You have just finished arranging the landscape of your home’s lawn. As you are about to marvel at the beauty of your creation, nighttime comes and spoils your proud moment. You want to stammer and whine, but you know that such actions won’t do you any good. Your lawn badly needs landscape lighting so that its gorgeous design can stand out even at night. Fortunately, you always have the option of creating your own set of lighting for your lawn.
Landscape lighting is composed of strategically-placed lights that are aimed to make your landscape visible at night. Usually, this lighting scheme has several spotlights that directly illuminate the centerpiece of your landscape, plus several lights around the landscape that act as support for the spotlights. The placement of your lights should be entirely dependent on your landscape’s design. You would not want to highlight the wrong areas of your landscape, since it can make your garden or lawn look shabby. Remember that your aim is to paint a pretty picture in the outside area of your house.
When setting-up your landscape lighting, you should have a keen eye for beauty and small details. You can opt to focus your lights on the central design of your landscape or create pathways made of light that lead to the centerpiece of the landscape. If your electric outlets are too far away, you can simply extend the wires of your lights and connect them to a transformer so that you can set your lights practically anywhere within your landscape.
Materials Used:
landscape lights
UF cable
light bulb set (different colors)
electrical tape
pliers
electric wire
waterproof outlet extension
wire coating
waterproof transformer
shovel
landscaping software
Plan Your Lighting Scheme
First, walk through your garden and think of the best possible lighting schemes. You can consult with a landscape artist to decide which portions of your landscape that should be illuminated. You can also check home improvement sites on the Internet for pictures of landscapes that have good lighting. Once you have decided on what scheme to implement, use a comprehensive landscaping software program to create a blueprint. Print your landscape lighting plan when you have finalized the lighting scheme. Once done, list all the materials that you will need on the back of your plan.
Purchase the Right Equipment
Go to several home improvement stores and check the set of landscape lights that they offer. Select the most suitable lights for your landscape then make your way to a hardware center and purchase the bulbs, electric wire, wire coating, transformer, outlet extension and shovel. Once purchased, go to a computer software store and get the latest edition of any reputable landscaping software.
Connect the Lights to the Transformer
Now that you have the necessary equipment, you can set-up your lights in your lawn or garden. Refer to your landscape lighting plan for the positions of each light. Get your shovel and dig a tiny trench where you will place your waterproof transformer. Once done, hook the transformer to a UF cable.
Place all your lights in their proper positions. Cut the electric wires attached to each light and affix them to your supply of electric wire if the wire of each light needs to be extended. Once connected, cover the exposed wire with wire coating then seal the coating with electrical tape.
The Final Tweaks
For the next procedure, you should connect the wires of your landscape lights to the transformer. Gather all the wires of your lights then hook them up to the UF cable that is linked to the transformer. Once done, set your transformer to automatically switch on and off your landscape lighting. Plug the transformer to a powered outlet extension then check if all the lights work. If some of your lights won’t turn on, you can reconnect or switch the wires with your supply of electric wire.