Popular Outdoor Uplighting Fixtures And Transformers

[Bryan Hancock]

I was hoping we had some outdoor lighting gurus on the board. We are looking at getting some nice lighting done on one of our properties to improve curb appeal.

Questions:
1. What uplighting and transformer do you recommend for a 12V solution? We are looking for something reliable, but don't necessarily need the high end product. Something nice and functional is good

2. Would you recommend purchasing the material and just bidding out the work or paying someone to do things turn key? Based on initial bids I think I could likely just buy the materials needed myself and bid out the labor. Do you see any problems with this?

3. Do other "features" make sense if we intend to keep the property for a long time? Something that saves electricity comes to mind

Any thoughts or comments are welcome and appreciated. We likely need about 10 uplights and a large handful of path lights. Hopefully this is sufficient information...if not, I can sharpen my pencil and give more precise numbers soon.

[Steve Babiak]

Halogen has been the "higher end" lighting - drawback with halogen is that the minimum voltage delivered to the bulb must be something close to 11V or the bulb life gets reduced. High power bulbs require a large number of Amps (Watts = Volts x Amps, so Amps = Watts / Volts which implies in a 12V system that amps will be an order of magnitude larger than normal 120V household lighting), and to keep the voltage drop down thicker conductors are now needed.

Nowadays LED bulbs can be purchased for outdoor lighting. Lower power, longer life in exchange for higher initial cost. Also some LED designs will allow for choices in color of the bulb.

As for fixtures, for path lighting you will need to decide between a fixture that directs lighting downward (fixture shape resembles a mushroom) and having a highly visible light source (fixture has the bulb directly visible or visible through glass). In uplighting, you will be typically choosing between fixtures shaped like a bullet that sit on a short stem and fixtures that are almost entirely in-ground.

Just some issues to think about regardless of whether you choose to DIY or outsource.