Lighting is an essential element that is equally important for both interior and exterior spaces. Lighting can make or break a space and in and getting it right is crucial for creating a sense of comfort, safety and well-being, especially in an outdoor setting.

Installing permanent lighting in your garden will not only help create a wonderful ambiance, it will make entertaining all that bit easier and enjoyable if you take the time to light paths and steps for clear way-finding.

Garden lighting has come a long way over the years in terms of design and technology. Today there’s almost as many options for outdoor lighting as there is for indoors and the mood or look that can be achieved is every bit as impressive.

So, what do you need to know before getting garden lighting installed at your home?

To provide you with the best advice and technical information, we sought the advice of Jill from Creative Lighting; a company that specializes in lighting design for homes and gardens.

This comprehensive outdoor lighting guide will take you through the following wealth of information.

• Advantages of Outdoor Lighting
• Tips for Choosing Garden Lights
• Types of Garden Lights
• Best Outdoor Lighting Brands
• How to Plan a Garden Lighting Scheme

Advantages of Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor lighting can help detract from those problem areas by highlighting what’s working, and leading the eye away from what isn’t. For instance, do you have water featured installed? Perhaps there’s an old tree with beautiful twisting branches? See the strengths in your garden and use outdoor lighting too literally and figuratively up light these. Feature lighting is really big right now and only limited by one’s creativity; don’t be afraid to be bold!

Tips for Choosing Garden Lights

It’s a cliché, but less is more. Go for higher quality products and just purchase fewer units. Cheaper items on the market can give a scrambled look. Outdoor lighting is the sort of thing you want to do once, do it properly, and then not have to think about it again. With quality products come quality warranties, guarantees and solutions.

Cheaper products might not have all the joins properly connected, and they might not have been properly heat shrunk and sealed. This could lead to moisture entering the light and causing it to blow, which brings you back to where you started in the first place.

Unlike lighting in your home, what you place outdoors has to endure everything Mother Nature throws at it – from harsh heat to freezing winters, not to mention wind, rain and hail! It pays to invest in quality products.

Types of Garden Lights

Like all lighting there are lots of different styles of garden lights, but there are three key types that will help you create effective garden lighting.

Garden spots – these are perfect for up lighting trees and bushes. They come in a range of size/brightness depending on the height of the plant you want to light up.

Step/Stair Lights – these are designed to throw enough light to illuminate each step.

Pond Lights – if you've got a water feature in your garden like a pond or fountain, this is a great way to make it a focal point for both day and night.

LED Vs. Halogen

Garden lights are available in either Halogen or LED. Halogen lights will generally draw more power than LEDs which are more energy efficient. With LED globes, the brighter they are the bigger the size of the actual globe. So always double check that the fitting that you have chosen works with the brightness (and therefore size) of LED globe that you need in that area.

Halogen garden lights can suffer from voltage drop. What’s voltage drop? Simply it’s when the light that is furthest away from the transformer doesn't burn as brightly as the one closest to it. The problem is made worse when there are a lot of lights on the system, or the system runs over a particularly long distance.

Making sure you use the right cable and transformer will overcome this. Refer to our How to Choose the Correct Cabling table later in this article to help choose the right cable and refer to the How to Plan a Garden Lighting Scheme in the section below. LED systems have a much lower power draw so voltage drop is not generally a problem.

Furthermore, when choosing your lights, look for good quality materials and products with certified IP ratings. This will tell you how resistant to water and dust they are so that your garden lighting can survive the elements for years.

Best Outdoor Lighting Brands

Hunza from New Zealand is a really reputable brand, as are the subsidiaries that belong to them such as Luxor. Havit, Mercator and Oriel also have excellent names in the industry.

Click here to learn more about the Best Lighting Bands.

Key Things to Consider when Lighting a Garden

Before going any further, Jill says there are three key things that you need to know about garden lighting:

12 Volt vs. 240 volt

If you are planning on making this a DIY project then you’ll need to ensure you use 12 Volt lighting, otherwise you will need to employee the services of a qualified electrician.

12V lighting uses transformers to step power down from the 240V electricity supplied to your home, to a safe 12V.

Most outdoor lights are 12 volt, so that such danger is avoided. If you’re working with 12 volt lights then you can keep cords above ground (perhaps just hide them by running them along the fence, or placing some tan bark over them).

If you’re working with 240 volt lights then these need to go underground (600mm deep trenches) and installed by an electrician. Whatever the volt, just make sure the product is weather proof (IP 65 is weather proof and IP 68 is able to be submersed and buried).

Transformers

Halogen and LED lights require different types of transformers and the number and size of the lights you choose will determine the size of the transformer you’ll require.

Wiring

Then there is the wiring. All the lights will need to be connected back to the transformer(s). But there are different wire thicknesses depending on the distance and the number of watts required.

How to Plan a Garden Lighting Scheme

• Draw up a rough plan of your garden.
• Mark in any trees or bushes that would look great up lit at night, any paths that need marking or stairs that are poorly lit, plus any power points already wired in the garden.
• Think about lighting plants or a group of plants that will draw your eye at night – this creates interest and a sense of depth in your garden.
• Mark in where you are going to lay the wiring to connect each of the lights back to the transformer. The transformer is best installed close to one of the power points.
• At this stage it's also good to think about how many watts, or how bright each of the lights in your system will be.