What’s it Going to Cost to Install Outdoor Garden Lighting?

As a home garden enthusiast, sometimes the love of your work trumps the cost of the solution.  However, especially in times like we’re living in lately, it makes sense to be frugal yet flexible in adding enhancements to your home.   Outdoor garden lighting is a great way to add beauty to and style to your landscaping efforts, but just what is the project going to cost you?  In this article, we want to find out the requirements.

The first step in your planning out the costs of the solution will be to decide wheter to use low voltage landscape lighting or solar garden lighting.  Depending on that choice we can get to work.  If you go with the low voltage solution, you will need to purchase everything in a solar light kit or buy the individual components separately.  You will need to buy the outdoor garden light fixtures, the low voltage (12v usually) transformer, and also outdoor rated 12 volt wiring.    If you buy everything in a kit, than this will be provided for you.  If not, you’ll need to do some looking around to find everything.   If you need to purchase wire connectors or even small conduit to lay the wire in, that is really up to you.  Most people have things such as wire connectors already in their home.

If you decide to go with solar powered garden lights, then you will only need to consider purchasing the actual lights themselves.   LED bulbs are available on the marketplace also, and we have seen that they are a bit brighter than traditional bulbs that come with the standard light package.   As far as electrical necessities, you have the sun to provide the energy.  No need for wiring or connectors in this case.

lights & shadows
Creative Commons License photo credit: iwona_kellie

In previous times, many homes only had outdoor flood lights installed or even security lights that acted as yard lighting.  This of course provided light, but was unsightly and even expensive to own.  The flood lights drew on 110volt power and often times were connected to motion detectors that were set improperly.  Someone walking by the home on a sidewalk could set off the light needlessly and thus waste electricity.  For this reason, solar powered outdoor lighting is becoming more and more popular.  The photovoltaic cell panel in the solar lights charge up during sunlight hours and convert this sunlight into stored energy inside the installed battery units.   Then at night, the energy is transferred from the battery to the LED lights to illuminate your yard.  LED lights generally last longer than incandescent bulbs, especially when kicked or tripped on.

When installing your outdoor garden lighting, you may be able to accomplish the task yourself in a long afternoon.  Proper planning is crucial to your project and also scoping out the yard areas where you will be running your wire.  (assuming of course you choose low voltage lighting)   One tip is that when you are laying your wire, you may want to consider putting it inside some rubber tubing or conduit to avoid damge caused by water or little critters.   My yard has chipmunks that love to dig up everything and I can only imagine they would love chewing on these wires.

Overall, the costs that you will spend can range from 100 to 400 dollars as a rough estimate.  Of course, like anything else, you may be able to spend more or less than this cost.   Averages are always just that…averages.  Plus, if you need to have professional installation done, it will cost more than this because of labor costs.

What are the benefits that can be derived from spending this money on outdoor garden lighting?  Security is greatly increased around your home.  If a thief has a choice of homes to pick in which to rob, he’ll generally prefer the one that no one can see him entering and exiting because of the black night.   Safety of course is also paramount to many homeowners.  If your guests can’t see where they are walking, it can be dangerous for them.  A well lit pathway makes everything much easier to navigate.  FInally, the beauty of your garden and yard is greatly enhanced.   There is nothing like recieving compliments from neighbors and passersby on your hard work…and that’s not to mention the personal satisfaction that you’ll get too.

Written by
on August 22, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Filed under Decorative Outdoor Lighting, Garden Lights, Outdoor Landscape Lighting
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10 Steps to Installing Low Voltage Landscape Lights Yourself

For homeowners who are not happy with the results they are getting from their outdoor solar lighting fixtures, another option to consider is to turn to low voltage outdoor lighting.  This project is very easy IF you already have a 110 v outlet already accessible on the outside of your home.

Power Considerations for Low Voltage Lighting

Most modern installations of outdoor low voltage lighting installations use only 12 volts of electricity.  To be able to convert your 110 volt power source from the accessible outlet outside your home to 12 volts, a transformer is required.   If you do not have an easy access outlet available on the outside of your home, it is recommended that you get an electrician to install one for you. It may come in hand in the future for lawn and gardening purposes anyway.

Transformers for Low Voltage Lighting

Many times, you can purchase low voltage lighting kits from a retailer and the kit will include the necessary transformer matched to your fixtures.  However if you’re trying to piece the project together yourself and need to buy a transformer separately, then you need to get out your calculator.  Transformers will be based on wattage capacity.  To keep it simple, you should add together the wattage number of each outdoor lighting fixture you will use, and then factor in a “buffer” amount for voltage drop and extra capacity in case future fixtures are added. 25% is a good amount to factor in growth and line drop. Once you have your total wattage number, then buy a transformer that can handle your number efficiently.  For example, if you have  6 lights at 12 watts each, you’ll need 72 watts of capacity.  Factoring in our thumbnail buffer of 25% that puts us at 90 watts.  In this example a 100 watt transformer would be the right fit. Some other features to consider are the transformer rating, built-in photocell, increment timer for on/off, and multiple on/off timer.

Wire Requirements for Low Voltage Lighting

There is special wire that is sold for low voltage lighting, It is highly recommended that this wire is used.  Also make sure that the wiring you choose is rated for outdoor uses. Most of the time the wire used is 12 gauge in size.   If you know the layout of your lighting, you can figure out your wiring lengths at that time by simply measuring the linear distances from your transformer placement.  Add a 15% for extra just to be safe.

Installation

Before even starting your project, it may help considerably to draw out a rough sketch of your lighting placement and wiring  on a piece of paper.  I find that writing things down puts the project firmly in mind and makes the whole thing go smoother..

  1. Unpack your low voltage outdoor lights and place them in the designated positions in your yard.   If you are extremely particular, then you can even measure the distance between your fixtures to make sure the are even and balanced.
  2. Plan out your placement of lights. A few good tips are as follows:
  • - If you are installing path lights place them about 8 to 12 feet apart
  • - Always try to  position the first light about 10ft. from your transformer
  • - If you have a pool or pond, do not place a light closer than 10 ft from it.
  1. Run your low voltage wiring above the ground next to the fixtures according to your drawn design
  2. If you are going through your grass, you may need to first cut the sod and lift it. .
  3. Now dig a trench approximately 2 to 3 inches deep along your wiring run. Bury the wiring into the dirt and leave some extra at each light fixture.  Don’t run the wire tight.
  4. If required, you may need to attach a connector at some point in the wiring run so that you can also run wire back to your outlet area.
  5. Connect your wiring to the 2 terminals on the transformer.  You’ll need to obviously strip the wire and attach it.  Now plug the transformer into the outside outlet. .
  6. Now you want to do the actual connections to your lights.   Some lighting kits include quick fix connectors that don’t make you strip wires and buy splicers etc.  You’ll need to look at your lights to see if this is the case. Otherwise, you’ll need to buy appropriate connectors and then connect the wiring. Once connected, the light bulbs should light up.
  7. Now you postion the low voltage lighting fixtures into their “final resting place”. Make sure they are very secure so that someone who trips over them or runs into them with the lawn mower doesn’t dislodge the wiring or break the light.
  8. Finish your project by tidying up your extra wiring, burying all traces back to the transformer and securing your transformer to a wooden stake or to your home somehow so it doesn’t disappear.

Hopefully this is a quick and easy process that you feel comfortable trying out yourself.

Written by
on August 22, 2009 at 11:09 am
Filed under Decorative Outdoor Lighting, Garden Lights, Low Voltage Lighting, Outdoor Landscape Lighting
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