How to Install Landscape Lighting in 6 Easy Steps…
If you’re looking to affordably install good quality and energy efficient landscape lighting to your home, you’ve come to the right place. While you could call a local landscaping professional to do the work for you, we highly recommend doing it yourself. We can help you every step of the way with the best lighting products, instructions, video tutorials, and support.
You can’t always trust landscape professionals, as they will typically install lighting they get from big box stores. This type of lighting will only cause you problems down the road and require you to constantly be fixing them.
You may be wondering, where you can access better quality lighting materials, if you can’t find them at a store near you. That’s exactly why we developed our DIY kits. We’ve selected materials from the best manufacturers, made adjustments to make them more energy efficient and longer lasting, while still cutting costs without sacrificing on quality.
So now that you know where to find the right materials for your landscape lighting projects, you’ll need to know the steps to install it. You’ll save so much money doing it yourself!
We’ve created a video of the steps that you can watch, or you can read the steps below.
6 Easy Steps to Installing Low Voltage Landscape Lighting
Step 1: Determine which type of lighting you plan to use
Landscape lighting can add curb appeal, safety, and security to your home, depending on which type of lighting you choose.
Here are the different types of landscape lighting:
- Up and accent lighting — most popular lighting to highlight trees and structures around the property.
- Wash lighting — to light up stonework and other unique, beautiful features of your home or property.
- Path and garden lighting — to light up pathways or plant features.
- Hardscape lighting — used around BBQ areas, fences, decks, steps, etc.
Tip: To help you decide which lighting to use and where to place it, take a flashlight at night and shine it on features and structures to see what would look good.
Step 2: Placing the lights
Use rubber mallet to pound in the lights. Ensure that they are nice and stable to avoid any future damage from getting knocked over.
Step 3: Splicing and Connecting Your Wires
Place the wire at each fixture, leaving extra just in case you need to make changes in the future. Strip the wire with wire cutters and use waterproof gel filled connectors to wire the fixtures. We recommend using these Blazing BVS-2 Snap Lock Wire Connectors to hold wires together nice and strong.
Tip: Cheap connectors can cause a lot of problems down the road so don’t try to cut costs here. Also, if you need to T-splice your wire, we recommend using DBRY Gel Filled Connectors to keep the wires tight and in a waterproof tube. Avoid DIY wire connectors from your major hardware stores that require you to pierce the wires, as this can create problems down road.
Step 4: Sizing your Transformer
To determine what size transformer you need, add up the wattage of all the lights on your project. For example, if each light is 5 watts and you have 10 lights, your total wattage is 50. You want a transformer that is 20% larger than what you need. So, for 50 watts, you’d need a 60 watt transformer. We recommend this Kitchler Power Transformer with a Wi-Fi controller and timer.
Step 5: Hook up and wire your lights to the transformer
After selecting your transformer, your next step is to wire your lights to it. There are two tabs on the bottom of your transformer. One is a common connection and one for 12 volt or 15 volt connection. After you wire your lights into the tabs, you’re ready to mount the transformer, plug it into your GFCI receptacle, and turn it on!
Step 6: Test everything
Your final step is to turn on the transformer to ensure that the lights work. Once you check that everything is working, bury the extra wire, secure the lights, and do any final adjustments to make sure everything looks good. We recommend doing your final adjustments at night, so you have the best idea of how the lights will look before you finish the project. Once everything looks good, bury the wires in your lawn by creating a small trench with a shovel. Push the wire down 6–8 inches deep, then close up the trench by applying pressure with your foot.
That’s all there is to successfully installing DIY low voltage landscape lighting. We hope you found these steps and our video tutorial helpful. We are always here to support you with your landscape lighting needs, so feel free to contact us at any time.
Send me your questions and comments to Cal@LightingDoctor.ca
