. Clients typically report soreness after a session that feels similar to a hard workout. This soreness may last up to 48 hours in some cases.

The goal of NRT is to send a special message along the nerves of a muscle that causes it to be neurologically reset. This reset eases the tension the muscle may be holding, and allows it to then heal correctly.

This is done by stimulating specialized nerve bundles embedded in a muscle called mechanoreceptors. These receptors respond to pressure, speed, vibration, stretch and other factors. When a therapist activates these receptors by asking the client to hold or move the muscle in a certain way the receptors send a new signal to the spinal cord via the spinal integrating center that changes the tone of the muscle. This new tone is optimal neurologically for the muscle. When this is accomplished pain in the dysfunctional muscle often dissipates or disappears within seconds.

Allyson Hopkins is a licensed massage and bodywork therapist (LMT) in North Carolina. She has studied the science of neural reset therapy under Lawrence Woods and is a master certified Neuromuscular Reset Therapist.

She has over 10 years of experience with clients who have come to her with a variety of physical complaints, from neck and back pain to tennis elbow and hip problems. In her practice she uses a blend of techniques to address the root cause of the pain, whether it is due to a traumatic injury or poor posture and movement patterns.

Allyson believes that the best approach to addressing any type of pain is to help the body heal itself. This is why she incorporates a wide range of techniques into her sessions, including manual techniques such as effleurage, petrissage and tapotement, as well as movement patterns such as active stretching. She also uses breath work, visualization and other modalities to support the healing process.