Depression-Voltage Outdoor Lighting

Enjoy the dazzler of your landscape (and sure ground) afterward sunset with low voltage lighting. We'll show you how to install it yourself.

Time

Multiple Days

Complication

Beginner

Cost

$101–250

Introduction

Installing depression-voltage outdoor lighting is a big-affect DIY project. And since it's low voltage lighting, it's safe to use and install, even for beginners. Outdoor lighting can be used to illuminate paths, steps and nighttime zones, plus information technology tin add artfully dramatic emphasis to your yard's best features.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • #10 gauge outdoor wire
  • #12 gauge outdoor wire
  • 1-ane/2 in. x 12-in. PVC pipe
  • 1-1/2-in. PVC cap with ½-in. female thread
  • 1/2 in. copper pipe
  • For each ground light: 1-ane/2-in. PVC coupler with ½-in. tee for wire opening
  • Lights
  • Ane box of weatherproof wire connectors
  • Transformer
  • Two ½-in. sweat-to thread copper adapters

Low Voltage Lighting Overview

Outdoor low voltage lighting provide a pleasant alternative to glaring floodlights. They can exist strategically positioned to accent the plants and features you desire to highlight. They can be used for safety—to illuminate paths, steps and dark zones. When artfully placed, they can be as beautiful and natural looking equally the landscape itself. And since they're low voltage (you can literally add together wires and lights to the organisation while it's operating), they're safe to use and install. Hither we'll testify yous the special tips and tricks the pros utilise to install them.

Selecting the right design and components for your landscape lighting installation

Figure A: Low voltage outdoor lighting plan

Family Handyman

A successful low voltage outdoor lighting plan requires selecting the right fixtures, such as low voltage spotlights, then placing and wiring them correctly. Use waterproof swimming lights for illuminating pools, fountains and other h2o features; offset path lights for lighting walkways; cone lights for highlighting both walkways and the surrounding plants; tree-mounted spotlights for simulating moonlight; and flood lights for illuminating trees, buildings and other big elements. Walk into whatever dwelling house eye or garden center this spring and you're guaranteed to run into a towering display of outdoor depression voltage lighting. Yous'll detect $69 prepackaged sets and $100 individual lights; plastic fixtures and metal ones; lights yous can polish down from copse and upwardly from ponds. The bottom line is, y'all'll become what you pay for. We decided to pay about $ninety apiece for metal "architectural grade," low-voltage halogen lights. The halogen bulbs cast a whiter, more focused axle than standard lights—nearly like natural sunlight. And the bulbs last longer, some upwardly to ten,000 hours. The metal construction of the fixtures means greater longevity for them too, and we loved the natural burnished wait.

Equally you lot blueprint and shop for your lighting system, proceed in mind:

  • Purchase a larger transformer than you'll initially need so you lot can add together lights later equally your landscape (and imagination) expands. If you'll be installing 400 watts of lights, buy a 600-watt transformer.
  • Avert over lighting. Outdoor lights expect best as accents, broadcasting pools of light. Flooding sitting or planting areas with "stadium lighting" can make them look washed out.
  • When lighting a path, decide whether yous desire to light only the path or both the path and the features around it. As a rule, the broader the field you want to light, the college the light pole you'll need. Path lights with a xx-watt halogen bulb at a 24-in. top should be spaced every ten ft.
  • Consider seasonal factors when planning your landscape depression voltage lighting installation. Install lights where they won't be easily damaged past plows or shovels. And bear in heed that some plants, like hydrangea bushes, sumac and dogwoods with colorful stems, look cool lit upward, even when they're leafless.

    CAUTION!

    For safe's sake, phone call 811 to have your utility companies mark the location of underground wires and pipes before you lot dig for your depression voltage lighting. The service is commonly gratis—and you'll avert dangerous and costly surprises.

Project step-by-pace (six)

Step 1

Install the low voltage lighting components

Position all the fixtures

Position

Earlier starting your mural lighting installation, showtime lay out your low-cal fixtures and mural lighting wire. Use 10-gauge wire for the main lines from the transformer to where the lights begin, then switch to 12-gauge wire between the lights. To bury the wires where they cantankerous the lawn, apply a flat-nosed shovel to cut a slot and fold back the sod. Bury these wires at least six in. deep so they won't be damaged if the lawn is aerated. In protected planting beds, the depression-voltage wire tin can simply be covered by mulch or soil.

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Footstep 2

Mount the low voltage lighting transformer

Mount

Install the transformer in a key location near an outdoor GFCI outlet. Mounting it on a mail allows you to easily modify the photocell'due south orientation. Connect the ten-gauge principal wires to the transformer by stripping off iii/iv in. of insulation, twisting the small strands together, and so attaching them to the terminals. The 600-watt transformer shown (nearly $300) has a built-in timer and photocell, two circuits, and a switch and terminals for setting voltage output to 12, thirteen or xiv volts. Since the transformer will always be plugged in, you lot must supplant the standard outlet embrace shown with an in-utilize weatherproof cover, bachelor at home centers and hardware stores.

xiv Outdoor Lighting Trends

Step iii

Brand a solid base of operations

base

Construct rock-steady bases for top-heavy path and cone lights from plastic pipe. (The short ground stakes that come with near path lights don't have enough 'burying depth' to agree them vertical over fourth dimension.) This base gives the low voltage lighting an indestructible, sturdy basis; provides a housing for your wire connections; and allows you to make pole extensions of whatever length, from ane/ii-in. copper pipe. Don't glue the plastic pipe parts together or you lot won't be able to make the connections shown in Photo iv.

How to Install Outdoor Lighting and Outlet

Step iv

Use weatherproof connectors

weatherproof

Connect the wires with weatherproof wire connectors. These wire connectors have a shield on the bottom and a blob of sealant within that brand them weatherproof. If your lights came with press-on connections, cutting them off, strip off 1/ii in. of insulation, and install the connectors.

Close-upwards: Weatherproof landscape lighting wire connector

connectors

Use weatherproof connectors for a trouble-costless installation

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Step 5

Make certain the fixtures are straight

fixtures

Install the path lite past digging a hole deep enough then the top of the PVC footing is level with the ground surface. Apply a torpedo level to level the calorie-free pole and pack soil around the base. Use aluminum tent stakes to secure the unburied wire in the bedding areas, then cover it with mulch.

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Step half-dozen

Test each light

light

Examination each light fixture for its voltage level with a digital voltage meter (about $25 at Radio Shack). Each halogen calorie-free should be receiving 10.5 to 12 volts for a consistent look and to avert premature burnout. Extremely low readings indicate a bad connectedness somewhere in the system or too many lights on a circuit. Pocket-size voltage adjustments tin be made using the voltage controls on the transformer (Photograph two).

Pond light

Pond

Pond lights are watertight and held in place on the swimming lesser past a weighted base of operations. They as well take a long string so you can bury your wire connections in the drier clay at the pond's edge. To get an idea of the swimming light consequence, see the opening photo. Pro tips for better design, layout and installation of depression voltage lighting: Take the time to install your lights correctly and they'll terminal longer, cast more than calorie-free where you want information technology and require less maintenance. Get a first-class installation using these tips:

  • If your lights come with press-on fittings—the type that bite through the insulation and into the landscape lighting wire to make their connexion—cut them off and use the wire connectors shown in Photo 4. Your connections will be more solid and longer lasting.
  • The further a light is from the transformer (and the more lights installed betwixt it and the transformer), the less light information technology will put out. Avert this "voltage driblet" by creating a tee (Fig. A) and running two short lines rather than one long one. A good rule of thumb is to put no more than 100 watts of lighting on one line. If yous want to put 10 20-watt lights on a excursion, make a tee connection with v lights on one line and v on the other. You can also minimize voltage drop past using a thicker estimate wire.
  • Always exit a little extra mural lighting wire equally you lot hook upward the lights. This volition give you the freedom to movement a low-cal subsequently y'all've hooked it up for testing or after you lot've installed it.
  • Burying the wires should be your terminal step. Lay everything out, hook up your lights, examination your voltage, and await at your results at nighttime before burying the lines.
  • Purchase a transformer with a congenital-in photocell and timer. Orient the photocell with some western (dusk) orientation and then it doesn't turn lights on besides early.

Special Lights for Special Furnishings

Effects

A moon light should be installed 15 to 30 ft. high and take i or more branches betwixt information technology and the ground to simulate moon shadows. Provide at least 24 in. between the light and branches to prevent 'hot spots.' Make a 4 x 5-in. base from treated lumber or cedar, mountain the low-cal base of operations to it and insert your wire connectors into the hollow calorie-free base. Attach the assembly to the tree with galvanized or stainless steel screws. Use plastic wire clips with stainless steel nails to secure the landscape lighting wire to the tree every iii ft.

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Originally Published: September sixteen, 2022