Low Voltage vs. Line Voltage for your Landscape Lighting

Low voltage- Dallas Landscape Lighting

Line Voltage- South Texas Landscape Lighting

A good rule of thumb if you are considering landscape lighting for your home is "large mature trees use line voltage and small ornamental trees use low voltage". 

The pictures illustrate two properties we recently finished installing both low voltage and line voltage systems. The low voltage photograph shows Savannah Holly ornamental trees and a Japanese Maple being illuminated with low voltage LED uplighting. The large Texas Live Oak is illuminated with line voltage mercury vapor downlighting and uplighting.

When comparing the two types of systems there are numerous things to consider such as kelvin rating, beam spread, energy consumption, cost, warranty, and maintenance just to name a few. However, in over 85% of my initial consultations, the client's only desire is to have the end result look beautiful and they don't really care about technical specifications. In the end, the client's landscape will dictate the type of lighting and this basic design principle will serve you well.

Tip for low-voltage landscape lighting: Consider installing the electrical wiring in conduit. At E2 Illumination Designs this is almost always the "standard procedure". Code doesn't require contractors to put low-voltage wiring in conduit as in line-voltage systems. Landscapes (and client desires) continually change, so when the yardman digs up that shrub to plant new seasonal color your electrical wiring is protected.

Tip for line-voltage landscape lighting: Consider having an additional dedicated circuit pulled to one (or more) trees or any other necessary electrical locations. This will give you added flexibility with how you use your outdoor space. For example, you'll now have a plug location(s) for yard work, outdoor fans, holiday lighting, and party lighting. 

E2 Illumination Designs is a design-build-maintain landscape lighting company based in Dallas and continually works throughout the country wherever fine outdoor lighting design is demanded. Please contact us with any questions.

360 House in Roncesvalles, Spain

Architecture Firm- Subarquitectura

Reference Site- Architizer

To quote Subarquitectura "We seek the poetic in all that seems to have been considered from the merely pragmatic point of view. The result is the literal construction of a use diagram. In this instance, form does not follow function, but is instead function itself." 

Sometimes I'm amazed at what I find myself drawn to in architecture. There is absolutely nothing about the 360 House I would like for myself (besides the pool, land, views, location...other than that absolutely nothing!!), but I have an immediate reaction to it that requires me to look deeper. In today's online world, we tend to look at something creative and instantly start to dissect whatever it is we don't like or would change from that "first" look. During initial client meetings, I show a plethora of photo illustrations of past projects to directly observe that immediate reaction. It's that immediate reaction, both positive and negative, that dictate my landscape lighting design. Whether too bright, too dark, wrong color, I need their feedback to create the nighttime ambiance they desire. Lighting, as with architecture, is subjective... 

In creating my designs, I never enjoy designing purely function, as with security lighting. However, I hope to be able to create an illumination effect like the 360 House, encouraging viewers to "seek the poetic".