What Do I Need For Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting
It steps down the.
What do i need for low voltage outdoor lighting. If youre installing path lights along your walkway 100 to 200 lumens is recommended. Low voltage landscape wiring or electrical cable comes in several numerical gauges or sizes. A lower number means thicker wire and greater capacity to carry the power current for longer distances.
For example a series of 18 or 20 watt bulbs provides plenty of power to illuminate a footpath shine light on a doorway or accent a flowerbed. To illuminate a footpath or encircle an outdoor seating area stagger a series of low wattage lights to provide several small overlapping rings of light. If youve installed spotlights they will typically require 120 lumens.
Low-voltage light fixtures luminaires must be no closer than 5 feet away from the outside walls of pools spas or hot tubs. The power behind every low-voltage system is the transformer. Furthermore bulbs with 40 to 75 watts are ideal for outdoor fixtures and should work with the fixture youre using.
Often your home will already have outdoor light fixtures with visible bulbs. We recommend 12-gauge or 10-gauge wire for long distances. Low voltage landscape lighting wire or landscape lighting cable as it is often referred as is made of multi-strands of copper wire that are bound together.
You need at least 4 watts to power each fixture in the circuit. When operating low voltage landscape lights you need a transformer to transform your standard house line voltage 110V or 120V into low voltage 12V or 24V the current needed to operate low-voltage landscaping lights. It plugs into a GFCI-protected outdoor electrical outlet and steps down.
This enables your lights to function accurately. Matching the landscape lighting design to the size of the transformer is essential for efficient function and operation of the entire system. Low-voltage lighting uses a transformer to reduce a 120 V line voltage to 12 V or 24 V.