Low-Voltage Outdoor Lighting

Bask the beauty of your landscape (and sure footing) after sunset with low voltage lighting. We'll show you how to install it yourself.

Time

Multiple Days

Complexity

Beginner

Price

$101–250

Introduction

Installing low-voltage outdoor lighting is a big-bear on 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 dark zones, plus it tin can add artfully dramatic emphasis to your yard's best features.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • #ten estimate outdoor wire
  • #12 guess outdoor wire
  • i-1/2 in. x 12-in. PVC pipe
  • i-i/two-in. PVC cap with ½-in. female person thread
  • 1/2 in. copper pipe
  • For each basis light: 1-1/2-in. PVC coupler with ½-in. tee for wire opening
  • Lights
  • One box of weatherproof wire connectors
  • Transformer
  • Ii ½-in. sweat-to thread copper adapters

Low Voltage Lighting Overview

Outdoor low voltage lighting provide a pleasant alternative to glaring floodlights. They can be strategically positioned to accent the plants and features you want to highlight. They tin can be used for safety—to illuminate paths, steps and dark zones. When artfully placed, they can be every bit beautiful and natural looking as the mural itself. And since they're depression voltage (y'all can literally add wires and lights to the organisation while information technology'south operating), they're prophylactic to use and install. Here nosotros'll bear witness you the special tips and tricks the pros use to install them.

Selecting the right design and components for your mural lighting installation

Figure A: Low voltage outdoor lighting programme

Family unit Handyman

A successful low voltage outdoor lighting plan requires selecting the right fixtures, such as depression voltage spotlights, then placing and wiring them correctly. Utilise waterproof pond 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 alluvion lights for illuminating trees, buildings and other large elements. Walk into whatsoever dwelling center or garden middle this leap and you lot're guaranteed to run into a towering display of outdoor low voltage lighting. Y'all'll find $69 prepackaged sets and $100 individual lights; plastic fixtures and metal ones; lights y'all can shine downwards from trees and up from ponds. The lesser line is, you'll get what you lot pay for. Nosotros decided to pay near $xc apiece for metal "architectural grade," low-voltage halogen lights. The halogen bulbs cast a whiter, more focused axle than standard lights—almost like natural sunlight. And the bulbs concluding longer, some up to 10,000 hours. The metal construction of the fixtures means greater longevity for them too, and we loved the natural glassy expect.

As you pattern and shop for your lighting system, keep in mind:

  • Buy a larger transformer than you'll initially demand so you tin can add lights later as your landscape (and imagination) expands. If you'll exist installing 400 watts of lights, buy a 600-watt transformer.
  • Avert over lighting. Outdoor lights expect best every bit accents, broadcasting pools of light. Flooding sitting or planting areas with "stadium lighting" can brand them await washed out.
  • When lighting a path, determine whether yous desire to light only the path or both the path and the features effectually it. Every bit a rule, the broader the field yous want to light, the college the low-cal pole you'll need. Path lights with a 20-watt halogen seedling at a 24-in. top should be spaced every 10 ft.
  • Consider seasonal factors when planning your mural depression voltage lighting installation. Install lights where they won't exist easily damaged past plows or shovels. And bear in heed that some plants, like hydrangea bushes, sumac and dogwoods with colorful stems, expect cool lit up, even when they're leafless.

    Circumspection!

    For safety'southward sake, call 811 to have your utility companies marking the location of underground wires and pipes before you dig for your low voltage lighting. The service is usually gratis—and you lot'll avert dangerous and costly surprises.

Project footstep-by-step (six)

Footstep 1

Install the low voltage lighting components

Position all the fixtures

Position

Earlier starting your mural lighting installation, get-go lay out your low-cal fixtures and landscape lighting wire. Use ten-gauge wire for the principal lines from the transformer to where the lights brainstorm, then switch to 12-judge wire betwixt the lights. To bury the wires where they cross the lawn, utilize a flat-nosed shovel to cutting a slot and fold dorsum the sod. Bury these wires at least 6 in. deep so they won't be damaged if the lawn is aerated. In protected planting beds, the low-voltage wire can simply exist covered by mulch or soil.

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Step two

Mountain the low voltage lighting transformer

Mount

Install the transformer in a central location near an outdoor GFCI outlet. Mounting it on a post allows you lot to easily change the photocell'due south orientation. Connect the 10-gauge primary wires to the transformer by stripping off 3/4 in. of insulation, twisting the pocket-sized strands together, then attaching them to the terminals. The 600-watt transformer shown (about $300) has a built-in timer and photocell, ii circuits, and a switch and terminals for setting voltage output to 12, 13 or 14 volts. Since the transformer will always be plugged in, you must replace the standard outlet cover shown with an in-use weatherproof comprehend, available at domicile centers and hardware stores.

fourteen Outdoor Lighting Trends

Footstep three

Brand a solid base

base

Construct rock-steady bases for top-heavy path and cone lights from plastic pipe. (The short footing stakes that come with most path lights don't have plenty 'burial depth' to hold them vertical over time.) This base gives the low voltage lighting an indestructible, sturdy footing; provides a housing for your wire connections; and allows y'all to make pole extensions of any length, from 1/2-in. copper pipe. Don't glue the plastic pipe parts together or you won't exist able to make the connections shown in Photo 4.

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Stride 4

Use weatherproof connectors

weatherproof

Connect the wires with weatherproof wire connectors. These wire connectors accept a shield on the bottom and a hulk of sealant inside that make them weatherproof. If your lights came with press-on connections, cutting them off, strip off ane/two in. of insulation, and install the connectors.

Close-up: Weatherproof landscape lighting wire connector

connectors

Use weatherproof connectors for a trouble-free installation

Outdoor Mural Lighting Dos and Don'ts

Footstep 5

Brand sure the fixtures are direct

fixtures

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

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Stride half-dozen

Exam each calorie-free

light

Test each light fixture for its voltage level with a digital voltage meter (about $25 at Radio Shack). Each halogen light should be receiving 10.5 to 12 volts for a consistent look and to avoid premature burnout. Extremely low readings indicate a bad connection somewhere in the system or too many lights on a circuit. Minor voltage adjustments can be made using the voltage controls on the transformer (Photo 2).

Pond light

Pond

Pond lights are watertight and held in place on the swimming bottom by a weighted base. They also have a long string and then you tin coffin your wire connections in the drier dirt at the pond'southward border. To get an idea of the pond low-cal outcome, encounter the opening photo. Pro tips for improve pattern, layout and installation of low voltage lighting: Accept the time to install your lights correctly and they'll last longer, cast more calorie-free where you want information technology and crave less maintenance. Get a outset-form installation using these tips:

  • If your lights come with press-on fittings—the type that bite through the insulation and into the mural lighting wire to make their connexion—cutting them off and use the wire connectors shown in Photo 4. Your connections will exist more than solid and longer lasting.
  • The farther a light is from the transformer (and the more lights installed between information technology and the transformer), the less light it will put out. Avert this "voltage drop" past 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 ten 20-watt lights on a circuit, make a tee connection with 5 lights on i line and v on the other. Yous can also minimize voltage drop past using a thicker judge wire.
  • Always exit a piddling extra mural lighting wire as you hook up the lights. This will requite you the freedom to move a light after you've hooked information technology up for testing or subsequently you've installed information technology.
  • Burying the wires should exist your last stride. Lay everything out, hook up your lights, test your voltage, and look at your results at night before burying the lines.
  • Purchase a transformer with a built-in photocell and timer. Orient the photocell with some western (sunset) orientation and so it doesn't turn lights on also early.

Special Lights for Special Effects

Effects

A moon light should exist installed 15 to xxx ft. high and have one or more than branches between it and the ground to simulate moon shadows. Provide at to the lowest degree 24 in. between the low-cal and branches to forestall 'hot spots.' Make a 4 x 5-in. base from treated lumber or cedar, mount the light base of operations to it and insert your wire connectors into the hollow calorie-free base of operations. Attach the associates 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 3 ft.

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Originally Published: September 16, 2022