Outdoor Lighting

The three types of fixture s—and where they belong in your landscape

Written by Dan DiClerico
Illustrated by Jorge Colombo

Pathway light. Aged copper. 23" high. Intermatic; 815-675-7000

Accent light. Rotates 360 degrees. Lumière; 770-486-4800, lumierelighting.com.

Jon Santacoloma's Kanpazar light. 58" high. GlobalLighting.net

Autumn is approaching, and with it, longer nights. Now is the time to turn your property into a safe, well-lighted place—an easy enough task until you confront the, well, blinding array of options. To make choosing the right fixture easier, we’ve organized them into three categories: low voltage, line voltage, and solar power. Knowing the pros and cons of each will help you make the bright decision.

Low Voltage
Fixtures connect to a single cable that simply plugs into an existing outlet. The systems include a transformer that reduces the amount of electricity traveling through the cable.

Pros
• Low-voltage cables don’t have to be buried (except for aesthetics) so there’s no need to dig up the yard.
• Available in hundreds of styles and in a wide price range.

Cons
• Fixtures suffer from “voltage drop,” which means they lose brightness the farther they are from the power source.
• To prevent electrical shorts, the transformer must be plugged into a GFCI outlet, which has a built-in circuit breaker (look for the red and black buttons).

Common Applications
• As decorative lights along paths, near steps, on decks, and in planting beds close to the house.

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