# 2019 Outdoor Lighting Project



## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

@@Ware @@EvanK @@Harts

Hi guys deep breath here we go. Be gentle. Want to do this in baby steps both due to my lack of knowledge and budgeting as well. Sorry about the crappy weather /pics and tacky patio decor lol.

Would love any ideas and look forward to this project. Ps, I love uplighting


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Nice property. You have a lot of space. I'll give it some more thought - at gymnastics with my daughter right now.

At first glance, I'd start looking at Spot lights for the trees and path lights for that garden bed.

I'll give it some more thought when I have some time this weekend.

Do a search for ware's lighting project. He has links to information on the volt website. The bed thing to do is to learn about the different products, voltage drop and the different wiring methods to eliminate voltage drop.


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## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

My wife made a good point. Over the next couple years we want to expand out the patio. You can see everything is so cramped in there especially when we have so much more room to play with. I'm sure there still are some things I could do. Especially on things that I know for sure wont change like the house side and the fence as well.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

I would focus on the garden bed (in the 2nd pic). You could probably do 4-5 path lights. These cast a light in a 16ft diamater, so you could space these out approx. 16ft apart.

Then I would look at their spot lights for the trees. This is the one I used, but there are different options. Basically they carry two different types: lights that have the bulb integrated into the housing and lights where you order the bulb separately and place it in yourself. The Fat Boy falls into the latter category. The nice thing is you can choose your color temperature, beam angle and wattage. For reference I chose 2700K for the temperature of white, 3 watts and both 38 and 60 degree beam angles depending on what I was lighting.

It's hard to tell how big that garden bed is, but I'm guessing that you would need two Pro Macro-Junction Direct Burial Connectors, depending on the number of lights you get. This will allow you to run one (1) main line from your transformer out to the garden and have all of the lights run off of it. Using these connectors will help eliminate any significant voltage drop from one light to the next. Ware does a great job explaining this in his thread.

This is where I would start, given you may end up extending your patio at some point.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.


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## EvanK (Aug 8, 2018)

Hey @MichiganGreen ,

I actually just discovered that this was a separate thread from the other initial convo.. It has certainly been a busy week getting back to work after traveling for the GIE Expo!

As you mentioned that you like up-lighting, I would agree with @Harts to target some of those large, beautiful trees in the back. Perhaps even some smaller spotlights on the smaller sized trees around the grill area.

Path/area lights or even some of our tiki torches placed along the length of the pavers would provide excellent color and warmth to the seating area and the side entrance in the distance.

Deck/sconce lights could also be installed on the side gate/fences in a similar fashion as the projects seen on TLF.


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## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

EvanK said:


> Hey @MichiganGreen ,
> 
> I actually just discovered that this was a separate thread from the other initial convo.. It has certainly been a busy week getting back to work after traveling for the GIE Expo!
> 
> ...


Let it be done! *poof*.

Ugh all sounds amazing - I need to do it in babysteps though - financially and just due to lack of time. Also because we plan on expanding the patio out in the yard over the new few years I don't want to do anything on the outside of the patio really. Just expanding on the side that currently has the furniture. The part that is just path, is staying as a path. That goes around the side of the house to the driveway. Can you speak more to the trees in the back, and how it would look if I uplit a tree like the magnolia for example, next to the grill? That wouldnt look dumb? The lower half of the magnolia isn't much to look at really - but I suppose that doesn't matter so much - it's more just the effect of the light that warms it all up. Powering it all is what really scares me and has me not even knowing where to begin.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

MichiganGreen said:


> ...Powering it all is what really scares me and has me not even knowing where to begin.


Have you watched any of the Volt University videos?


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## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

Ware said:


> MichiganGreen said:
> 
> 
> > ...Powering it all is what really scares me and has me not even knowing where to begin.
> ...


No I haven't watched this - this does look pretty straight forward, this bit here. Learning how to get multiple lights out will probably require a lot of pre-planning though because it's not really something you can go back and change up as you only have limited terminals it looks like. I might want to do as much as possible on the same couple lines to allow for things I want to add in the future, if I am following. My one question on this though is how to feed electric to the transformer itself - is that as simple as running power through an extension cord from an external outlet into this box?


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

MichiganGreen said:


> My one question on this though is how to feed electric to the transformer itself - is that as simple as running power through an extension cord from an external outlet into this box?


Yes, the transformer has a 60" cord with a regular household plug on it. You just mount it near and plug it into an existing outdoor receptacle. You'll want to make sure it is protected from the weather with something like this.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Wiring the transformer and the lights is the easy part. Planning you hubs and how many lines run to each hub takes some planning. Take a look at @Ware's thread. He posted his drawings showing his main lines and how many lines connect at each hub. Took me a while to figure it out, but once I did, it seems very simple.

I think ware got the 300 watt transformer. I got the 150 watt. It all depends on how many lights you use. If you plan to add on in the future, the 300 watt will probably work well for you.

You have 4 terminals to connect to, which means 4 main lines running from the transformer. However, you can have multiple hubs running off 1 main line. I have 3 hubs in my back garden running off one main line. I have 13 lights in total running off that one line. That left me with 3 empty terminals inside my transformer. I used a second terminal and ran another main line to my deck lights on the fence. As of now, I have two more terminals I can use in the future.

I'll try to dig up my drawing showing how my lines run and post it.

It's all clear as mud.


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## MichiganGreen (Aug 7, 2018)

Harts said:


> Wiring the transformer and the lights is the easy part. Planning you hubs and how many lines run to each hub takes some planning. Take a look at @Ware's thread. He posted his drawings showing his main lines and how many lines connect at each hub. Took me a while to figure it out, but once I did, it seems very simple.
> 
> I think ware got the 300 watt transformer. I got the 150 watt. It all depends on how many lights you use. If you plan to add on in the future, the 300 watt will probably work well for you.
> 
> ...


haha. Yes, at this point mud sounds fairly accurate. Good news is I do have winter ahead of me for planning


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## EvanK (Aug 8, 2018)

@MichiganGreen

Elements of the designs will appeal to different people differently; what I think looks good, someone else may think it does not look good. At the end of the day, it is your yard! 

The MOST difficult part of the project should be the planning stage. Our products are extremely DIY friendly and investing more time in this area will make the installation that much easier.

I would highly recommend browsing through the Resource Center online and our YouTube channel. The articles and videos can help with planning and installation.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

EvanK said:


> The MOST difficult part of the project should be the planning stage.


Huge +1. I would say my project was 80% planning, 20% execution. :thumbup:


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## diy_darryl (May 15, 2018)

Getting ready to order some Volt lighting myself. 
Is there any guidance on bulb wattage for different applications?
Right now will be downlighting retaining walls under cap stones, flush mount step lights, path lights, up lighting walls between windows, up lighting really large 100 year old Maple tree and up/down sconce lighting on 6x6 Cedar Porch posts. 
Yard is mud right now due to major diy project so other features will be lit later as we do more.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

I used 3 watts with every light. The sconce lights are integrated LEDs. I'm not sure what the wattage is off hand.

I used the same throughout simply because all of my lights are in the same place. If I was doing different areas: front, back, side, I may have used brighter bulbs depending on the application in certain spots. But because my lights are all visible in the backyard, I wanted a consistent light.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

diy_darryl said:


> Getting ready to order some Volt lighting myself.
> Is there any guidance on bulb wattage for different applications?
> Right now will be downlighting retaining walls under cap stones, flush mount step lights, path lights, up lighting walls between windows, up lighting really large 100 year old Maple tree and up/down sconce lighting on 6x6 Cedar Porch posts.
> Yard is mud right now due to major diy project so other features will be lit later as we do more.


I also used mostly 3W. Volt offers some advice in some of their product descriptions - the Infiniti Integrated LED spotlights for example:



> With a fixture light output of 350 lumens, this is the smallest of the three G4 Infiniti™ spotlights - perfect for small to medium trees and other uplighting applications where low to moderate light output is needed.





> With a fixture light output of 500 lumens, this is the mid-sized of the three G4 Infiniti™ spotlights - ideal for medium to large trees and other uplighting applications where moderate to high light output is needed.





> With a fixture light output of 650 lumens, this is the brightest of the three Infiniti™ spotlights. Perfect for lighting large trees and other uplighting applications where a very high light output is needed. Perfect for uplighting expansive tree canopies.


I used that as sort of a guide.


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## Fishnugget (Sep 29, 2017)

Nice to see the Volt Reps on this forum. Its a win-win for everybody. :thumbup:


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