Outdoor Low Voltage Lighting Is Low Maintenance

July 22nd, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Outdoor Low Voltage Lighting Is Low-Cost, Easy To Maintain And Environment-Friendly

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Outdoor low voltage lighting is easier to install and take care of. However, you will have to keep in mind that in order to get super-bright lighting you may need to go with a normal 120 volt system. Low voltage is not going to allow you to read books on your deck. They will however provide enough for look and feel and to help you get from your car to your front door without tripping on a rock.

As in anything you do, before you do it you should have a clear plan for why you are doing it. If they are to provide good lighting to enable you to see around the property in the dark, a 120 volt system may be necessary. To put together a system that offers subdued lighting used mostly for effect, an outdoor low voltage lighting system is what you are looking for.

Outdoor low voltage lighting requires a transformer to change 120volts from your homes systems to 12 volts. There are also some solar systems that can recharge 12 volt batteries. There are two main methods of hooking lights to the transformer, straight line and loop, but the number of lights hooked to the transformer as well the distance the lights are from the transformer will affect how bright the lights glow.

Additionally, the furthest light from the transformer will experience the most voltage drop. Some loss can be compensated by the size of the wire used, such as eight gauge or even 10 gauge, but remember there is only 12 Volts running through the lines and if more lights are going to be installed than the transformer can handle, additional transformers may be needed. In most installations of outdoor low voltage lighting systems, six to 10 lights may be possible and the closer together they are located, the less voltage drop you will experience.

Outdoor Low Voltage Lighting Is Less Dangerous

The cool thing about 12-volt lighting is that it is not enough to cause any damage should anyone come into contact with the electricity. The wires also can be placed in conduit if desired or buried in a shallow trench, unlike 120-Volt systems which require conduit and depending on local building code may have to be buried below the frost line.

The best thing about outdoor low voltage lighting is that it won’t kill your electricity bill. Less volts means less kilowatt hours, which in turn means a lower electricity bill for you. In these days of global warming it does seem a little extravagant to have our yard wired high-watt 120-volt lights. Sign up for my newsletter for gardening tips.