low voltage garden lights

Outdoor lighting plays several important roles for your home yard. It can be used to provide general lighting in the evenings to illuminate dark spots, steps, paths and most importantly enhance the beauty of your garden. Making the low-voltage garden lighting system is a big DIY project. The fact that it is low voltage makes it safer to install it yourself, even for beginners.

A successful garden lighting plan requires that you select the appropriate fixtures, place and connect them correctly. Here’s a simple guide to planning low voltage garden lights.

Select suitable lighting fixtures

When you need to illuminate different parts of the garden, there are certain types of luminaires that are best suited for certain parts. For example, if you light up ponds, pools, or other water-related features, select only waterproof dust lamps for that purpose. When it comes to lighting paths and walkways, you should consider using offset lighting fixtures. When it comes to lighting plants and other surrounding vegetation, the cone lights are the most suitable. Trees and other large elements in the garden are best lit with headlights.

Make room for future expansions

When buying a transformer for lighting, consider buying one larger than what is actually needed. This is called taking care of the future. Who knows, you may need to extend your lighting to other parts of the garden and that would not mean you go for a larger transformer. For example, if you are going to do light installations of up to 400 watts, consider buying a higher wattage transformer, such as 600 watts.

Keep the lighting optimal

Avoid over-lighting when lighting your garden. The outdoor space looks much better with just the right amount of lighting. When you flood sitting areas, plant spots with lighting in the stadium, the area looks completely washed. Always keep it optimal.

Light paths

When illuminating walkways and paths around the garden, decide if you just need to illuminate the paths or the surrounding features as well. This is a consideration because the wider the light area, the higher the lighting pole. Light paths and walkways generally require 20 watt halogen lamps. The heights should be placed at 10 feet.

Think about seasonal factors