Introduction to landscape lighting
Installing low voltage landscape lighting is a great do-it-yourself project! It’s an easy way to enhance the beauty, safety, the security of your home; and outdoor living areas. It’s important to understand some basics. This article will help you select the best fixtures for your yard, garden, deck, dock, or patio.
What is the best landscape lighting?
With in-house engineers and lighting experts who use the latest LED and control technologies, VOLT® designs, manufacture, and sells the best products in the landscape lighting industry. That’s why we have an average customer rating of 4.9 stars.
Our fixtures feature premium internal components and are constructed of solid brass or copper. There’s no paint or powder coating to wear off, peel or corrode – just solid brass or copper that patina beautifully as it ages. Competitors’ aluminum fixtures may be cheaper upfront, but they’ll inevitably rust and need replacements in a few years. However, VOLT®’s products are of professional quality and built for a lifetime of beauty and durability!
What are the main types of landscape lighting?
Line voltage (120V) is found in common household electrical outlets. This type of landscape lighting requires a licensed electrician to install. Although it can also be appropriate for larger homes, it is typically used in commercial, security, or municipal applications. Low voltage (12V) is generally preferred for residential use. There is little risk of electrical shock and wires that can be directly buried in shallow trenches. Therefore, it can safely be installed by anyone as a DIY project.
What are the main components of a landscape lighting system?
The first major component of a lighting system is the fixture. It not only houses the light source but helps to direct the light towards the area you wish to illuminate. The next major component of a 12-volt lighting system is the low voltage transformer. This is the 120-volt power supply that converts line voltage current down to 12-volt AC. The final two components of your system are wire and wiring connectors. These carry the power out from the transformer to the fixtures in the yard.
What are the common types of landscape lighting fixtures?
- Spotlights – They are also known as uplights, directional lights or bullets. Downlights are also a type of spotlight. Spotlights are very versatile landscape lighting fixtures because they are able to support a large variety of bulbs, beam widths and wattages. Uplighting trees are one of the most common uses for these lighting fixtures. The most popular landscape lighting spotlighting techniques are highlighting, silhouetting, shadowing, grazing, moonlighting, spotlighting and flood lighting.
- Path & Area Lights – Path lights will aim the light down and to the side of the fixture, lighting up paths and walkways. Area lights also aim the lights down, however, they light up the entire area around the fixture. They can be used to light pathways, but also work well to highlight other areas of the home such as a landscape bed. Be sure to pick a path light or area light that is aesthetically pleasing since they will be the most visible.
- Flood lights – A great way to add more security and to light up your yard at night is to install flood lights. Even though spotlights can act as flood lights, they are not specifically made for that purpose. Flood lights commonly have a much higher wattage and wider angle than spotlights. They are often used in 120 volt or commercial applications.
- Wall Wash Lights – This is a type of flood light is specifically designed to provide fairly even illumination across a wide surface. They are used for any application that seeks to fully illuminate a surface, rather than applying an oval- or wedge-shaped illumination.
- Well Lights – Well and in-grade lights include any fixture installed so the majority of the fixture is below ground (grade) level. They are used in applications where the fixture must be in a turf area (so lawn mowers can go over them) or for hardscape applications where foot or vehicular traffic may pass over the fixture. Another reason to use well lights is when the light beam needs to start very close to the ground. For example, when lighting a column it is ideal for the illumination to start at the base of the column. A staked directional fixture is taller so its illumination starts between 6-12 inches from the ground; a well light can illuminate surfaces only a few inches from the ground.
- Deck Lights – Since most decks are adjacent to railings, most deck lights are designed to attach to fence posts. They are also useful for mounting on the sides of nearby structures and stairs.
- Step Lights – Steps are composed of two main parts – treads (the flat horizontal pieces) and risers (the vertical pieces attached the back of each tread). The treads may be illuminated by fixtures mounted to the risers, or by fixtures mounted to side walls. Some of the same fixtures used for deck lighting also work for steps. So both types are included in the step lighting category.
- Hardscape Lights – Hardscapes refer to landscape features made of stones, bricks, tiles or other hard materials. The most common hardscapes are patios, walkways, driveways, stairs, walls and outdoor kitchens or fireplaces. Most hardscape lights are those that attach to the underside of capstones and overhangs. They are easy to hide and provide subtle floodlighting of hardscape surfaces.
- Specialty lights are designed for specific tasks that may be hard to illuminate with other standard fixtures; these lights include bistro lights, tiki torches, and even decorative area lights.
What are the main fixture classes of landscape lights?
- Integrated fixtures have an LED board built into them, so there’s no bulb to install. The downside to integrated fixtures is that if one should fail, then the entire fixture has to be replaced as opposed to just a bulb.
- Lamp-ready fixtures take a bulb, which allows for much more customization in terms of brightness (lumens), color temperature, and beam spread. And usually, if a light goes out, you just need to pop in a new bulb.
What are some important landscape lighting terms?
- Beam spread or beam angle refers to the spread of light from the luminaire. This is chosen based on the task at hand and how wide the light needs to spread. Sometimes the beam spread is fixed based on the fixture’s unique shape, as it is with area lighting.
- Color temperature is measured in Kelvin and refers to how warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish) the lighting appears to be. Most lighting ranges from as low as 2000K (which is very warm, like candlelight) up to 5000K (which is a stark whitish blue). Typical applications call for warm white 2700K light, which is most similar to that of traditional incandescent lighting.
- Lumen output is the amount of illumination provided or simply how bright it is.
- Wattage is the amount of energy used by a fixture and is an important number to keep track of. Add up the wattage of all of your fixtures or bulbs and then determine the appropriate transformer for that wattage. We recommend not exceeding 80 percent of a transformer’s capacity. If you don’t have at least a 20 percent buffer from maximum capacity, you will need to step up to a larger transformer.
- Efficacy is a ratio that compares power consumption to light output. This is measured in lumens per watt. The reason efficacy is important is that a lot of bulbs are listed by wattage equivalents, which is how brightness was traditionally understood. Because LED bulbs are so efficient, they can produce a lot more lumens while utilizing much less power or wattage. For example, a 5-watt LED bulb may have a 30-watt halogen equivalence due to its high efficacy.
How are landscape lighting fixtures mounted?
There are various fixture mounting options to choose from. Most of the time, you’ll just need a simple ground stake. However, if that’s not an option in your desired location, you can use a surface mount, gutter mount or other specialized mounts.
Next Steps
- Let’s learn How to Create a Landscape Lighting Installation Plan
- Then we’ll move on to How to Install Landscape Lighting: Basic Instructions
