Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting Basics
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What are the advantages of low voltage outdoor lighting systems?
- They are safe
- Easy to install
- Energy efficient
- Less safety precautions are required
There is a wide range of fixtures you can buy to suit different outdoor lighting applications:
- low profile fixtures to light a deck
- globe or tier lights for landscape lighting or illuminating pathways
- floodlights for lighting larger areas
You can buy complete lighting kits with everything you need (except for long run cables), or purchase individual components, if you want to construct a custom installation.
There will be a control box for the lighting system, which is best mounted indoors e.g. in a garage for weather protection. This control box will include a step down transformer that converts from the mains voltage to the low voltage used by the outdoor lights.
Things to Remember:
- Install outdoor lights (or at least the cabling) before you complete the landscaping and planting (so you don’t have to dig things up again to lay cables).
- If cable runs get too long or expensive, think about solar outdoor lighting.
- Don’t go overboard with “lights everywhere”.
