Low voltage lighting

[macca2]

We are thinking of instaling low voltage lights in are garden. Before I race out and spend the hard earned has anybody got any tips.
Should I buy the lights in kit form or is it better to buy the transformer, cable and lights separately.
Any experience and/or hints as to where to buy, what to buy etc will be a great help.
I have tried the solar powered garden lights and found them a waste of money.

Thanks
Macca

[Honorary Bloke]

Macca,

It depends on your situation. If you find a kit that has exactly what you need (want) then that's probably fine. BUT . . . if you ever want to add lights you will no doubt find that the transformer in the kit is sized for the kit and can't take an additional load. When I did mine, I designed my lighting "grid", decided how many and what lights I would need, as well as cable length, added up the wattage and bought a transformer accordingly (with a little power over to spare in case SWMBO had a brainstorm).

If you can afford it, I suggest getting lights with metal shades rather than plastic, as the sun tends to fade the plastic pretty quickly. (DAMHIKT)

Afraid I can't help you on the where to buy, but I'm sure others will offer recommendations.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Macca,
look into the LED lights that are around now. The bulbs are supposed to last for over 20 years, they use hardly any power, they are waterproof etc and you dont have to worry about voltage drop as you do with other low voltage (A VERY BIG PAIN). On the down side the light output is small so you need lots of the little buggers. You wont get the floodlight effect but if you can live with subtle low level lighting they are easy to install and cost effective.

[patty]

Macca Be careful consider how many fixtures you are going to have....keep the cable runs distance to a mininum because you will find the end of the cable could be 20+mtrs away from the transformer and you will notice when you "power it up" the first one will be the brightest and the will get progressively darker towards the end of the line so use two sperate runs from the transformer instead of one.. example 10 watt lamps x 6 =60 watts but i would go for something like a 100va tranformer because you have to compensate for the cable run as well the longer the run the thicker the cable will have to be anything over 35 mtrs from memory you have to use 6mm low voltage cable hope this helps

[Ashore]

Mate solar lights can be got for around $3 each, why would you want to run leads etc I have the solare lights and they work well each and every night regardless of power failure or blackouts

[macca2]

Yep you are correct Ashore. I bought solar lights lights for around $24 for a pack of six.
Thats cheaper than the cost of the batteries.
One thing I have noticed is the lights with 2x1.2v batteries are far better than the ones with the single battery, and are around the same price.