Are plugged into a GFCI outlet outside. Line voltage landscape lights work at 120 volts, the same voltage as your home appliances. Line voltage lights connect to your home's electrical system with the use of an electrical junction box and a conduit that protects the wires. Lay the low voltage cable along the concrete walkway, following the line of the lamps.
Use 14 gauge wire for lighting systems totaling 200 watts or less and 12 gauge wire for systems over 200 watts. Low-voltage lighting uses a transformer to reduce normal 120-volt lines to a lower voltage. For landscape lighting, this is usually 24 or 12 volts. The most common low-voltage landscape lighting transformers reduce the voltage to 12 volts, which is what we use.
Now let's move on to the methods of wiring. One of the most common cabling methods has been “daisy chain”. The daisy chain provides power to the first lamp (luminaire) in a cable run, often called a “home run”. That first device receives the most voltage or power.
The remaining accessories receive less and less voltage in sequence. The number of fixtures and the power of the lamps together with the distance of the cable will determine the voltage disparity. Sometimes, in lighting designs, the wiring space is very limited. The only time a daisy chain method can be useful is when mounting attachments above ground and off the ground.
As soon as you place the system on the ground, you are looking for problems with faulty or poorly made cable connections. Landscape wiring or low voltage electrical cable come in various calibers or numerical sizes. A lower number means a thicker cable and a greater capacity to carry electrical current over longer distances. Common cables for garden lighting are 10, 12, 14 or 16 gauge wires.
We recommend 12 gauge or 10 gauge cables for long distances. This is to prevent voltage drop. The farther away from the transformer and its power supply, the more resistance is produced in the circuit, which causes the voltage to decrease. Designing an installation plan for a low-voltage garden lighting system is quite simple, but it's useful to know a few things right from the start.
If you're ready to show off even after the sun has gone down, then you'll have DIY landscape lighting in your future. Treated wood base or cedar, mount the light base and insert the cable connectors into the hollow base of the light. When you search for a low voltage cable or landscape lighting cable on Amazon, you will see everything listed with two numbers. Use a 10 gauge wire for the main lines from the transformer to where the lights start, then switch to a 12 gauge wire between the lights.
Garden accessories are also available in LEDs, which will consume much less energy than traditional halogen or incandescent lighting. Low-voltage landscape lighting is a simple improvement that can make a big difference in the way your home looks after dark and also in your safety. Secondly, you need to be able to distribute the same voltage to each luminaire in your garden lighting system, and that requires a well-planned wiring method. Cable connectors are used to connect the two short cable wires that extend from each light to the long cable that provides power to all lights in the cable.
I was recently driving at night and I realized that almost every house that caught my eye had lighting that illuminated their landscape and gave the house a soft and beautiful glow. For the vast majority of residential garden lighting projects, 14 gauge or 12 gauge will work well. Most landscape lighting designers begin their design by creating a rough sketch of the property, marking where each fixture will be placed. Enhance your home's nighttime appeal and add a safety measure with low-voltage landscape lighting.
.
