Garden Lighting

Time to install our beautiful new garden lights. Before we begin let’s talk safety.

If you’re not confident working with electricity you should contact a professional licensed contractor, however, the beauty of working with low voltage installations is that so long as you stay on the 12 volt side of the transformer, you will not be electrocuted.

For our installation we need various lights and a transformer. We also need to make sure our lights are garden lights, up lights, high lightsequipped with connector caps, if not then we’ll need to buy them separately. If we are running more than 200 watts then 12g cable would be best, but if we’re running less than 200w you can use smaller 16g cable. We will also need a flat blade shovel or edger, a utility knife, wire cutters, wire strippers, a screw driver, work gloves and electrical tape. To figure out what size transformer your plan requires add up the total wattage of all the lights.

Once you have totaled up the required wattage, make sure you pick one a little bigger than you need. That way, if you decide to add more lights at a later date, you won’t have to go out and buy another transformer. In our plan we have a total of seven light fittings. garden lights, up lights, high lights,garden lighting planMost 12v fittings use 20w lamps, so that gives us a total of 140w so we could use a 150w transformer. However, as I mentioned earlier, it would be wiser to buy at least a 200w unit. For larger installations you may need to use more than one transformer.

Begin by deciding where the transformer is going to be located, you don’t want it too far from where the lights are. Assemble the lighting fixtures according to the manufacturer’s instructions, then place the lights in their final position according to your plan. Next connect the cable to the transformer. If necessary strip a little less than 2cm of the insulation off the end of the wires. Then connect them to the 2 terminal screws. Most low voltage cable has the lead ends pre-stripped and ready for installation anyway. Plug your transformer in to the power outlet and layout the cable, ready to connect the lights.To ensure that the cable wires don’t contact each other at the cut end, cut one side back about 2 or 3cm from the end of the other side. Wrap both parts of the cable in electrical tape. Connect each light to the cable with the cable connector caps so that it punctures the cable and makes contact with the wire inside. This why we have the power on, if you fail to make contact, the light won’t come on. Make sure you follow the instructions that come with your fixtures.

Beginning at the transformer use your flat blade shovel or edger to dig a narrow trench 8 to 10cm deep along the cable path and make a right angled slit where each light is going to be located, push the cable into the trench and wherever there is a fixture push the stake partially into the ground to temporarily mark the position. Follow the manufactures instructions at all times. Once you are sure that all the lights are working you can adjust their focus where necessary. Finish by pushing the spikes all the way into the ground, close up the trenches, set your timer, if you have one, for automatic on and off times and then sit back and enjoy your exciting new night time lightscape.