Outdoor lighting.

Super easy as long as you have an available outlet to start your run.

You mount a LV transformer on the wall near the outlet. These have timers and light sensors so you can make them kick on and off in a variety of ways.

You bury a LV wire that you buy in a spool along the path. Then you tap into it with a variety of little attachments that pierce the line. That whole line is low voltage and pretty foolproof.

You arrange the lights you want in any combo. It is much easier now that the lights are all LED vs the higher wattage versions of the past. Before it was easy to overload your transformer and get dim light.

Summary. If you can mount a box and bury a wire a few inches below your mulch/dirt you can do it.

I can link a few super bright LED mini spotlights that I have used and love. (Amazon/Cheap) I use these ( LED Spots) to illuminate my front columns and uplight areas of my brick behind shrubs. My whole house is nicely lit. I also have bollard lights mixed in outlining my flowerbeds. They were the halogen kind, but I was able to replace the bulbs with LEDs.

I used a set up as you describe from Lowes to light up the front of the house. Lasted 3 years. I now have a pool and landscape in the back and just thinking of doing solar. How to with Doc youtube guy had some nice solar ones he used. Not sure which way to go.

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I’m in the same boat. Thinking about doing it myself this fall but zero experience.

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mctiger hooked me up with 250' of LV wiring for $45 on amazon.

there's another thread on here about this. using LEDs helps dramatically w/ the electrical range since it doesn't require much power.

there's a little spade-thingie that you can buy at home depot to make a trench in seconds (video posted in the other thread) but my biggest concern is i have a circular driveway preventing access to several points I want to run the wiring to so I may have to chisel out one of the expansion joints to run the cable across it.

i'm super pumped for this project; just haven't had a chance to pick up the lighting fixtures yet.

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I replaced a 10 year old Hampton Bay transformer with this one 2 years ago. No complaints

[link=LINK on Amazon[/link]

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holy moly, you just plug it in to the outlet??

shite i don't have the money for this right now but y'all are leading me down the path..

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I have like 10 floods along my columns, brick and crape myrtles. And another dozen bollard/path lights. I’m probably $350 deep in the whole project. I have a second transformer that runs half. Still the 12year old Hampton bay.

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i would love reviews on spotlights v/s well lights vs pathway lights from you.

i worry i'm going to mow them down like i do my solar lights.

Here's a rough outline of my plan to get an idea of how many lights. I have the cross the driveway twice if I want to get to that last outside facade.



Can you run *TWO* LV lines from the transformer so I don't have to T the lines? The red box indicates where i want 2 or 3 lights but the run would stop near the garage.

The main line would hit the left side of the house, the flagpole then down the hill to the 2 facades near the curb, across that middle section to get the 2 trees then end at the other facade.

I'm looking at roughly 14-15 total lights on this run and i haven't run a wheel through the yard yet to get the total SF so I'm not sure 250' will cover it.

Link to the LV wiring?

I would recommend running the wire from the transformer to the center of your light path and then tee off from there and run to the lights. This will help keep the same amount of voltage in all lights. In very dark areas, the drop in wattage can be noticeable from one fixture to the next.

i'm digging these on amazon (aluminum construction including the stake)

LINK



6 pack is under $100 and taht would take care of the path lighting anyway.

I'm not sure if 6 would cut it or if I need 8. Thats a very dark area at night when people are leaving our house.

I found this useful from your link.