Lighting large live oaks - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Ironwood Land · 02-18-2009, 05:16 PM

I was just wondering what most of you guys use for up lighting large live oak trees. I am a proponet of trying to hide the fixtures as much as possible but up lighting a large tree with smaller fixtures is going to be very hard to do. Any suggestions?

jrpaul · 02-19-2009, 04:06 PM

are you using line voltage or low voltage? how large is the oak? what area of the states are you located? these questions can allow me to try to assit you in your attempt to light a "Large" live oak

MALCO.New.York · 02-19-2009, 04:11 PM

I do not care how you run your lines........

Seperate up and down lighting.

If you install one, do the other!!

REALLY!!!!!

Ironwood Land · 02-23-2009, 02:44 PM

I have not decided for sure if I am running line voltage or not. I don't really want to but if I need to I will. I have had pretty good luck with the 12.4 W LED from Kichler. I would say that it is equivalent to a 50 Watt or higher low voltage light. I know that I will be installing up and down lights but I was looking for some advice on some stronger up lights that would be good for large trees. I have heard that the mercury vapor with a blue lense did a good job at up lighting. Anybody used that before?

jrpaul · 02-25-2009, 07:19 PM

Well I would install low voltage because the fixtures are smaller and thus making them harder to see. This is true for inground fixtures as well. So how large is the live oak?

Ironwood Land · 03-24-2009, 09:18 AM

Caliper size is probably about 30"-36"

TDLMN · 03-25-2009, 02:28 PM

The trick to doing large trees is not the intensity of the light but the quantity. The large oaks that I am familiar with in Texas I would not do with less than five fixtures with wide beam mr16 lamps. Mercury vapor lenses are best used for moonlighting/down lighting...as in this technique you are trying to replicate moonlight. It is also important to put at least one fixture on the ground to tie the trunk to the canopy...or else it will seem like the canopy in floating in the air. There is no more interesting tree than the Texas live oak with its irregular sweeping branch structure. I would also recommend not using surface mounts to attach your fixtures to the branches...instead consider using the "seagull" tree strap...this rubber tube with bracket allows the tree to grow without engulfing a stationary mount. If you have to put a screw in a tree, you will eventually have to remove it. In addition, a tree strap is less invasive and will minimize the opportunity for disease and insects to enter the tree.

Gerry De La Vega
www.terradek.com
1-800-609-1130
AOLP, CLVLT #0404

eol · 03-13-2010, 03:42 PM

I did a pretty nice job with 3 50 watt low voltage fixtures about a foot out from the base of the tree, evenly spaced around the bottom. I used 36 degree spread on one and 60 degree on the other 2, so I get a nice look on the trunk on the house side and most of the canopy from the other views. I used low voltage because we don't have to install low voltage cable in conduit, so it was not so hard on the tree, and no root cutting or damage.