outdoor light ideas

[Bootsie]

Our house had some outdoor tree lighting installed when we moved in.  Several of the bulbs have burned out and the remaining are now "dim".  I thought we could just get the tree trimmer to change out the bulbs while he had the ladders out--but of course nothing is that easy.  We can't find replacement bulbs.  We have talked to an electrician, Home Depot, a lighting specialty store, and DH even figured out the manufacturer and has contacted them.  The electrician suggests that we replace the entire fixutures.  The new fixtures would have a much higher wattage.

How do I have any idea of what these lights (and that amount of wattage) will look like at night?  We have neighbors that have some lights that just loook eerie.  They are high up in the tree, not too bright and just have a weird glow; the way the fixtures are they look like half moons (at first I thought they were some Halloween decoartions).  The house around the corner is lighted like an airport runway--I don't want it to look like that either.  Any recommendations?

[KungFuPanda]

I'd probably get some solar lights and be done with it, but I think bright lighting on the landscaping at night is unnecessary and there's already too much light pollution where I live.

[Carrie12345]

Is your goal security? Being able to see while being outside at night? Aesthetics?
 

I don’t really know anything about lighting trees except for holidays, so I’d be tempted to nix them. We have porch lights (one on a motion sensor), flood lights, and some stand alone, movable solar lights. Their purpose is just to see where we’re going.