Outdoor Patio Lighting – Four Simple Tips to Help You Plan Some Great Outdoor Patio Lighting

Planning and installing a low-voltage outdoor patio lighting system is an easy do-it-yourself job. You may need to do minimal wiring, but no unusual electrical skills area needed. Everything connects to a small transformer box that simply plugs into an existing outlet. It will be safe and easy to install. In this article I’ll show you how to plan out the system for your deck.

1) First draw a rough plan of your patio: locate nearby electrical outlets, and note any key features you want to accentuate such as railings, plantings, stairs, sitting areas, etc. Make some small cut-outs of your furniture, grill, planters, as well as for the fixtures you might want to use. Position the and move them around into different locations on your plan to help visualize possible layouts. Do the same for your transformer, finding a place for it near one of your electrical outlets. You’ll need to keep its location in mind when the wiring begins.

2) Select the light fixtures you want to use. Take your patio plan to Lowes or Home Depot or a store with a similar lighting dept. and browse their selection of lighting. Ask a salesperson for help if you need it.

3) Draw connecting lines from the fixtures to the transformer. This will be your wiring plan. With minimal effort, and some small, well place holes, you can conceal the wiring under railings and porch-boards. You can minimize some of your wiring by connecting multiple lights to a single wire circuit. You’ll want to make note of the total wattage for all your fixtures in order to choose the correct size transformer. Ideally, find a transformer that provides 25% excess capacity.

4) When designing the layout of your outdoor patio lighting, consider such details as: highlighting the entrance into your home with post lights; adding step lights for safety; using rope lights to highlight railings and planters; lighting paths out to the driveway or yard; utilizing colored floodlights set to highlight plants and trees from many angles. By choosing to wire a low-voltage system you bring greater quality to your outdoor space than if you were to mount cheaply manufactured solar or battery-powered fixtures.

Now, you’ve come this far with your dreams of a fantastic outdoor space. You really must check out these other exciting ideas to compliment your OUTDOOR PATIO LIGHTING.