Low voltage outdoor lighting?

[burmjohn]

Hey all,

Looking to do some low voltage outdoor lighting.  Anyone mess with this before?  Been searching on the net for some idea's and good pricing.  I think I'll do a custom deal because I'd like to get one transformer (a good sized one) that could be used for the back yard and the front.

Any suggestions? Just going to do a few path lighting things and then some spot lights around the shrubs.

I guess I should try to calculate the amount of wattage I'm going to use to make sure I get the right transformer, they seem pretty expensive too.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I did some years ago for my mom in Florida. Her setup has 12 path lights and a couple of spotlights and came as a kit. It was easy to install, just used a straight shovel and opened the ground up and put the cable in, then looped it up inside the posts of the lights and attached the light to it, then dropped it back in the ground and so on. If you really want to, you can run some underground conduit I guess. The cable ended up at the transformer, which is mounted outside and has the sensor on it to turn them on and off at dusk and dawn. Im not sure about piecing a system together though.

[nyazhunter]

hey ,

I am a landscape contractor in Az. Do lots of LV lighting. No need for conduit for LV wire , would be a waste of dollars. Important things - get a quality fixture ,ie: FX Luminaire , Focus Industries , Nightscaping , Kichler ; You need to know how many watts you can run on the distance of wire run , you can increase wattage on a wire run by bumping up to 10 -2 from 12-2 wire , also , new transformers today give you a way to bump up the volotage with different ' pegs' inside the transformer . Malibu sets are not so great other than pricing .

Hope that helps . PM me if you want more info

Jim

[burmjohn]

Cool thanks, it does help. I noticed a few of those higher end transformers have the option to bump the voltage. I'll do some research on those brands you mentioned, some of those fixtures are so damn expensive though.

[nyazhunter]

Wholesale pricing on  a quality fixture should be in the $40 - $70 range. Also , wattage at each fixture should be 10.8 - 11.3 . If not done correctly , you will have uneven lighting