Deck Light Installation

Draw an outline of your deck on a piece of paper. This drawing does not have to be to scale. Label the stair's location as well as the location of any planters or benches you wish to illuminate.

Find the GFCI outlet nearest to your deck. Mark this outlet's location on your drawing. Plan the electrical wiring by drawing a line from the outlet around to each point you wish to illuminate.

Set a light on the deck in the areas you selected. Stretch out the light's electrical wiring to check that it extends to the next lighting point. Set a photosensor near the GFCI outlet, no farther than 1 foot away. Make sure the photosensor is not blocked by anything.

Drill a 1/8-inch hole through either your home's siding or your deck. Drive the supplied screw halfway through the hole and hang the photosensor on the screw.

Drill a 1- to 1 1/2-inch hole through the deck at the location of each light. The hole's size depends on the light's size and how it mounts to the deck, so read the manufacturer's directions. Hold the drill as level and steady as possible so the hole goes straight through the deck's wood.

Feed the light's wires through the hole and firmly push the light in. If you have angled lights, make sure they point in the same direction to cast uniformed lighting. Some deck lights have back plates. If yours does, push the wires through the hole and cover the hole with the back plate. Drive the supplied screws through the back plate's screw holes and snap the cover onto the back plate.

Connect the first light in the series to the photo sensor. Some deck lights come with male and female adapters that can be pushed together. Other lights require you to strip off 1/2 inch of rubber insulation from the end with wire strippers. Loosen the screw terminals on the photo sensor, push the wires in and tighten the screws.

Go underneath the deck and stretch each light's electrical wires to the next light, to form a circuit. Either plug the male and female adapters together or strip 1/2 inch of rubber insulation off the ends, hold the ends together and twist a waterproof wire nut onto them. Each light has two wires. It does not matter which wire connects to which wire as long as each light has one wire running to the two lights on either side of it to form a circuit.

Run the photo sensor's wire to the transformer. Either plug the appropriate adapters into the transformer or strip the wires' ends, loosen the transformer's screw terminals, put the wires under the terminals and tighten the screws. Plug the transformer into the GFCI outlet.