The use of exterior low voltage lighting can both improve the appearance of your home and garden as well as improve its safety. This fairly simple and largely inexpensive enhancement to your property provides a completely different feel to the area around your home after dark and also makes it more conductive for entertaining guests. Further, it is both affordable and reasonably simple to install, even for people without experience.
The transformer converts your regular electrical house current down to just twelve volts. This has to connect to an outlet, preferably outdoors. However, if you do not have an outdoor outlet available, you can connect it to an indoor one as long as there is some way to lead the cables connected to it outside. Many people find electrical outlets in their garage or outdoor sheds perfect for this purpose. In general, once your transformer is plugged in, you should fit it with an “in-use” cover, or small plastic box that closes over the transformer, the outlet, and the connected cables.
The low wattage electrical cable runs between the transformer to the lighting elements and is usually reasonably priced. These cables are what connect your outdoor lights to the power supply (your transformer). After the cables go over unpaved earth, they should be buried underground, at about three to six inches underground. In general, the more rain you get in your area, the deeper the cable should be laid. Bear in mind that some of power is lost as it is transmitted through the cables; therefore, be sure that you calculate in the length of your cables when buying your transformer. The general rule of thumb is one watt of electricity for each ten feet of cable.
The lighting elements themselves come in a wide array of styles and prices. The most common types of outdoor lights are walk lights and area lights. Walk lights are small and tend to placed together lining walk ways and paths in your yard or garden. Walk way lights tend to be less expensive, but you usually have to buy more of them to get the desired effect. Area lights illuminate large swaths of territory or can be angled to spotlight tall trees, walls, or other features.
Adding exterior low voltage lighting is an easy and affordable way to add an exciting new feature to your yard or garden. You can either purchase a pre-packaged set – which usually means the transformer is specifically designed to work with the elements and cable – or you can buy the components independently. Assuming you have an average sized yard or garden, most of these exterior lighting systems can be installed over a weekend. This is certainly something people should consider if they want to make their home more attractive after the sun goes down.
