I had some masonry work done to the front of the house, wiping out landscape, I pulled out my Home Depot low voltage lighting as I spent more time repairing than they were on. As a start I am looking to install 7 ea. Top Dog brass spotlights across the front for wall grazing all 3 watt, 2700k, on the left 1 ea, On the outside of each window at 15 deg beam angle, and 1ea between the windows at a 38 deg beam angle. The center section 1 ea 15 deg beam angle on either side of windows. Right section 1 ea 15 degree beam angle on either side of window. Am I on the right track? thank you Eric
Hi, Eric. I diagrammed your photo to show what my approach might be. For that broad section of between the two windows on the left side of your house, I think the 38° might work just fine but you may find that you need something between a 38° and a 60°. Key is as follows: blue=15°, yellow=38°, orange=60°. I'm sure there's a logical reason there's no 15° option for 2W MR16 bulbs but I don't know what it is. The reason I mention that is because I think it's possible with your lighter colored brick and stone, you might find that the 3W lamps are a tad bright. Or not. Really an individual preference. Just bear in mind that you can always dial back the brightness level with frosted lenses or diffuser filters. Btw, a bright side to re-doing your landscaping is that you can configure your beds in a way that allows you to either wash or graze your walls. For my own install, I had to relocate some shrubbery that was preventing me from effectively aiming and positioning some of my fixtures. HTH
Mesodude thank you very much, you set me on the right track, I’m am simply going to determine the path of the angle based on the height of the top of window and outside wall, adjacent window, or inside wall. Two quick questions, if I require 15 degree, and I like the softer light do I get 3 watt for all and filter all to produce uniform brightness? It looks like you illustrated one of the 15 deg likes in the gutter, is their a bracket or bridge that allows for? Thank you again Eric.
Hey, Eric. Glad to be of help. Some of us DIYers are more exacting than others when it comes to lighting uniformity. In my own plan, I’ve tried to be consistent but I know the pros have techniques for creating more precise uniformity. For instance, you asked about mounting that upper level fixture. You could do that a couple ways. First, you could mount it directly to the wall with a bracket and be done with it. Or, because all your other lights will be at least a foot from the wall, use an extension—which will enable you to more precisely match the lighting effect of the other fixtures. I’ve attached a photo from VOLT’s project gallery to illustrate what I’m talking about. The yellow arrows highlight the effect you can expect to see on your upper wall mounted fixture (without an extension) vs what you’d see on your ground staked fixtures. Because those upper fixtures are grazing the walls, they look a little “hotter” and they show more surface texture than the ground level fixtures (which are washing the walls). The red arrows are highlighting another difference that you are likely to see based on the difference in proximity to the wall. I actually think all these uplights might be the same beam spread (38 degree is my guess). What I think is happening is the wall distance difference is creating a different effect between upper and lower fixtures. The upper fixtures are creating more of a spotlight effect while the lower fixtures are closer to floodlights. So that was a long-winded way of saying you may or may not want to use the extension. I’ve added a frosted lens to all my house fixtures. I think it softens the light effect on our brick walls by creating a smoother light range falloff. I didn’t add these to my landscape lighting because I want to show off the natural textures of shrubs and trees. Finally you didn’t ask about this but if you aren’t in love with those wall sconces, I highly recommend you replacing them with a pair of up/down fixtures to better highlight the entryway column stonework.
Meso I love my gaslights, I refinished recently (all copper), How much angle does does the hood Focus? I think I can get by with all 38 deg. If I have a little wiggle room
Without knowing your standards, I can’t say with certainty that you’ll be able to make a 38 degree work in all those places by adjusting the shroud alone. But as I mentioned earlier, VOLT sells a variety of lenses and filters that will allow you to fine tune light output. Not all fixtures accept every type of lens or filter so that’s something to bear in mind. By all means keep your favorite wall fixtures. I’ve seen lighting plans that, IMHO, are spoiled in one way or another by the homeowner’s other outdoor lighting. I’m talking about exposed bulbs or too bright bulbs or extremely cool or warm light color temps that don’t match the characteristics of the landscape lighting. It’s in that spirit, I’ll sometimes suggest that people change or tweak lighting. I think you’ll also find the following link useful: https://www.voltlighting.com/learn/about-landscape-lighting-bulbs
I received my components had to order four more bulbs as I left them off the order. My thoughts are to run three separate zones using the 8 terminal hubs, one for the front of the house (the wall with 3 window powering 3 spots)). One at the left side of the arch/ column powering two spots, One to the right Of the arch/column powering two spots. the bulbs I have are all 2 Watt. I thought 3 lines from transformer, each Powering a hub, should these lines be 10/2 or will 12/2 suffice? The transformer has a 5 connection 12 volt block and a 5 connection 15 volt block. Furthest leg will be around 60 ‘. I used the hubs as I plan on adding path lighting in the beds. Thank you for your assistance
Installed the wall grazing spots, 2 watt, 2700k, all 38 deg except for 2nd light from left it’s 60 deg. The iPhone is auto adjusting the photo, actually not as white. I think I’m going to swap out for 3 watt.
Looking great, so far. It looks like the beam spreads fit just fine. I can see that the horizontal brick detail on the right is preventing some light from reach higher up. Your solution might address that.
Yes and no. You can stake the fixture further enough away from the wall to aim it at an angle that makes that shadowing less pronounced but once you’ve significantly exceeded about a foot from the wall, you’re officially in wall washing territory. You might still be able to “graze” the more pronounced brick work but you’ll likely lose the definition in the less pronounced brick work. A skilled lighting designer (which I’m not) could probably find an approach that enabled you to reduce the height of that shadowing and still keep grazing the facade overall (assuming that’s your goal) but it’d probably require using more fixtures and some careful lumens calculation.
