You plant flowers and shrubs, build patio decks and swimming pools in an effort to enhance the beauty of your home. Landscape lighting allows you to show off your home and enjoy the outdoors once the sun goes down. It can highlight trees or shrubs and give dramatic effect to fountains, statues or other landscape focal points. Along with the decorative benefits there are practical benefits as well, safety, security and investment. The popularity of landscape lighting is due to the ease of installation, the safety, the fashion and the affordability of the low voltage style garden lights or now also solar powered garden lights. As with other lighting jobs, there are many different types of landscape lighting fixtures to fill the many different lighting tasks you may find around your yard and many different techniques on to use them.

To help you decide what types of landscape lighting you need, here are a few important guidelines to consider:

Types of Landscape Lights

Easy To Install
With low voltage systems there is no need for complex wiring. Simply plug the transformer into a power source, run the main cable into the ground and hook-up the lights using quick connectors. No cutting, stripping or splicing of wires is necessary. If after the installation you find you want to change something its easy to re-route the cable and try it in another location. The maintenance and troubleshooting of low voltage
systems are quite east as well.

Transformers
The transformers should be used to at least half of their rated capacity, as a decrease in capacity increases the output voltage resulting in a shortening of the light bulbs life. Most transformers include built in automatic timers to turn themselves on and the after a set time off again. Some only have on/off switches, but some include built in photo controls to turn themselves on at dusk and off at dawn some even include motion sensors to turn themselves on when they detect movement.

Cables
The gauge of the cable should be increased (a smaller number) with both the increase in wattage as well as length of run from the transformer. With too small a gauge of cable you will notice that the lights farther down the cable to be dimmer than those closer to the transformer, this is called voltage drop. The rule of thumb to prevent voltage drop would be not to use the 16 gauge cable for more than 150 watts, or for more than 100 feet, or not to use the 14 gauge cable for more than 200 watts, or for more than 150 feet, or not to use the 12 gauge cable for more than 250 watts, or for more than 200 feet. Another way to reduce voltage drop would be to make multiple shorter runs of cable from the transformer instead of one long run, You can also run the cable straight out from the transformer then making wire connections you can form a "T" which would result in an overall shorter length of cable. Yet another method to maintain even bulb brightness would be to have the cable circle the yard connecting both the beginning and the ending ends of the cable to the transformer, watching that you match the polarity of the cable. Note; make sure any wire connectors used are ones rated for wet locations.

Safety
Low voltage systems offer safety; bare terminals and cables running throughout the garden can be touched without risk of electrical shock. A real concern if you have small children or pets playing outside during the summer months. Note; the cover over the receptacle that the timer is plugged into should be one that covers the plug as well as the
receptacle keeping everything water tight.

Economical
Low voltage systems use low wattage bulbs, some use wedge based light bulbs, while others use bayonet based light bulbs, halogen bulbs are also quite popular, all are very energy efficient. Low voltage landscaping lights also requires no special wiring and there is no need to dig deep trenches for cables, nor a need to encase the cable in conduit.

fashion
Low voltage systems also come in a variety of styles from contemporary to old world styles, and a variety of finishes.

Solar Powered Landscape Lights
Solar powered landscape are lights that are powered by light from the sun, the solar cells charge up the nickel cadmium batteries, when it gets dark the ni-cad batteries power the light emitting diodes. Theni-cad batteries do give a respectable life each night, (providing the initial charge was a good one) the main advancement in battery life must be the doing away with light bulbs and using LEDs. Solar lights may just fill that otherwise inaccessible location, you know, that second turn in the garden path where the stepping stones cross over the pond, where it would be next to impossible to run a cable. They certainly help to show the beauty of your yard, but they are not bright enough to create your more dramatic effects of highlighting trees or fountains.

Links to manufacturers of Landscape Lighting: