Dr. Ryan Grimes loves his back yard, especially now that he can see it properly.

A busy doctor, he only really got to enjoy the west Lawrence space in the waning light, and after an extensive remodel of the area, he found that what light he had just wasn’t enough.

“I had some tiki torches, but we didn’t really have any lighting back there,” Grimes says. “We’ve got a dining table back there, and we eat and grill and put in a fire pit. And so we just spend a fair amount of time back there just kind of hanging out with the family, then entertaining.”

Ryan Domnick and his wife, Jill, enjoy drinks at dusk in their backyard. Low-voltage outdoor lighting illuminates areas of their backyard, allowing them enjoy the space even after the sun goes down.

Low-voltage lighting illuminates Ryan and Jill Domnick's backyard.

So, to make his entertainment-worthy space a bit more homey, Grimes had a low-voltage yard lighting system installed by Preferred Lawn Service and Landscaping. The system Grimes had installed highlights the reasons local lawn care experts suggest backyard lighting: enjoyment, safety/security and beauty.

“There’s a step off the patio in the back, so we’ve got a light on the edges of the step,” Grimes says of the safety issues assessed. “The other thing we’ve done is we’ve got a couple of spotlights under the deck that are kind of aimed. One’s aimed at the center of the table and the other is kind of aimed over where I have one of my grills, so you can kind of have a little bit of a work light with that as well.”

For more on the ins and outs of backyard lighting, we talked with Jeff Ferguson from Preferred Lawn Service and Landscaping, Ryan Domnick of Low Maintenance Landscape and Glen Westervelt of Lawrence Landscape.

Types of lights

When talking about general outdoor lighting, there are a few categories of light fixtures. Among them, as explained by Westervelt:

• Accent lighting: Uplights that can be used to light your home, walls or landscaping. These can also be used as task lighting for outdoor kitchens. Typically you’ll just see the lighting, you won’t see the fixture.

• Path lighting: Lighting to help you see where you’re going on a dedicated path. Usually, these are a bit decorative.

• Twinklers: Lights that are put up in trees and used to add beauty.

• Safety/security lighting: These are your flood light systems with motion detectors as well as lighting that illuminates a hazard like steps on your property.

• Low-voltage lighting: The Cadillac of outdoor lighting, this is the way you want to go if you are in the market for a permanent system that includes said accent, path, twinklers and security lighting. The systems work through buried cables that carry low-voltage currents to help keep those enjoying your landscaping safe. Basically, it’s the convenience and wiring of indoor lighting brought outdoors.

“Low-voltage lighting was invented by a gentleman in California who wanted to be able to have lighting outdoors but had grandkids and didn’t ever want to take a chance on them getting into a line that could really hurt them,” Ferguson says. “And so, low-voltage lighting was designed as a way to safely to be able to put that lighting outdoors in all the different kinds of weather.”

• LED. These energy-saving bulbs are the wave of the future, keeping your electric bill down, while lasting decades. But if you want such long-term, green lighting, you’re going to have to pay for it.

“We’ve tried to switch over to all LED now. Just because of the energy savings. They use a lot less energy, which means that your wire sizes and your transformer can also be smaller,” Westervelt says. “Typically, it costs a little bit more money to do that, but the bulb life is 10 to 20 times that of the old incandescent bulbs.”

• Solar. And while the LED technology is there, but the price isn’t, solar lights are the opposite. The price point is great, but the lights themselves aren’t ups to snuff. All of our experts were quick to say that as far as solar lights go, the technology just isn’t there — yet.

“Right now, if you buy a solar light, you can expect it to last two or three years. The panel might get dirty and corroded and break down and the fixture’s not very bright anymore,” Domnick says. “I haven’t seen any that are quite as durable or quite as bright as they should be. We’re still waiting for some better quality products to be out there.”

Buyer beware

A word on fixtures. You get what you pay for not only in lighting systems, but in how they age. A fixture will be out in the elements, unprotected. And if you cheat on the fixture, it’ll be apparent within just a few years.

“The top quality ones are going to be made out of bronze and copper — those are the ones that you could probably drive over and they’d be fine,” says Domnick, who adds to be wary of buying your fixtures at big box or hardware stores if you don’t want them to burn out before your bulbs. “Even at those (hardware) places, their top-quality fixture might only be a medium- to low-quality fixture compared to having it professionally done or buying it from a lighting store.”

Shorter-term solutions

Best bets for temporary lighting. If you’re not ready for anything permanent and just want something for a party or two, our experts suggest tiki torches, lanterns and even Christmas lights, though they say you should make sure that they’re only plugged in to covered outlets and that they’re removed when you’re not using them.

“Your best bet would be to go and either buy some of those shoddy solar lights, just because they’re so inexpensive, (or) light tiki torches,” Ferguson says.