Create a Safer Home with Landscape Lighting

Create a Safer Home with Landscape Lighting

When it comes to creating a stunning first impression and enhancing curb appeal, landscaping plays a crucial role. During the day, your landscaping, painting, and hardscaping efforts shine brightly. However, as night falls, your beautiful home may disappear into the darkness, losing its charm and potentially posing safety concerns. The solution? Landscape lighting! In this detailed guide and video, Brian will walk you through the entire process of adding landscape lighting to your outdoor space, ensuring it looks fantastic and remains safe, day and night.

Enhancing Safety and Beauty

Landscape lighting is a fantastic addition to any outdoor space, offering several significant safety benefits. Proper lighting illuminates pathways, stairs, and entryways, reducing the risk of trips and falls, and ensuring safe navigation even in the dark. Well-lit areas are less attractive to potential intruders, as bright landscape lighting eliminates hiding spots and makes it more challenging for anyone with ill intentions to approach your property unnoticed. Additionally, lighting around the perimeter of your property can enhance security by making it easier to spot any unusual activity. Motion-activated lights are particularly effective in startling and deterring trespassers. Whether you're hosting a late-night gathering, walking the dog, or simply enjoying your garden, landscape lighting provides the necessary illumination for carrying out these activities safely and comfortably. While safety is the primary concern, well-designed landscape lighting also adds aesthetic value to your home, creating a welcoming atmosphere and increasing curb appeal. In short, landscape lighting enhances both safety and beauty, making your outdoor space more functional and inviting.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Landscape Lighting

Step 1: Planning Your Landscape Lighting

The very first step in any landscape lighting project is to decide where you want the lights to be. To achieve a balanced and visually appealing look, consider the following:

• House Anchors: Place lights at the corners of your house to anchor the structure visually. For instance, you might position a light here shining up, and another one there and there.
• Trees and Shrubs: Highlighting trees is where the magic truly happens. Uplighting trees creates a dramatic effect at night. Consider placing a light here to uplight this tree, and do the same for other trees and even the lamppost.

Step 2: Calculating Lighting and Wiring Needs

Once you’ve determined where to place your lights, it’s time to think about wiring and power:

• Continuous Loop: The wiring for landscape lights is a continuous piece that loops around the yard. Measure approximately every 10 feet to estimate the total length needed. While it doesn’t have to be exact, tally up the total distance to ensure you have enough wire.

Step 3: Choosing the Right Lights and Transformer

With countless lighting options available, selecting the right one is crucial:

• Light Selection: A simple 20-watt spotlight is a great choice. The wattage of the lights is essential for determining the transformer size.
• Transformer: The transformer powers the lights by taking the house power of 120 volts and reducing it to a safe 15 volts. To determine the appropriate transformer size, use this simple math: multiply the wattage of the lights (20 watts per light) by the number of lights (in this case, eight lights), resulting in 160 watts. A 200-watt transformer will be sufficient.

Step 4: Installing the Transformer

To install the transformer:

• Attach Wires: Connect the wires to the transformer terminals. Polarity doesn’t matter, so either wire can go on either side.
• Mounting the Transformer: Use a template provided for pre-drilling holes. Screwing in the screws partially will allow the transformer to fit into the mounting hooks on the back of the unit.

Step 5: Setting Up Controls

Controlling when the lights come on and off can be done through a built-in timer and a photo cell:

• Built-in Timer: Set the timer for the desired on and off times.
• Photo Cell: The photo cell uses ambient light to determine when the lights should turn on and off. It simply plugs in at the bottom of the transformer.

Step 6: Running the Wiring

Laying out the landscape wire is the next step:

• Outdoor and Underground: Landscape wire is rated for outdoor and underground use. Lay it out first, then dig a trench and bury it.
• Leave Slack: When you reach an area where a light will be installed, leave extra slack in the wire for adjustments later.

Step 7: Burying the Wire

Burying the wire involves digging a trench and tucking the wire into place:

• Trench Depth: Dig a trench six inches deep, the recommended depth for outdoor landscape wiring. Brian’s tip is to use a spade shovel to create a groove, then tuck the wire in.
• Covering: Cover the wire with soil, mulch, or other materials, ensuring it’s well-hidden.

Step 8: Connecting the Lights

Attaching the lights to the wire is a straightforward process:

• Connection Mechanism: Most landscape lights have two spikes that penetrate the sheathing and connect to the wire when inserted.
• Color Temperature Control: Some lights offer a color temperature control feature, allowing you to switch from cool to warm lighting, depending on your preference.

Step 9: Final Touches and Testing

After connecting all the lights:

• Plug in the Transformer: Power up the system by plugging in the transformer.
• Wait for Nightfall: Once it gets dark, observe the transformation. Not only will your outdoor space look safer, but the aesthetic appeal will also be significantly enhanced.

Adding landscape lighting is a rewarding project that greatly improves the appearance and safety of your home. By following these steps, you can create a beautiful, well-lit outdoor space that shines even after the sun goes down. Not only will your property look more inviting and sophisticated, but you'll also enhance its security by deterring potential intruders and illuminating pathways for safe nighttime navigation. Whether you’re hosting evening gatherings or simply enjoying a quiet night outdoors, landscape lighting will elevate your experience and leave a lasting impression. And if you’re looking to add to your outdoor lights, you may consider following how Ron puts an outdoor lamppost and shows you how to wire it yourself!