Garden lighting install help/advice.

[Ray Singh]

Been in my house for 11 years now. When i moved in i promised i would install some good garden lighting and also some security lights.

I can run a spur from the lighting ring main from my garage and have buried a plastic conduit housing a mains cable in the garden to my shed.
From here i plan to use a transformer to step down the voltage (to make it safer) and then run the garden lights from here.

Do these low voltage lights actually throw out enough light to work as garden lights?

I want to install a automatic dusk/dawn detector to turn the lights on/off as my garage is not part of my house and hence a switch in there would be useless. Anyone any experience of this?

Im new to this whole lighting thing so any help (constructive) is appreciated.

Oh - and the typical question - is there anywhere i can buy the HW for cheap

[BigBen]

Ray Singh said:

I can run a spur from the lighting ring main from my garage and have buried a plastic conduit housing a mains cable in the garden to my shed.

I don't think a buried plastic conduit with a mains cable in it is good enough you need a proper armoured cable. Point being a spade could go straight through the conduit and the cable no bother causing a nasty pop. Don't worry about lowering the voltage for safety, worry about this bit of your set up!

Also worth checking your garage is on an RCD at the fuse box, it is supposed to be according to current regs.

Low voltage lighting can be good enough for garden lighting as long as you aren't planning a floodlit sporting event.

Ben