Outdoor lighting, your fawts pleeze?

Another here al n
http://www.onlinelighting.co.uk/shop/garden-lights.html

 

Tha

Thanks mate! That's fab too!

 

Brilliant tip, thanks mate!

 

Aln , I would fit a twilight photocell . I use the Steinel Nightmatic 2000 , easy to fit very reliable and effective . The 3000 also switches the lights off and takes account of the seasons but is a lot of faff really as we can switch the fountain and lights off from inside the house
http://www.lightupuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=458_460&products_id=1772

 

Hi al, why not take a trip to B&Q? They do a range of low voltage outdoor lighting called link lighting i think. You choose how many lights you want, add up the wattage, choose a transformer with higher wattage than the lights, (allowing for some additions later on), buy the length of cable to run round, buy the lights and Bob's yer uncle. I have a system in my garden which i've had for about 5 years now and it hasn't let me down. I started off with 2 sets of low voltage Fernando lights which were 20w each but i bought 10w bulbs for them instead, (80w total), then i added some Blue LED marker posts each side of the patio doors, (about 1w each), then a colour changing LED pond light (again about 1w), then i added some Blue LED lights to light up the clock on the shed, all within a 150w transformer. I was also fortunate to have bought at the time, a PIR timer unit so i can set it all to come on only when the PIR is crossed, or for 3 hours after dark, 6 hours or all night. Unfortunately the PIR / timer unit is no longer available. Each light is fixed into the cable with little connector boxes with pins in them which pierce the cable and you can move around and swap as required. Nice little system. My parents and brother were so impressed during a summer BBQ a few years ago that they decided to buy similar set ups for their gardens too. I'll take some pics and post them up tomorrow.

 

fab guys, ill take a look at all suggestions! oooh, another project to sink my teef into :-)

 

For low voltage power supply, I have a plan for when my pond is built which would also work for lighting.

My plan is to take an old car battery (got one) - about 60Ah when good, but probably 30Ah now. Lets say I want 20 watts at peak demand. 20W / 12V = 1.7A. 30 / 1.7 = about 17 hours of supply.

With a small amount of electronics (a voltage regulator, or even a very low resistance power resistor, say 10 ohms but I'd have to do the sums to be sure), it would be safe to connect a cheap battery charger on trickle charge mode to top up the car battery over night or at some other suitable time.

The advantage of this plan is that the mains supply can be completely isolated when you're not comfortable about it being on. I personally would be reluctant to have a mains thing plugged in all the time, just because transformers are invariably bulky and prone to getting hot, so with my plan, most of the time the mains wouldn't even come into it at all, and only when the battery charge was getting low then I could charge it up while I'm about.

 

Would it be better to lay conduit instead? Someone coming across blue MDPE in the future may think it is water, rather than electricity?

 

Bit of an update on this, photees are not the best, low light and iPad but you'll get the gist I hope.
So far, fitted some more LEDs on the decking that are daisy chained of the existing and controlled by a normal switch behind the telly. With the LEDs on top of the water feature, they tie in quite well.
Also, bought some cheapo solar lights with 3 bright white LEDs in them and they are surprisingly ok, they light up the palms and tree fern quite well.

After looking almost every night on line I'm still undecided what to go for, but LEDs are a given.
I've put some pics on ( naturally!!) to show you so far, so feedback would be great fully received. I want to stick with the white and blue as against the cream of the house, it looks rather nice, and the white breaks it up so its not too much in your face!

 

Al n,
I think I'd be able to appreciate the effect more if it was a night time photo shoot TBH,
Jenny