Who knows Landscape Lighting?

[porsche4life]

We are in the finishing stages of a major overhaul of our backyard, and I’m curious where you guys would place some lights based on the pictures below. In the past I just had overhead patio lights strung across the yard, which will be getting put back up, but will all the new plants I’m thinking I should put some small uplighting to highlight some of it better. I’d also like to use RGB LEDs if possible to allow us to play with the colors based on season, etc.

The other thing I’m thinking is to run a strip of LEDs around the circular area to the left of the drawing. That is a raised (6”) deck area and I’m thinking the light will accent it nicely as well as prevent trip hazards when my neighbor and I are a bit too deep into the bottom of the Jameson bottle...


Attached is the drawing from our contractor, and I’ve added yellow dots where I’m thinking of adding lights.

This is the lights I’m thinking, but open to suggestions.

RGB LED Landscape Light | Armacost Lighting


Ideally I want something that doesn’t require a fancy control setup. I don’t need to do coordinated light shows, just want to be able to change the color to fit the season.

[porsche4life]

And yes our contractor could have done it, but I’m a cheapass and nixed their absurd lighting plan before we got to the stage of them telling me where they’d put the lights. 🤣🤣

[Eric Coffey]

Looks pretty good from here, Sid. One thing to keep in mind is the "directional" aspect of up-lights. IOW they look great when illuminating something on-axis, but can be annoying once you are off-axis. No biggie, just might take some trial/error with the positioning/angle/shrouding, etc.

To help in the cheapass department, you might go the AliExpress route to save a few bucks.
I would bet they have the RGB stuff with all the bells/whistles (IP-rated, name-brand emitters, phone app controllers, etc.) for way cheaper than $32/per.

Oh and yea, LED rope-lights/strips are the shizz.
Again, they can/will be annoying in direct line-of-sight applications, but are great for the undersides of step/stair tread overhangs, cabinets, floating vanities, kick-trim lighting, etc.

Have fun...

[porsche4life]

Ya I’ve got a nice led light string setup under our entertainment center and behind the Tv already with iPhone/Alexa control. Would be cool too have the same in the back yard.. I’m going to poke around on aliexpress more. All the stuff on amazon would require and individual remote for each light, and I ain’t playing that game!

[look 171]

Spot light shooting up into the tall trees. Using the same type of spot lights, angle a few into the shorter shrubs. Only a few because most people get carry away and think they must have the same amount of light throughout which leads to having the feeling of landing lights on a runway. I suggest using the lower watts lights. Path lights that cast a soft shadow two feet off the ground on the walls to help with dark spots. Again, those should be very dim lights, just enough to ass accents and enough to see without tripping over items on the pathway. Space then about 8-10' apart. Don't put the pathway lights behind where the spot light is shine up a tree because all the light reflecting off the tree is enough. Again, do not overkill with too much lighting. Path lights installed on the outside of the poles holding up the patio to fill in that dark spot in front of the patio.

[look 171]

Sid,

Spot light. I like these because they almost disappear into the back ground
https://www.voltlighting.com/landscape-lighting-spotlight-all-star-brass/p/VAL-2000-BB

Pathway lights (its what I call them) Very easy to install. check to see if they have dark or green ones so it blends

https://www.voltlighting.com/landscape-lighting-12v-deck-light-bz/p/VDL-600-BBZ

I buy from them often and they make a commercial quality lights at a fraction of what a national brand landscaping commercial lights cost. I don't often get into landscaping, but when there lighting involved, I step up to the plate and help out (fun for me)unless the designers spec out lighting then I back off.

[Baz]

Yo Sid....in looking at your landscape plan, a few notes:
1. 'Hong Kong Orchid Trees' are deciduous and drop leaves - thus will be messy. They can also reach heights of over 20' so that's a lot of leaves. Plus remember there's no shade in the cool season if there's no foliage.
2. That 'Mexican Fan Palm' will grow like a little bean sprout and eventually get very tall. They send out flower and fruit stalks annually which are messy unless trimmed off. Hard to do when they are super tall. Plus they have nasty teeth along the fronds. And more importantly - what purpose does a single unit serve from a design perspective, unless it's to balance out the one labeled 'existing palm tree' on your plan, which I'm assuming is another of the same (?)
3. 'Queen Palm' isn't as bad as the 'Mex. Fan Palm' but am also wondering why there's only one of them.
4. in general, Ruella are invasive and spread. I think the variety in your specs though isn't as bad.

Wondering why you don't have more tropical foliage plants there like Hawaiian Ti Plant, Xanadu Philodendron, Alocasia, or Trinette Schefflera - all of which would look killer behind your pool and elsewhere.

Some small areas for seasonal color/annuals would also be nice to have if inserted correctly into the big stuff.

As to the lighting, Jeff is onto something using a company such as Volt. One thing you want is a transformer with a built in photoelectric eye and a switch/knob to set how many hours you want your lights to stay on after they come on. LED's draw very small voltage so you could probably get by with a 150W unit. You can daisy chain your fixtures. Use a heavy gauge cable like 12 if possible, but in some cases 14 will work. 12 is more commonly found at supply houses though and sometimes even less money because it's so popular with contractors, so that's what I would use.
Get fixtures with replaceable LED bulbs, so you can swap them out either to change a white to an RGB or to replace one that's burned out.
The two basic lights you will use are spots and paths. The spots shoot up and the paths bath light down. The paths are used mostly as you state to provide safety footing with human traffic but they also balance the lighting against your spots.
There's also another fixture called a well light that uses a PAR 36 bulb that I use for spreading type plants, such as your Pygmy Date Palms.
Most spots use a bulb called a MR16 and the paths use a bi-pin type bulb.
Then there are the deck lights, such as in Jeff's second link and they use an even different bulb, depending on the manufacturer.

Using the Volt supplier here's a few examples of what you could use:

1. Spot - $24/ea. - get the 4' lead model, and use a 20W MR16 bulb
2. Path - $30/ea. and use 20W bulbs
3. Well - $26/ea. and use a 36W bulb
4. Deck - $30/ea. - these use a bi-pin bulb - 10 or 20W
5. Cable - $93 for a 250' spool of 12/2 cable - you may need more - this stuff is heavy so compare local suppliers vs. having it shipped
6.Transformer - $130. for the 150W unit but for another $20 you can get the 300W unit. Looks like you have to purchase the timer and photocell separately though for another $25.

As for fixture locations - spots shine up into your trees, well for Pygmy Date Palms, path lights situated in between spots to give balance, and deck lights along edge of decks, if desired.

I've not used the deck lights that much myself - mostly the spots, paths, and wells. Mostly the deck lights come in handy when you want to light up steps....but a well placed path light can also help with that application sometimes. Every situation is different.

Sorry if I spoke out too much on your landscaping. I know your climate is different there so I may not have given you the best advice so take with a grain of salt and if desired do a Google search or ask your designer, etc.

[Baz]

Hey Sid...here's another thread we had a couple years back with some informative posts. I mention the RGB bulbs and another supplier too worth looking into:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/857037-landscape-lighting-led-electrical-theory-questions.html

[craigster59]

I bought some lights from Volt Lighting on Jeff's recommendation and they work great and are very well built.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by craigster59

I bought some lights from Volt Lighting on Jeff's recommendation and they work great and are very well built.

Bought Volt as well. Happy. Installed a 250 ft wire run with about 14 lights. Beef up your wire gauge for long runs and spends some money on really good piercing type connectors too. Ones that don't require you to physically cut and splice the power wire for every light connection.

[Baz]

I forgot to mention a couple things regarding your LED bulbs.

When I specified 20W, that was my suggested illumination equivalent to what the bulb would be if it were a standard halogen. With the LED bulb you'd only be expending about 3W.

Thus my suggestion to go with only a 150W transformer. Doing the math, this size transformer would power in the neighborhood of 30-40 light fixtures, taking into account your voltage drop as your fixtures move further away from the transformer on the daisy chain.

Speaking of LED bulbs....Volt now has lifetime warranties on their bulbs.

For example:
MR16 $14. (for spots)
BiPin $15. (for paths)
Par 36 $41.

The above bulbs I linked are "warm white" and if you wanted to use some RGB as you indicated Amazon has those for $8 ea. in the MR 16 for your spots.

TDW in his post above mentions piecing connectors but I always use wire nuts loaded with di-electric grease. You can buy the wire nuts already filled but I fill them myself as needed. Just make sure you buy large enough wire nuts to accommodate the multiple wires you will be splicing together.

[Baz]

Back to the landscaping, Sid......what about Orange Bird of Paradise? I always try to include at least one of those when I do pool landscapes.....



Put a few up by your house where you can see the flowers from your window(s) as you look out, maybe.....

[id10t]

This. I've always enjoyed the look of a light shining up into a nice tree.

Originally Posted by look 171

Spot light shooting up into the tall trees. Using the same type of spot lights, angle a few into the shorter shrubs. Only a few because most people get carry away and think they must have the same amount of light throughout which leads to having the feeling of landing lights on a runway. I suggest using the lower watts lights. Path lights that cast a soft shadow two feet off the ground on the walls to help with dark spots. Again, those should be very dim lights, just enough to ass accents and enough to see without tripping over items on the pathway. Space then about 8-10' apart. Don't put the pathway lights behind where the spot light is shine up a tree because all the light reflecting off the tree is enough. Again, do not overkill with too much lighting. Path lights installed on the outside of the poles holding up the patio to fill in that dark spot in front of the patio.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by id10t

This. I've always enjoyed the look of a light shining up into a nice tree.

The trick is hid the light somehow so its hidden or it blends into the yard. Sometime it isn't possible but I always try. The type and intensity of the light is also important. I always lean toward spot lights only because you can control the amount of light spill over onto places you may not want to have any light or minimal amount.

[porsche4life]

Bad, no worries on the landscape. Ya we discussed the mess of the orchids, but they will be better than what we pulled out( Im not allergic to these). We have a landscaper that comes regularly, so the mess will be dealt with. And ya on the palms, The existing palm is an almost 20yr old fan palm and is huge so they are trying to balance that out, and our neighbor has a few queen palms too, they are all in now and it looks good, I just haven’t been home when it’s light and they aren’t working to get pics.

We had pretty lengthy discussions about plants and they say everything that they specced will provide the color we are looking for, and will hold up to the long hot summers here in Az that will melt most plants. I love the birds of paradise, but they just don’t do well here.


Thanks for the lighting suggestions so far guys, I’m going to look through them all no and come up with a plan.

[HardDrive]

Don't discount solar. Solar used to be so lame. I bought some a couple years ago, and have been pleasantly surprised by the longevity and output from modern solar.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Don't discount solar. Solar used to be so lame. I bought some a couple years ago, and have been pleasantly surprised by the longevity and output from modern solar.

Solar has it's uses for sure.

I'm not wired that way though.....lol...get it?

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Don't discount solar. Solar used to be so lame. I bought some a couple years ago, and have been pleasantly surprised by the longevity and output from modern solar.

Solar could be cool, but I can get RGB solar that I can together on a controller and do cool color effects.

[rfloz]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Don't discount solar. Solar used to be so lame. I bought some a couple years ago, and have been pleasantly surprised by the longevity and output from modern solar.

Any recommended brands?

The no-name ones I have had forever go dark by 8:00 p.m.

[mthomas58]

We recently had a volt system installed. Very happy with it!