Low-Voltage Outdoor Lighting

Enjoy the beauty of your mural (and certain footing) after sunset with depression voltage lighting. Nosotros'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-touch on DIY project. And since it's low voltage lighting, it's condom to employ and install, even for beginners. Outdoor lighting can exist used to illuminate paths, steps and nighttime zones, plus it tin add artfully dramatic emphasis to your yard's all-time features.

Tools Required

Materials Required

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

Depression Voltage Lighting Overview

Outdoor depression voltage lighting provide a pleasant culling to glaring floodlights. They can exist strategically positioned to accent the plants and features y'all want to highlight. They can be used for safety—to illuminate paths, steps and night zones. When artfully placed, they can exist equally beautiful and natural looking as the landscape itself. And since they're depression voltage (yous can literally add wires and lights to the system while it'south operating), they're safe to utilise and install. Here nosotros'll show you the special tips and tricks the pros use to install them.

Selecting the right design and components for your landscape lighting installation

Figure A: Depression voltage outdoor lighting programme

Family Handyman

A successful low voltage outdoor lighting programme requires selecting the correct fixtures, such as low voltage spotlights, then placing and wiring them correctly. Apply waterproof pond lights for illuminating pools, fountains and other h2o features; start 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 large elements. Walk into any home center or garden centre this jump and you're guaranteed to see a towering brandish of outdoor depression voltage lighting. You'll detect $69 prepackaged sets and $100 individual lights; plastic fixtures and metal ones; lights you tin can shine down from copse and upwards from ponds. The bottom line is, you'll go what you pay for. We decided to pay nearly $90 apiece for metallic "architectural grade," depression-voltage halogen lights. The halogen bulbs cast a whiter, more focused beam than standard lights—almost like natural sunlight. And the bulbs concluding longer, some up to 10,000 hours. The metal construction of the fixtures ways greater longevity for them too, and nosotros loved the natural glassy await.

As you lot design and shop for your lighting organisation, go on in mind:

  • Purchase a larger transformer than you'll initially demand and then you can add together lights later as your landscape (and imagination) expands. If you'll be installing 400 watts of lights, purchase a 600-watt transformer.
  • Avoid over lighting. Outdoor lights look best as accents, broadcasting pools of light. Flooding sitting or planting areas with "stadium lighting" tin can brand them await done out.
  • When lighting a path, decide whether you want to low-cal but the path or both the path and the features around it. As a dominion, the broader the field yous want to light, the higher the light pole you'll need. Path lights with a twenty-watt element of group vii bulb at a 24-in. height should exist spaced every 10 ft.
  • Consider seasonal factors when planning your landscape low voltage lighting installation. Install lights where they won't be hands damaged by plows or shovels. And bear in mind 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, call 811 to take your utility companies marker the location of secret wires and pipes earlier yous dig for your depression voltage lighting. The service is usually free—and you'll avert dangerous and costly surprises.

Project step-past-pace (half-dozen)

Step 1

Install the depression voltage lighting components

Position all the fixtures

Position

Earlier starting your landscape lighting installation, first lay out your light fixtures and landscape lighting wire. Apply 10-gauge wire for the principal lines from the transformer to where the lights begin, then switch to 12-approximate wire between the lights. To coffin the wires where they cantankerous the lawn, use a flat-nosed shovel to cutting a slot and fold back the sod. Bury these wires at least 6 in. deep and so they won't be damaged if the lawn is aerated. In protected planting beds, the depression-voltage wire can only exist covered by mulch or soil.

DIY Outdoor Lighting Tips for Beginners

Stride 2

Mount 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 alter the photocell'due south orientation. Connect the 10-gauge main wires to the transformer by stripping off iii/four in. of insulation, twisting the small strands together, then attaching them to the terminals. The 600-watt transformer shown (well-nigh $300) has a built-in timer and photocell, two circuits, and a switch and terminals for setting voltage output to 12, 13 or 14 volts. Since the transformer will always exist plugged in, you must replace the standard outlet encompass shown with an in-use weatherproof cover, bachelor at dwelling house centers and hardware stores.

14 Outdoor Lighting Trends

Stride iii

Make a solid base

base

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

How to Install Outdoor Lighting and Outlet

Pace 4

Utilise weatherproof connectors

weatherproof

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

Close-up: Weatherproof landscape lighting wire connector

connectors

Use weatherproof connectors for a trouble-free installation

Outdoor Landscape Lighting Dos and Don'ts

Step five

Make certain the fixtures are straight

fixtures

Install the path lite by earthworks a hole deep enough and then the top of the PVC basis is level with the ground surface. Employ a torpedo level to level the light pole and pack soil around the base. Use aluminum tent stakes to secure the unburied wire in the bedding areas, and then cover it with mulch.

15 Ideas For Outdoor String Lights That Will Make Yous Want to Live Exterior

Footstep 6

Test each calorie-free

light

Exam each low-cal 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 await and to avert premature burnout. Extremely depression readings point a bad connexion somewhere in the arrangement 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 pond bottom past a weighted base. They also have a long cord so you lot tin can bury your wire connections in the drier clay at the swimming's border. To get an idea of the swimming light effect, come across the opening photo. Pro tips for better blueprint, layout and installation of low voltage lighting: Take the time to install your lights correctly and they'll final longer, cast more light where you lot want it and require less maintenance. Go a first-class installation using these tips:

  • If your lights come up with press-on fittings—the type that bite through the insulation and into the mural lighting wire to make their connection—cutting them off and utilize the wire connectors shown in Photo 4. Your connections volition be more solid and longer lasting.
  • The farther a light is from the transformer (and the more lights installed between it and the transformer), the less light it will put out. Avert this "voltage drib" past creating a tee (Fig. A) and running two short lines rather than one long one. A proficient rule of pollex is to put no more than 100 watts of lighting on ane line. If y'all desire to put 10 20-watt lights on a circuit, make a tee connexion with five lights on one line and five on the other. You lot can also minimize voltage drop by using a thicker estimate wire.
  • E'er exit a little extra landscape lighting wire as you lot hook up the lights. This will give yous the freedom to motion a light afterwards you lot've hooked it upwards for testing or after you've installed it.
  • Burial the wires should exist your last footstep. Lay everything out, hook upward your lights, test your voltage, and expect at your results at night before burying the lines.
  • Buy a transformer with a congenital-in photocell and timer. Orient the photocell with some western (dusk) orientation and so it doesn't plow lights on too early.

Special Lights for Special Effects

Effects

A moon lite should be installed 15 to thirty ft. loftier and have i or more branches betwixt it and the basis to simulate moon shadows. Provide at least 24 in. between the calorie-free and branches to prevent 'hot spots.' Brand a 4 x 5-in. base of operations from treated lumber or cedar, mount the low-cal base to it and insert your wire connectors into the hollow light base. Attach the assembly to the tree with galvanized or stainless steel screws. Apply plastic wire clips with stainless steel nails to secure the mural lighting wire to the tree every 3 ft.

x Scenic Outdoor Lighting Looks For Your Yard

Originally Published: September 16, 2022