# Lust4Lawn Landscape Lighting Journal - Front



## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

I have been admiring the landscape lighting of some local homes and that at other members here at TLF such as @Harts and @Ware. I was able to glean so many tips and tricks from these posts that helped my project be a success. Thanks, guys!

Specifically, these threads were very helpful:
Ware: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2554
Harts: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4342

The home had a pendant light above the front door and a natural gas lamp at the start of the front walkway near the driveway. The light between these sources was bright and glaring and I was tired of it.

Here were my goals:
1. Light the pathway.
2. Accentuate the existing landscaping with the potential flexibility to add some other ornamentals in the works.
3. Take the emphasis off of the pendant light above the steps by reducing the light output to create a more balanced appearance.
4. Change the gas lamp from a dual inverted mantle configuration with relatively high lumens to a more charming open gas flame with a maple leaf shape. This would be a lower lumen output light with a more yellow color temperature and with the flickering behavior that would set it apart from another lighting source. Lamp Restoration Project
5. Change the appearance to a more composed scene, accenting the landscape and features of the home.

Since my walkway is of average width, I didn't want to get pathway lamps that cast huge diameters of light. I wanted the light from each lamp to have pools instead of 100% light coverage. 
I decided on using Volt Lighting (https://www.voltlighting.com/) due to the other members' success and the broad, broad offering of lamps, bulb angles, bulb wattages and ease of their website. I had a great experience with them and their product.

Products purchased:
(4) of the 5" China Hat Path Lights with 3W 2700K LED Bulbs (recently the name changed to Flat Hat for some PC BS reason). LINK









(4) of the Fat Boy G2 Spotlights LINK
-I purchased (2) 5W 60 degree bulbs for lighting a weeping cherry and a large rhododendron, (1) 5W 38 degree bulb for a small Japanese Maple/gable accent and a 3W 15 degree bulb for uplighting the larger tree at the right of the house. 









(1) 100W Slim Line Transfomer without timer or photocell. This unit puts out 15V so I can easily put very long runs of wire and still have the required voltage. LINK









All of the lamps were ordered with the optional 25-foot leads. The pathlights I upgraded to stakes with the brass inserts since they are tall and I wanted them to be as sturdy as possible. It was overkill but I really liked them when installing. I also purchased the foot-stomper from Volt which was a cool way of putting the lamps in.

Smart Home Integration:
For the Pendant light I purchased a Kasa Dimmable Smart Bulb LINK which I was able to control via Alexa.
I plugged my transformer into an Amazon Smart Plug also controlled by Alexa. In the Alexa app I created a routine that turns both the pendant light and the landscaping light transformer on 10 minutes before sunset and turns them off at sunrise.

Lamp Installation and wiring:
I used the 25 foot leads to run the wires to groupings that I placed in sprinkler valve boxes and used waterproof wire nuts filled with dielectric grease to make the junctions. I mounted the transformer in my garage and used a hammer drill to get the 12 gauge wire through the masonry wall. I cut a piece of PVC pipe to act as a sleeve going through the wall and sprayed some expanding foam to fill the gaps to keep pests out.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Looks great @Lust4Lawn! I'm needing to get some stuff ordered for our new house, so this is inspiration for me. :thumbup:


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

Ware said:


> Looks great @Lust4Lawn! I'm needing to get some stuff ordered for our new house, so this is inspiration for me. :thumbup:


Congrats on the new house. I'm sure you have a ton of stuff to work to do. Has Volt ever expressed a desire to offer TLF users a discount?


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Lust4Lawn said:


> Congrats on the new house. I'm sure you have a ton of stuff to work to do. Has Volt ever expressed a desire to offer TLF users a discount?


I asked them one time and they were not interested. They had a 10% sitewide sale around Memorial Day. Sometimes I get emails about 20% off certain items, but it never seems to apply to the common stuff. It looks like you can still use code "BACK2VOLT" for 10% off a $500+ order - which if you take the time on the front end to map out everything you're going to need, it's not hard to spend $500 on a lighting project.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Nice work, You did a fantastic job.

@Ware I ended up taking my lights with me to the new house. But I'm still looking at another $1,000 from Volt to light up everything I'd like.


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

Harts said:


> Nice work, You did a fantastic job.
> 
> @Ware I ended up taking my lights with me to the new house. But I'm still looking at another $1,000 from Volt to light up everything I'd like.


Oh, man. Such a cliffhanger.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Lust4Lawn said:


> Harts said:
> 
> 
> > Nice work, You did a fantastic job.
> ...


That's a Fall project. Maybe. Maybe Spring 2022. We'll see!


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