How to Plan For Low-Voltage Landscape Lighting

Walk around your property and make a note of the areas you want to enhance with low-voltage lighting. Consider dark walkways, especially those walkways with steps that could create a trip hazard. Driveways, trees, bushes, dark areas around entrances or windows, around decks and patios are excellent candidates for low-voltage lighting fixtures.

Draw your property on grid paper, indicating the areas you want to feature with landscape lights. Note the location of trees, shrubs, garden features, areas along the exterior of your home, driveways and walkways.

Indicate on your drawing the types of low-voltage light fixtures you want to use and where you want to place them. Use area or down lights around driveways, pathways and around the perimeter of a garden or pond. Use floodlights to accent trees and shrubs, highlight a feature on your property, and create a wall wash effect along the sides of your home. Use tiered or fashion lights to cast soft light in 360 degrees around the perimeter of your home, and along driveways and walkways. Specialty fixtures, such as deck lights, underwater lights and hanging low-voltage lights are also available.

Pick the location to mount your low-voltage transformer. Determine if you want to hang your transformer by your front door, back door or in your garage. Choose a location close enough to plug the transformer directly into a GFCI protected outlet. Do not choose a location that would require you to use an extension cord to power your transformer.

Measure for the length of low-voltage cable you need from your transformer location to each low-voltage fixture, following the straightest line possible. Add 10 to 20 percent to the length of your cable to accommodate for any splices, adjustments or mistakes in your lighting layout.

Added up the wattage from each fixture you have chosen to get the total that your lighting design requires. Choose a low-voltage transformer that exceeds your wattage needs by 20 percent to allow for future expansion of your landscape lighting.