We are working aggressively with our legal team and any law enforcement agency needed to keep this from happening. In the meantime, you can be assured of our high standards and the quality you have come to expect from Sundown Designs ® Outdoor Lighting only if you purchase from us or an Approved Affiliate.

If you purchase our products from someone other than us please feel free to email us at sundown@sundownoutdoorlighting.com with the name of the Company or Person you are buying from and we will confirm whether they are indeed Sundown Designs ® approved products from a professional Authorized Sundown Designs ® Affiliate.

A good lighting design is based on many things including design talent, voltage drop, cable runs, circuits, fixture type and quality, transformer type and quality, types of bulbs and their wattages, size of cable, types of connections, amongst many other things.

There is a definite science to a good lighting design and the person or company doing it needs to know the logistics of making that happen. Shining a light on a house or a tree does not take any effort or knowledge and a good designer knows this and probably wouldn’t even have the time to do it.

Leading designers and installers in this industry don't use nighttime demos. Shinning a light on a house or shrub is a short cut to doing the design work and is all flash with no substance. It has nothing to do with how it will look after it's installed with circuits, cable sizes, cable runs, amount of fixtures, shielding, wattages, transformer load etc taken into account. Some manufactures even today still tell installers to do this trick of the inexperienced.

Innovative state of the art light editing software where the designer can look at different aspects of your project on the computer while designing your project and can apply different lighting effects to different areas is a great tool, a must and the mark of a professional company. The Designer can also use the software to calculate cable runs, wattages, project costs and voltage drop. Light editing software is also a great way to print out and show a client how the actual fixtures will look in place as well as the design concepts and lighting effects on their property and all before the first light even goes in the ground.

REASON: You would never want a parking lot light shining down on your patio or in front of your home. Even though the down light thats mounted out in the open on your home probably is not as bright, the intrusive nature of the light is just the same. When this method is used under the peaks of a home the light pattern is down in front of the fixture. Most of the time the under side of the peak itself is in a shadowed area behind the fixture. Also, the fixture mounted to the house is unsightly during the day and creates its own shadow that can be seen at night. This look is very commercial and should be avoided.

Down Lighting is best done in trees with tree branches, leaves or other plant material to soften the light and create interesting shadows on the ground. One light shining down on your patio does very little if anything to create an atmosphere of elegance at night. Numerous down lights under peaks on the front of a home have a very commercial or harsh look that can resemble a bank. It also allows the company to charge you more for basically the same style of light they are installing on the ground. Some companies also favor this downlight approach on peaks of homes because they want a service call for a simple bulb change that is to high or dangerous for you to handle. Down lighting of peaks should generally be reserved for a cape cod style home and even then on only one peak. Because of the lack of the right fixtures for the right job and also because of a lack of design talent or experience, some lighting installation companies even try to market this bad practice as some type of look that’s unique only to them.

2. Too few fixtures because you don't want to over light your home.

REASON: In a good low voltage Architectural and Landscape lighting design more of the right fixtures in the right spots are better than fewer fixtures. More fixtures do not mean over lighting. You can have fewer fixtures and depending on the fixture design or the type of bulb in those fixtures or their placement you can have an over lighting situation. You should have more fixtures placed throughout your design for better coverage and elegant aesthetics. More fixtures allow a designer to light what is needed and where it is needed. Fewer fixtures only make the installer richer because his expenses are less and he charges you more for those fewer fixtures. We have seen many great designs using many more fixtures actually cost less than other designs from companies who use fewer fixtures. Go for value in a design not fewer fixtures.

Remember when they say you don't need all those fixtures and you don't want it to look like Las Vegas show them the door because they are getting off cheap at your expense.

Look past the first impression of a light where the top or shape of it looks like one of ours. On a Path or Area Light, even if the fixture is brass or copper, see if the materials for a key component like the supports that hold the top on are steel or another material that is not uniform and not specifically made for that fixture. They also will pit, corrode or fail after a while. Are they also crooked or welded on? Supports for legs that are welded on can easily bend or break with time because the amount of surface on the support that is in contact with the weld is so small.

All of our Path and Area Lights use threaded brass supports for the tops that are specifically designed and engineered for our lights. Our all halogen bulb compartment uses Sunquick™ Technology. The heat, dust, moisture and bug resistant bulb housing easily threads on to it's base for a secure no tools needed bulb enclosure and also levels the top on the fixture. Our path and area lights are designed and engineered to use the MR-16 halogen light bulb which is also the time tested preferred bulb in professional architectural and landscape lighting.

Check to see if the Path or Area light uses cheap plastic housings (enclosures) that melt, crack or break around the light bulb after being subjected to the outdoor elements or heat from the bulb itself? Do those plastic enclosures sit snuggly around the bulb? Can you move or turn them? Do they have any play whatsoever in them or even worse is there no protection whatsoever around the bulb? Is there any play or space between the plastic and the metal they are in contact with that allows the elements to access the bulb compartment and in turn dramatically shorten bulb life?

For example, be careful of cheap look-alikes of our Tropic ™ torch light. Does the imitation torch light have supports holding the top on that are also made of steel or another material that will deteriorate with time? Does it use thumb screws to hold the top on that are often painfull to use or hard to line up with the holes, making refilling a huge messy task? Does it use cheap bayonet automotive bulbs as a light source? Is their long stem a one inch thick walled single piece of copper or does it have a coupler of some type connecting two separate pieces?

The Sundown original halogen torch light the Tropic ™ uses our Sunquick ™ Technology for easy threaded removal of the top for safe, easy, no mess refilling of its oversized citronella reservoir. It uses a single one piece copper stem that comes standard with our 15 inch Mega Stake™ which is the finest groung mounting system in the industry.

Look for the value in a light fixture and don't just look at low ball prices or cheap imitations of a light that has much better engineering, materials and workmanship. Our lights that are meant to last forever and perform beautifully. Many imitate but can never duplicate the value in a Sundown Fixture.

Fixtures made of Brass and Copper have quickly become the choice for good professional landscape lighting. They are heavy duty, look beautiful and will not rust in any climate even when they are painted. Brass and Copper if not colored will age naturally and blend into any landscape.

If you do choose a colored fixture, new state of the art, color blends that are achieved by dipping the brass or copper fixture into a solution that causes a chemical reaction is also a great way to get a no peeling, chipping or faded color finish. Since there is no paint involved in this process and the color is part of the fixture, the color will last a lifetime.

When someone is selling a client steel, aluminum or composite fixtures it's because the fixtures are generally more inexpensive for them and they are trying to maximize profit at the client’s expense. The labor cost to replace a failed steel, aluminum or composite fixture is never included in any manufactures warrantee so chances are even if that fixture fails in the warrantee period, it will still cost the client money therefore negating any perceived savings up front.

That is why the entire Sundown Line of lighting fixtures is either Brass or Copper and you will not see fixtures from us made of aluminum, steel or a composite material.

In simple terms voltage drop is when the required amount of electricity at the fixture is inadequate for the bulb (lamp) to operate or light to the manufacture's specification. This will lead to a dramatic shortening of bulb life and a lighting design with dim bulbs or even worse: fixtures that are out all together. This can be caused by any one or all of several factors such as.....

1). A poor design with many fixtures on one run. (daisy chained)

2). Inadequate size or type of cable at different points in your system.

3). A poor connection that is loose, wet or poorly cut and spliced.

4). Lower than normal power at the source (house) outlet or circuit.

5). An inexperienced installer that uses cheap lighting as an add-on business to landscaping or sprinkler systems.

6). Transformers that don't have multiple voltage outputs that consistently have enough power to do the job and are not designed specifically for Architectural and Landscape Lighting.

By the same token you will not have a quality lighting design that will last for years, no matter how good the designer is, if the fixtures are poorly designed, produced, rust out, move or allow excessive amounts of moisture to get inside them.

When you hear a manufacturer or a designer/installer state that the fixture is not important anyway that only the effect is important or that the fixture should be invisible, show them the door, run for the hills or do whatever you can to separate them from your lighting design. Because they are most likely using inferior or cheap equipment and don't want you to know it. You want a fixture that looks as good by day as the effect it gives at night.

Halogen bulbs lose their luster as the reflector around the bulb yellows or fades over time. While the light bulb is not blown out it indeed has lost much of its shine and brightness and tends to yellow for quite a while prior to the bulb burning out. This is why people will comment that "it just never looks as beautiful or vibrant as it did at the beginning". They are at a loss for why. Reputable companies will change all bulbs on a yearly maintenance plan whether they have blown out or not for this very reason.

Do not mistake problems attributed to yearly maintenance on a good system with good components and a good installer for problems from the very beginning with major premature bulb failure, fixture outages, fustat or breaker tripping and dim, weak lights. These things have most likely been caused by a poor design, installation, equipment (fixtures & transformer) or all of the above.

As in any other fairly involved system you might have at your home or business, a lighting system has many different components including fixture material, bulbs, lenses, sockets, in ground connections, wiring, seals, gaskets and transformers. These things are constantly exposed to the extreme outdoor elements. Starting with good equipment such as Brass and Copper fixtures is definitely an advantage to holding any maintenance costs down for years to come. Sundown fixtures are only made of brass and copper.

Gardeners and groundskeepers cut cables, bang or move lights out of position and lets not forget children and their ability to move the world. Maintenance could include transformer and fixture inspection, lens cleaning, reaiming, lubricating, re-lamping (new bulbs) and generally uncovering any potential problems that might keep your system from looking as good as it did the first night you viewed it. Be aware that some unscrupulous installers will use inferior equipment and bulbs with short a lifespan knowing full well that they will be charging you at a later date for the many service calls involved to repair the system. These installers give the industry a bad reputation and are the major reason people complain that their system never works right.

With proper maintenance a system will last for many years and even a lifetime as long as you start with good equipment in the first place. If a company tells you the system won't need any maintenance after it's installed they are either unknowledgeable or lying and neither is good for you when seeking a professional.