Low Voltage Outdoor Light

One of the most economical ways to make your home safer and to highlight architectural features and landscaping is to install low voltage outdoor light or solar lighting. Installing low voltage lighting or solar lighting is an easy project. No special skills or tools are needed and most installation can be done in under an hour using only a screwdriver. Low voltage outdoor light systems are shock less and safe for use around children and pets. Lowe’s is happy to provide this information as a service to you.

Low voltage outdoor light uses 12 volt instead of the common household 110/120 volts. Low-voltage is energy-efficient, and also cheap and easy to install – a reason that explains its increasing popularity.

Be careful, however: use low-voltage outdoor lighting only and where necessary. And do not forget controls (timers, photocells…) that can be used to avoid pollution of various kinds.

There are many pre-packaged kits with all the correspondent components:

• the transformer (or power back)
• cables
• fixtures

Kits are often conceived to be expanded: you can add lights in the future as necessary, or you can purchase a second (and a third…) kit to expand your system.

Prices

Prices of some inexpensive kits range from $15 to $100, but the best ones are $300 and more. All depends on the number and type of fixtures and materials. Be aware: low prices usually mean low quality and non-friendly environmental solutions.

Lamps

The low voltage lamps are, obviously, the kit’s source of light. Lamps can be of very different types and watts. Halogen lamps are the most common, but the market is beginning to offer low-voltage fluorescent, which you should prefer whenever the lights are going to be on for more than 2-4 hours.

Low voltage lighting systems consist of the following:

• A power pack (or transformer) supplies the electricity. The power pack plugs into a standard outlet and reduces the regular household current (120 volts) to a safe 12 volts. Power packs have an automatic timer allowing lights to go on and off at preset times.
• A low voltage lamp is the source of light. Lamps are available in a variety of brightness levels ranging from 4 watts up to 50 watts halogen.
• The low voltage cable transmits the electricity. Low voltage cable is a weather-resistant, self-sealing, insulated stranded copper wire that is available in 12-, 14- and 16-gauge sizes. The gauge required for your lighting is determined by the amount of watts required to operate your system:
• 16-gauge cable can carry 150 watts
• 14-gauge cable can carry 200 watts
• 12-gauge cable can carry 300 watts

The number of garden lights/fixtures that can be connected to a particular transformer depends on its capacity and on the wattage demanded by the fixtures. If the transformer is, say, 100-watt, then the total wattage of the lights should not exceed 100 watts (10 garden lights with 10-watt bulbs, for instance).

In the above example, to install 20 or more lights (instead of 10) you would have to purchase a second/third transformer… The alternative to these standard packages, is to buy a bigger transformer and configure a less standardized system: the size of transformer, in this case, depends on the number of light fixtures you may want to install…