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For outdoor living areas like decks and patios, low voltage landscape lighting can add drama and interest to the home’s architectural features while ensuring their visibility at night.
Why should a home’s exterior only be visible during the daytime when so much time and money has been invested in enhancing the home’s curb appeal? Don’t worry because Landscape Improvements is here for you, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best low-voltage landscape lighting options currently available.
From spotlighting statues and water features with bullet lights to floodlighting a home’s exterior or using well lights for older trees, low voltage landscaping lighting has a lot to offer.
The type of lights, power source, location, and weather resistance all play a role in selecting the right lighting for a residential property.
Read on to learn more about landscape lighting’s most important features.
Because of its use of 12-volts, low voltage landscape lighting has been dubbed “12-volt lighting.” As a result, a 12-volt transformer is required for use at home.
The transformer can be daisy-chained to any number of 12-volt outdoor light fixtures.
Low voltage landscape lighting systems can be safely installed by homeowners because they use 12-volt electricity and do not pose a risk of electric shock.
As an option, the user does not have to bury any wires in the ground and can instead run them under a layer of dirt or mulch.
Some landscape lighting is powered by solar energy rather than low voltage electrical power. Solar landscape lighting requires no wiring and instead relies on a battery that charges using a solar cell throughout the day, making it much easier to install.
8 to 12 hours of nighttime illumination can be provided by a fully charged battery. A full day’s worth of sun exposure is required to fully recharge solar-powered landscape lighting.
Landscape lighting must be able to withstand the elements because it is used outside; because aluminum is naturally resistant to rust and corrosion, most landscape lighting is made of aluminum.
Moreover, it’s tough enough to withstand occasional impacts from foot traffic, trimmer lines, and lawnmowers. Shock-resistant tempered glass is used in some landscape lighting fixtures, such as well lights.
Electrical wiring is used in low voltage landscaping. Because of this, it must be water and impact resistant.
The International Protection Code (IP code) is a rating system for consumer outdoor electrical devices that measures how well the electrical components are protected from dust and water.
IP 65 or higher is required for all low voltage or solar landscape lighting, meaning the light can withstand dust particles and water jetting from sprinklers or a hard rain.
Some landscape lighting, such as well lights that are buried in the ground, has an IP 67 rating, which indicates that the light can withstand a brief submersion in water.
There is a correlation between the brightness and efficiency of a light bulb. LED bulbs are the best option for low voltage landscape lighting.
They produce more light per watt than incandescent bulbs but use only about a third of the power.
In addition to having a longer lifespan and burning cooler, these bulbs outperform incandescent lighting.
In comparison to incandescent bulbs, LED bulbs require a significant up-front financial commitment and typically cost three to four times as much.
However, these bulbs eventually pay for themselves and beat out incandescent bulbs in total cost because of their longevity and energy savings.
Solar lighting is another option. When the sun goes down, a small solar cell charges a battery, which powers the lights in the landscape.
Due to their lack of electricity or wiring, solar lights tend to be less powerful than low voltage lighting.
The type of light and the power source both influence the brightness of a landscaping light.
One of the most common 12-volt transformer-powered bullet lights is capable of producing 1,500 lumens, enough to light up a house’s facade.
For uplighting a tree or wall, well lights produce around 100 lumens; for illuminating flower beds or pathways, low voltage garden lights may produce between 200 and 300 lumens.
The lumen output of a 12-volt transformer-powered landscape light fixture is significantly greater than that of a solar-powered light. In comparison to the 150 lumens that a 12-volt pathway light can produce, a solar-powered pathway light can only produce 7 lumens.
Landscape lighting comes in a variety of brightness levels and color temperatures.
Lighting’s appearance and feel are influenced by the color temperature, which ranges from a warm white to bright daylight.
In order to gauge a color’s temperature, scientists use the Kelvin (K) scale. Between 2,000K and 6,500K, a typical home’s lighting ranges, the lower number being warmer and the higher number being cooler.
Lighting with a 2,500K color temperature is warm and inviting, whereas daylight-like lighting with a 5,000K color temperature is ideal for productivity.
Despite the fact that nighttime landscape lighting provides some visibility, it should not have the same effect as stadium lighting. The ideal color temperature for landscape lighting is between 2,000K and 3,000K.
When installing a transformer for low voltage lighting, an electrician is needed.
However, once that’s done, most do-it-yourselfers can add and install the lights without the use of any special tools or skills.
Lighting fixtures are staked into the ground or attached to trees, and the wires are run from one light to the next and finally to the transformer during installation.
Installing low voltage systems is doable for the majority of do-it-yourselfers due to the low risk of electric shock.
Installing a solar system is even more straightforward. Individual solar cells and batteries allow them to run without the need for a transformer or electrical wiring.
Staking these lights into the ground in a location that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight each day is the recommended method of installation.
Uplighting or downlighting is an option for trees. The effect of moonlight filtering through the trees is achieved through the use of downlighting.
You can use this type of light to make an interesting shadow effect on your driveway or walkway under the trees.
Lighting a large tree with uplighting can bring out its textures and foliage while creating a dramatic effect.
For patios in the backyard that are surrounded by trees, use downward-pointing tree-mounted lights.
When the light is positioned in the trees, it creates more subtle lighting that allows for nighttime entertaining while also creating interesting shadows and textures from tree foliage on a patio or deck.
When the sun goes down, there’s no reason that a home’s curb appeal can’t be seen. With the right lighting, a home’s facade can be transformed into a work of art.
An architectural feature on a home can be highlighted by a bullet light aimed at the object, like a statue or fountain.
Garden lights are a great way to highlight low-growing plants and flowers in your garden at nighttime. To illuminate the foliage below, choose garden lights that are taller than the plants.
Lighting a large area like the side of a house, a wall, or a fence with a wash light is an excellent idea. At the base of the structure, turn the lighting fixtures so they shine upward.
An 18 to 24-inch post with a canopy shade, which reflects the bulb’s light downward, is the ideal height for garden-style landscape lighting. Garden lights can be used to illuminate walkways and flowerbeds.
The branches of a tree are illuminated by well lights, which are placed in the ground at the tree’s base and shine upward. Installing them near the home’s foundation will allow you to illuminate the building’s exterior.
Using a narrow beam of light, bullet lights direct attention to a specific area, such as the trunk of a tree or an architectural feature of a house.
The beamwidth of a bullet light is expressed in degrees. The narrower and brighter the beam of light, the lower the degrees.
It is similar to the floodlights that are commonly mounted to the eaves of houses for security and visibility.
Light from floodlights is spread out in a wide beam, creating a wash of illumination.
When used to illuminate a home’s exterior, such as a wall or fence, these spotlights are excellent picks. They have the same effect as a wash, but they’re a lot more vibrant.
To create the illusion of moonlight, install downlights in a tree or on the side of your house so that the light shines down through the branches and casts shadows on the ground below.
To reduce glare from the sides, these light fixtures typically have a cylindrical shade around the bulb.
Make a statement in your neighborhood by transforming your area with the best low-voltage landscape lighting. Landscape Improvements can take care of it for you. All of your backyard needs are catered for.
To find out more about what we can do for you, call us at 407-606-7326. You can also send an email to information@landscapeimprove.com to get in touch with us.
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