Lights?

[charlie]

Not specifically Christmas lights (although that is what has made me think of them) but lights in the garden, do any of you have lighting in the garden and if so what sort? Is it purely decorative or more utility ie lighting a patio so you can see what you are drinking!

I have seen some pretty spectacular displays at places like Westonbirt arboretum , but also so rather effective green up and down lighting on the sea front at Torquay.

Not sure I will bother but wondered on your views re the subject :?:

[flounder]

We have 5-600 solar powered lights when they want to work, purely for decorative purposes. I am thinking of changing them to mains, just so when it's above 20c and I'm sat under the gazebo drinking an alcohol based cocktail, I can gaze and imagine I'm somewhere more exotic (and warmer) than the outskirts of Brighton.
This time of year, I have the mandatory 2000+ leds defining my wifes' wishes to illuminate our garden like a certain airport 25 miles north of us :shock:
Forgot to add, they are either blue or white in support of my local football team :lol:

[kGarden]

I have 12V LED lights. Bought some uplighters (that sink, flush, into the ground). Expensive. Light inside tilts a bit, so can be planted alongside topiary (say) and pointed at it. Does a good job, per se, but leaves and grass clippings collect on top, and then you get little/no light ...

Other than half a dozen of those I have loads of Spike lights. Stuck int he bottom of the hedge pointing (out of hedge) at something or other.

Bulbs are 3W I think (might be only 2W), and I have a few 5W where I need "lots of light". Worth looking at the width of the beam to - 5W + Narrow beam will chuck more light on the subject. Also which colour you want. (We have some up/down lighters on the outside of the house and have installed wide/white bulbs for down, and yellow-ish/narrow for up. Looks very dramatic ... They are Mains though).

I have at least 20 spike lights (make sure you get a beefy enough transformer, and run the wire spider-shaped, rather than single circuit around everything, so that the longest wire is "not too long" for voltage drop). So 20 x 3W = 120W. 3 hours a night = 120W x 3 x 365 = about 100 units, or £15 running cost (and climate change!) for the year. I can live with that.

Problem with 12V is that the cable length is critical (for voltage drop), so I a) put the transformer in the middle of the garden (and ran an armoured mains cable to it), and b) used a thick 12V cable.

The Lighting For Gardens site I originally got the Uplighters (and biggie-transformer) from was dear for cable, I then bought a jumbo reel of cable at not a lot of cost from an electrical wholesaler, so I recommend that route. The cable is quite fat to work with, so a bit more fiddly (e.g. stripping the core ends) than normal cable, but was a fun job on a sunny afternoon! I used chocolate-block connectors originally (you need BIG ones coz' the cable-cores are fat, Natch!) but after I' got it how I liked it I then soldered everything and covered each joint with shrink-wrap waterproof connectors. Crimp would probably be as good as solder.

When I ran the mains armoured cable to the transformer (along the hedge, so only goes underground in a couple of places, e.g. across the gap in the hedge) I bought the cable with an extra core (so 2 x Live, plus Neutral and Earth) which gives me two switched circuits. So I have one for the lights on a timer so it comes up from about 8PM to 11PM in Winter, and starts later in Summer, and then the other wire is for a pond pump. If I was doing it again I'd probably stump up for even more mains cores to allow having more switched mains circuits, controllable from the house end.

I have marker stakes (metal) at each place where the cable (both mains and 12V) goes under the lawn so I can easily run a string exactly where the wire goes if I need to - e.g. when jumping on my bulb planter putting Crocuses in the lawn!

I'll see if I can find the name of the cable company.

[kGarden]

I also have a couple of Laser tree uplighters. I choose green because the colour is strong, at night, but choice of other colours is limited. About £50, but positioned carefully that might be all that you need. Personally I don't think they are much cop in Winter on deciduous trees, as it is the laser lights dancing on the leaves that makes the best effect, but YMMV

https://www.astounded.com/shop/laserwor ... w-version/

Their promotional image is a pretty good representation of what you can expect. Leaves moving a bit in the wind creates an impression of moving lights, as lasers hit-and-miss individual leaves.

[charlie]

I can see I am going to have to give it a lot more thought, I have mains electric available but at the moment I am just at the thinking it may be an idea (and truth be told don't really need any more ideas of things to do!)

[flounder]

How come Cornwall is an hour in front of the rest of the country? Daylight saving ?
edit
I see it's catching!

[charlie]

I didn't notice at the time of posting - good spot my computer (and watch) say 0850 see what time the forum posts up

[charlie]

Yep 1 hour out, I will have a look at the settings after breakfast (I haven't touched anything honest!)

[kGarden]

I can see I am going to have to give it a lot more thought, I have mains electric available but at the moment I am just at the thinking it may be an idea (and truth be told don't really need any more ideas of things to do!)

I'd suggest (as a first-step) getting the laser light. Just stick it outside pointing up into the trees on an extension lead on evenings when you want "entertainment"

Because our garden is flat and we planted hedges to make "rooms" its pretty easy to run a cable in-the-hedge, safely, and then just cut and chocolate-block where we want a light. You could add one light a weekend <facetious-of-course> provided you started with an overall plan of where the backbone wires would go.

12V cable came from https://www.electriccable.co.uk/RWDrubb ... .php#2core - (2 Core Rubber H07 RN-F Cable)

2.5mm if you have less than 10 lights and no more than 15M on that "leg" (from transformer), use 4MM for longer, or if you think you might extend it, or run 4mm (or even thicker) to the "middle" of the leg and 2.5mm from there

They sell armoured mains cable too (they were the best price I found at the time)

Advice about 12V garden ilghting here: http://www.lightingforgardens.com/garde ... g-12v-leds and also here: http://www.lightingforgardens.com/choos ... den-lights

they have buried uplighters for trees (£100-a-pop though :( )
http://www.lightingforgardens.com/tree- ... d-uplights


I got my transformer from them too, although mine is 200va which i don't see listed (dunno if that is too big, but I figured I might add quite a few lamps ...)
http://www.lightingforgardens.com/lamps ... ansformers


I've got about 40 lights in total, around 3W each (all 12V) so it only comes to 120W or so all told. Halogens would cost a fortune to run by comparison ... and all that live mains cable running around the garden too ...

and 12v Spike Lights
http://www.lightingforgardens.com/uplig ... spotlights
although they are fancy, and expensive, and I've stuffed all mine "in" a bush/hedge, so they are not on show, and as such I bought much cheaper ones. Cheapest I could find (of the model I have) is:
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSPIKE50BK.html
change from a £10-er - although the bolt-and-thread on mine was rubbish, I re-tapped it for next-size-up to stop the head rotate being so loose that it was useless.


and then of course you could have PV lights for hard-to-reach areas, I have some on the area away from the house used for extra parking, I bought ones costing more than £20 each, as the £1.99 ones in the Sheds proved to be an absolute waste of money, won't even light a path ...

[charlie]

Have corrected the time zone, but it appears it may have been on the previous one since the clocks went back in October. I will just have to try and remember to change it back in the Spring!