Hey everyone, we are looking for a lighting refresh on our house and have decided on Volt/Amp. We have had several companies give use quotes but they are giving very different lighting options and the price is insane. 1 - Attached is a site plan of what we are thinking for lights but is it too many, too little, or totally wrong? In the rear we are trying to light up the privacy trees and possibly the trees above them in the woods. The box is where the power supply could go. The x are for lights. The circles are for for path lights. For reference the house is about 75 ft long and 60ft deep. 2 - We are really struggling on which fixtures and which bulbs to use, any advice would be appreciated. 3 - We would like to be able to add lights in the future, would we be better off with a single transformer on the right side or two? The boxes are the transformer locations. 4 - Either way, what size transformer? 5 - Wiring... What gauge and would it be best to have one continuous wire with each connected or do it some other way? For reference the house is about 75 ft long and 60ft deep. 6 - Is there actually any difference between Volt and Amp? Here is a link with diagrams/photos https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zxhR_DV3QDfGPMwwBMhdko8WtTVjJfbL?usp=drive_link
I’m a fellow DIYer but I’ll try to tackle some of your questions. First, AMP is for professional landscape lighting installers and VOLT is more consumer oriented. I believe the products are the same but just under different name badges. If you wanted to hire a contractor to install your lighting, that contractor would probably purchase AMP labeled products on your behalf. As far as fixture numbers, there is no one single best approach to creating a landscape lighting plan. It’s really a subjective thing. As you can see in the examples I’ve posted, some people choose to accent a tree so that it’s partially illuminated from the front. Others may choose to flank a tree with spotlights. And others might choose to light a tree in a more three dimensional way so that it can be viewed from multiple sides. Depending on how much light you want to introduce to a given area of your property, you could go with lamp fixtures in the 1W to 3W range for very subtle lighting or if you wanted to make a bolder statement, you might choose to go with lamps upwards of 3W. A good landscape lighting specialist can help you zero in on the statement you want to make with your lighting or they can recommend lighting levels if you have a specific goal like security in mind. If you don’t have to worry about foot traffic or lawn equipment, I personally would choose spotlight or floodlight fixtures over well lights. When you want a great deal of control over your lighting output and the ability to easily focus light where you want it to go, spotlights and floodlights are easier to work with. It’s also easier to change bulbs and do maintenance on fixtures that are above ground. You have a large property and it sounds like you’re enthusiastic about creating a lighting plan and possibly adding more lights over time. If that’s the case, I definitely recommend that you have at least two transformers. With multiple transformers, you can create zones for different areas of your property. We have a transformer that controls our path lighting and landscape lighting fixtures and a second transformer that controls the lighting for the facade of the house. The path lights are on from dusk to dawn and the house lights are on usually for 4-5 hours (so we can have the house nice and dark for sleeping). Multiple transformers are a great idea when you have multiple outdoor “rooms” or areas of entertainment. HTH to get you started.
Thanks for the great feedback. 1) Do you think the lights I have placed in general seem reasonable or far too few or too many? 2) That makes sense on the spot and floods over well lights. Do you have any recommendations for which ones where? I assume I would want the floods on the privacy trees and the spotlights on the house but I have no idea really. I think less is more on the lighting and defiantly like the lighting in the 3rd photo the best. 3) On the transformer, do you think 2 300watt transformers would be enough or is that overkill? Also any recommendation on the wire gauge?
I'm not a topic starter but your reply was very helpful for me as well. thanks a lot for your experience.
If your goal is to illuminate all of the shrubbery in those areas, I think you have about the right number of fixtures. BUT…this is where having a talented landscape lighting consultant or specialist might be able to provide you more meaningful feedback than I could from just looking at your photos. If I were advising you, I’d want to walk the property with to discuss your budget, what your goals are, what you do and don’t want, what’s realistic or probably not a good idea, etc. For instance, your path lights. I could also look at how tall various trees and shrubs are to determine which fixtures would work best or which ones wouldn’t work at all. On your drawing, looks like you’ve got eight of them near the steps. But if you use path lights with the widest beam spread, you could possibly light the steps with just a few and use additional path lights elsewhere. Another way you could illuminate your steps is by either using more fixtures or slightly brighter lamps than you use elsewhere in your lighting plan to illuminate the group of trees/shrubs marked in purple below. In fact, I encourage you to vary your fixture brightness for different areas you’re lighting for both practical reasons like the one I just mentioned but also to add depth and complexity to your overall plan. In the lower left corner of the bottom photo, I show you how you can choose path lights of differing beam spreads to highlight as much or as little of your path and nearby plants as you want. It sounds like you’re planning to uplight or front light (possibly with flood lights) many of the shrubs around the foundation of your home. For some variety, maybe you could illuminate that wall behind the group of shrubs near the greenhouse (see photo) or illuminate the wooden siding behind the plants in that narrow island bordering your walk way. Btw, if you are planning to illuminate your house as well, that is another variable that might influence the approach your lighting planner uses for lighting those different areas of trees and shrubs. For your spot light fixtures for the taller trees and shrubs, I would recommend the Top Dog Scotty full size fixture. IMO, it’s the most versatile and the most customizable. In certain circumstances, depending on your lamp beam spreads and how you adjust the fixture, you could even use the Top Dog Scotty in place of a flood light. For your flood light, I would go with the Gentle Splash. It’s just an all around great flood light fixture that can be used in a variety of situations. Unless you’re planning for dozens and dozens of fixtures, or for very long runs (like over 150 feet), I think a couple of the 300W fixtures should be enough for what you’re planning and still offer sufficient capacity should you later add more lights. If you’re like me and you want to be able to choose from different timer, photocell, and wiring options, I would go for the chunkier models over the Slim Line models. The slim lines are great but the thicker bodied transformers will allow you to use an astronomical timer and they’re also more smart plug friendly, IMO. For your wiring, 12 or 10 gauge should be more than adequate for your needs. Having said all of that, I’m just one person. Others may have different opinions and recommendations. What I can tell you is that the folks at VOLT customer service are always great. They will make great recommendations and they’ll be honest about what you need based on your budget. HTH
