Landscape Lighting
The options you have are 1) solar lighting 2) 220 volt (household strength wiring) and 3) 12-volt systems. Here are the pros and cons of each.
Solar
Cost: Relatively inexpensive
Application: Limited to walkways and other areas where there is sunlight to power the internal battery. They work by storing sunlight during the day into a battery and then the battery runs them at night.
Concerns: Not able to use them in shady areas effectively and not available for under trees or anything much other than lighting a path in the sunshine.
credit:Lighting Trees
12-Volt Landscape Lighting
Cost: medium expensive
Application: This system runs on a transformer plugged into the house. It takes the household 220-volt system and reduces it to 12-volt. The advantage of this is that a homeowner can install the system as 12-volts is not a dangerous amount of power. These systems come in a variety of price ranges and fixtures exist for pathways, tree mounting (facing up into the tree to highlight the branches or down to highlight shadows and ground areas) and house-mounting (for Christmas lights etc)
Concerns: More expensive than solar but a greater range of use. If you purchase this system of landscape lighting - buy the largest transformer you can (it's the expensive part) and skimp a bit on the number of fixtures the first year. Add other fixtures as your budget allows. The experience of a large number of gardeners is that they want to add more and more night-lighting but that the transformer is too small (everybody adds more in the long run than they planned because it's so great to have night lighting in the garden).
credit:Night Lighting Houses
220 Volt Systems
Cost: High. Due to the installation required by certified electricians
Application: You can find any form or style of landscape lighting fixture in 220 volts you can imagine. These duplicate and extend from the 12-volt systems to a full range of commercially available lighting solutions.
Concerns: This is 220 volts and not something to be messed with in the garden; particularly when water - fountains or irrigation - is part of the outdoor operations. Running these wires has to be to code and is an expensive operation to ensure safety. In my garden design, I'm happy to have an electrician wire the pond to 220-volts to run the pumps but all other wiring into shrubs/trees/pathways etc will be 12-volts so the system can be moved if necessary and any damaged wiring isn't going to create a problem for me or my family.
Bottom Line on Landscape Lighting
For small pathways - use solar.
For general use - use 12-volt systems and buy the biggest transformer you can find
For specialized uses such as pond pumps and pond lighting use 220 volts and have an electrician do the installation.
Review Landscape Lighting
Here's a place for you to describe your experiences with landscape lighting systems you've used - the good, the great, the whatever.
Your comments help other gardeners learn what to use - what not to use and this kind of sharing is what makes the Net such a great place for gardening.
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see comments from other visitors to this page...
Solar Lighting
Dear Doug,
Bought "super powerful" solar led landscape lighting a few years ago when the tech was relatively new--they were placed in FULL sun--but ...
credit:Japanese Garden Light
Click here to ask about landscape lighting
Loading
