How To Install Landscape Lighting

When you are looking for an easy method to extend the time that you spend in your outdoor spaces, there’s positive news. You can actually attain this with some simple garden lighting that will brighten and liven up your footpaths, steps, shrubs, garden devices, architectural components, waterscapes, and decks.

To install your lights properly you need 3 different parts: the light fixtures, a transformer, and some low voltage electric cable. If you take a trip to the local hardware store you should be able to find them. Also you can visit online shops like Amazon.

Your starting step is to lay out the components.Arrange the path lights along the walkway you are lighting. Then take the low voltage wire and string it along the lights and up to the transformer, going under or around any obstacles you may encounter such as trees or shrubs. Leave the wire loose as we will be encircling each fixture with a small loop of wire before burying it.Use 14 gauge wire for jobs totaling less than two hundred watts, and twelve gauge wire for systems that surpass two hundred watts. Your first light should be at least 10 feet from your transformer.

The second step is to dig the trench. Move your outdoor light fixtures away and, using a shovel, fold back a part of grass all along the path about 12 inches wide. Use the edge of the flat-blade shovel to make a trench about three ” deep where the wiring will rest. You may need to set something heavy on the turf to keep it from flopping back into the trench you are trying to make.

The third step is to bury the wire. Place the proper gauge of low-voltage wire into the newly dug trench and remember to leave it some slack. Also make sure that you make a hole in the grass to stick the wire up into.

The fourth step is to make holes for the fixtures. Check to make sure that you have equally spaced all the lights before driving them in. Make sure that you use stakes rather than a hammer to secure the fixtures.

Wiring the lights in is the final step. All light fixtures are different but with most you just take the connector at the base of each light and slip it around the electrical wire until you hear a click. There are other ways to do this of course so check your light’s manual if you’re not sure.

And that’s all there is to it. You can finally enjoy all your hard work and flip the lights on. Just remember that you still have to change the bulbs if the burn out or you can risk damage to the whole setup.