We recently participated in the Dogwood Arts House and Garden show in Knoxville, Tenn., and one of the most frequently asked questions we heard from homeowners was: “What type of landscape lighting do you recommend?”

We use a variety of products from a handful of companies. Here’s the skinny on one of those landscape lighting manufacturers — FX Luminaire.

Why Do We Like FX Luminaire Landscape Lighting?

• We love the Luxor line of transformers from FX Luminaire, which allow you to use your home’s Wi-Fi to control your landscape lighting using your smart device. Using the Luxor transformers, you can dim lights and set up zones (as you can with many other systems), but what’s unique about the Luxor transformers is that you can set up those zones per fixture or type of fixture so you can control individual lights or types of lights rather than just controlling your front yard and back yard as units.
• One of the things we love most is that with the Luxor transformers, you have the ability to set custom programs. With programs, you can have a “party program” where all your lights are at 50 percent brightness or a “security program” where all lights are at 100 percent brightness. Up until recently (and with other brands of transformers), program controls have been limited to just two or four program options – on, off, dim to 50 percent or brighten to 75 percent, for example. Now, you have so many other options.
• Another pro for FX Luminaire is the dimming control. We love that FX’s technology dims lights by reducing the electrical current rather than simply lowering the wattage of the fixture. By using the electrical current to dim lights, FX has provided a greater control than you’ll see with other brands.
• The last thing we love about FX Luminaire is the ability we have to adjust beam spread after lights have been installed on a project. On a recent project in the Farragut area of Knoxville, Tenn., we used this feature to customize the light that we designed to highlight the awesome artchitectural features of the home.

What’s New and Cool With FX Luminaire Landscape Lighting

Color is what’s new (and it can be cool, warm, green, blue, orange and other colors too!). FX Luminaire has recently added color controls with its Luxor ZDC transformer giving you 30,000 colors to choose from! Color can be a great way to highlight your landscaping and have a little fun with your yard. When the Vols when the big game, go Big Orange with your landscape lighting. Go green and red for Christmas or blue for Hanukkah. Think about going pink during October for breast cancer awareness month or choose warm light in the summer and cool light in the winter to really showcase your landscaping.

Check out this explanation video with celebrity landscaper Ahmed Hassan to learn more about the new color options:

What Are Our Favorite Fixtures?

This up light (NP) is one we like to use when the goal is to highlight a house or structure, it has the beam adjustment capability so it’s very versatile.

This well light (PE Angled) is great because you can choose the straight or angled shroud. Use the straight to shoot light directly up or choose the angled to direct light at a plant or structure.

This mini wall washing light (LC–WI) is a good choice to highlight small retaining walls and water features. Most wall washer landscape lights illuminate wide areas but this one scales it down to just 4-5 feet.

This hanging light (VE) is a great choice for a pergola or nearby tree. It has a starlight shroud that casts what looks like starlight in various directions through pin-sized holes – a very cool effect.

If you need help choosing fixtures for your landscape lighting or need help designing the right look, fill out our contact form or call us at 865-765-5550. You can also check out this post on Vista Landscape Lighting or check out our favorite landscape design projects of 2014 (including a few with landscape lighting).