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This message consists of associate web links. For more details, see my disclosures below. Low voltage illumination makes use of a transformer to lower typical 120 volt lines to a lower voltage. For landscape lighting, this is typically 24 or 12 volts. The most usual low voltage landscape lighting transformers decrease the voltage to 12 volts, which is what we utilized.


Abby and I chose to only install the landscape lighting in the front of your house. In the future we may include lights sideways and yards, however it had not been a priority now - Landscape Lighting Nashville. Abby then mapped out roughly where she would like lights and the number of. It was handy to consider pictures on the internet to obtain a better feel for how closely spaced or spread out the lights need to be.




Once we figured out where we desired the lights, we additionally had to make a note of where we had available exterior electrical outlets to be able to connect in our transformer( s). In our instance, we had one electrical outlet just to the left of our front door and one outlet on each side of your house that we can potentially use.


Ideally one transformer would certainly cover all of our demands. We would certainly connect in a transformer to exterior electrical outlets and run a line of all our lights from there. In our scenario, this wasn't possible considering that it would certainly've needed running a cord under our driveway and additionally under our front walk.

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The transformers are the most expensive component of the entire process, yet there was little bit we can do about it. The light in area one would connect into a transformer on the left side of our home. The lights in area 2 would connect into a transformer by the front door.


Buying every one of the necessary devices for this task was the most frustrating component. There are just so lots of selections and options that it can be puzzling at initially. I'll stroll you via our equipment decisions. The very first point I did was have a look at low voltage lighting alternatives on Amazon.


Then Abby and I travelled to Lowe's and checked out their "Portfolio" brand of landscape illumination. While it was handy to see every one of the various lighting options personally to get a better idea of what we needed, the Portfolio brand didn't seem like it was a better than other brands we had actually checked out, and the rates were most definitely greater than what I was seeing on Amazon


Below is every little thing we made use of to install our landscape illumination: Transformers will be the most significant cost of this project. There are a number of calculators online to help you determine the power (wattage) of your this link transformer, yet it's really straightforward: Build up the overall wattage of the lights used, increase the overall wattage by 1.

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They have 45, 120, 200, 300, 600, and 900 watt options. We buy two 45 watt transformers and one 120 watt transformer. Although we considered the Lowe's Portfolio brand name of landscape lights, we chose to acquire our lights from Amazon. The cost was a lot better and the lights had every little thing we needed.


The greatest disadvantage to LEDs used to be the chilly shade temperature level, but now it's simple to locate LED lights in whatever shade temperature level you prefer. We're delighted with the shade temperature level, and it matches our porch lights and lamp article light well.


I was really pleased with the quality of our lights. They appear really strong and well made with heavy task stakes, an angle change knob, and metal light bodies.


We got the 8 pack of lights yet just wound up utilizing seven for our layout. Before purchasing our cord, I made use of a tape measure to obtain a really harsh price quote of just how much cable I would need. I desired to see to it I had additional, so I purchased 100 feet of wire.

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The very first number is the scale of wire. A lower number or "scale" means a thicker cable - Landscape Lighting Nashville. 12 scale wire is thicker than 14 gauge cord.




Every online source listings a little different numbers, but if you are mosting likely to run near 200 watts or more, 14 gauge cable might be also small. I went back and forth between 12/2 and 14/2 cable. I wound up acquiring the 14 scale cord because some Amazon reviewers had actually commented that the lights we acquired made use of 14 scale wire.


Don't tension regarding the cord choice. For the large majority of property landscape illumination tasks, 14 scale or 12 scale will certainly function simply great. web link The last point you require for this task are the wire connectors. The good news is, they are low-cost, and there are plenty of choices. The cord adapters are made use of to attach the 2 brief cord hairs that prolong from each light to the long cable that offers power to all Read Full Article of the lights in the strand.


The lengthy wire is slid into a wire holder on the connector, and after that you tighten up down the adapter and the steel prongs tap directly right into your lengthy cable. Even looking on Amazon for connectors, I still couldn't envision precisely how this would certainly function, so I wound up buying 2 kinds of adapters.