Outdoor lighting isn’t just about safety and security. There’s no reason the  curb appeal of your home should be limited to the daytime. The tree you’ve also  loved, the garden you’ve worked hard to cultivate, the pond you bought with your  hard-earned money, and all the other landscape features you’ve painstakingly  chosen for your home can achieve some of their best effects at night with good  outdoor landscape lighting.

Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting The electricity running into your home  holds a potentially dangerous 120 volts. To create low voltage outdoor lighting  you’ll need to install one or more transformers. This will reduce the voltage of  your outdoor landscape lighting to a tame 12 volts. If your wiring gets exposed  by inclement weather and the abuse of the elements, this voltage poses no danger  to you, your family members, or your pets.

The downside to the low voltage outdoor lighting is that light fixtures  become dimmer the further away they are from the transformer. If this becomes a  problem, there are a number of easy solutions. You can upgrade to a higher-rated  transformer or a heavier-gauge cable. You can use multiple transformers. You can  also simply reduce the number or the wattage of your light fixtures. Moving the  transformer and/or rearranging the layout of the lighting system can reduce the  cable length to each fixture, minimizing the dimming path. You might also  consider using the dimming as an intentional effect. This is popular in path  lighting, where each light fixture gets stronger as you move closer to your  home.

Outdoor Landscape Lighting: Design and Installation Deciding what  you want your lighting to do is the first step when choosing and designing your  lighting system, for this can important that you check the advises of the professionals from Dig This Design, Website. Additional convenience and safety entering your home at night,  adding nighttime curb appeal to your home, and simply creating a romantic mood  are all common goals for outdoor landscape lighting. There are three main  categories of lighting but many outdoor lighting designs use some combination of  the three.

Path Lighting—Uses fixtures that focus light onto your paths and  walkways. Primarily for safety, this lighting still creates aesthetically  pleasing lighting effects for your outdoor landscape.

Accent Lighting—Still focuses light onto a specific object or  landscape feature, but allows for more peripheral lighting and dim illumination  of surrounding areas. Creates curb appeal but emphasizes individual areas like a  tree or a garden.

Spread Lighting—Just as the name suggests, spreads light amongst your  outdoor landscape and

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