DIY - Low Voltage Landscape Lighting

Section 1 - Background

Background...

My Design Tradeoffs

How Many Transformers

One big transformer for everything...

One per zone...

At the moment I'm leaning toward 2 transformers, a 300watt and a 600watt. The 300 watt would cover the deck and patio (think party lighting) and the 600 would cover the landscaping. kitchler 15PR600SS Pro Series 600W Transformer $458 Kitchler 15PR300SS Pro Series 300W Transformer $268 3able ??

Switching vs Dimming

option-1 switch/dim the high transformer primary

option-2 switch the transformer secondary. (dimming here is not practical)

I'm going with option-1. The kitchler transformers have an inline plug inside the box to accomodate a timer/controller. I had a UPB lamp module in mind, but it looks like the largest has a 400 watt max. (Forums seem to imply that over 300 watts should have a dimmable switch rather than the dimmable module.)

Timers vs Controllers

Manual Control

Mechanical Timer

Light Sensor

Controller (probably simply automated UPB)

110v power locations

Put transformers in the house... NO

Put the transformers outside in one spot NO

Put the transformers as close as possible to each zone

I'll probably put the transformers in 2 locations (as dictated by where I put 110v power) One is the corner near the pation and the other is outside the house by the A/C units where there was an existing power plug.

References:

• useful forums - lowvolt.org
• controllers - control scape

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