How to Install 12-Volt Landscape Lighting

Brighten up your landscape and garden by installing 12-volt landscape lighting to highlight your favorite part of the garden or light a dark walkway. You can install these 12-volt lights wherever you can run low-voltage cable and install a 12-volt transformer. The lights come in various wattages and styles, including flood lights to bring attention to architecture, path lights, and accent lights to draw attention to important garden features.

Things You'll Need

• Wood screw or masonry screw
• Phillips or slotted screwdriver
• Trenching shovel
• Wire stripper

Instructions

1. Pick a spot for your 12-volt landscape lighting transformer. The transformer should hang on the wall near enough to connect without an extension cord to a GFCI-protected grounded outlet. Screw either a wood screw or masonry screw into the wall on which to hang the transformer.

2. Assemble your 12-volt landscape light fixtures. Each light fixture can assemble differently, depending on the style and the manufacturer. On most fixtures, the 12-volt bulb must install in the socket, and the cover is placed on it. The stakes that hold the fixtures into the ground snap or screw onto the bottom of the fixtures. The two lead wires with pre-installed low-voltage cable connectors should hang from the base of the fixture.

3. Place the 12-volt landscape lights in and around your garden and yard. Move the fixtures until you are satisfied with the locations of your lights.

4. Run low-voltage cable from the location of the transformer and along the ground to each fixture. Snap the low-voltage cable connectors onto the cable. Each lead wire attached to the 12-volt light fixture has one side of the connector. Slide both connectors over the low-voltage cable and snap them together, piercing the cable.

5. Dig a shallow trench along the side of the low-voltage cable, using a trenching shovel. Lay the cable in the trench and cover it. Only 12 volts of electricity flows through the cable, making it safe to place in a trench between 1 and 2 inches deep.

6. Strip the end of the low-voltage cable, using a wire stripper to remove at least 3/4 inch of cable insulation from the end. Wrap one low-voltage wire around one of the terminal screws on the 12-volt transformer. Wrap the other low-voltage wire around the remaining terminal.

7. Plug the transformer into the wall outlet, and hang the transformer on the wall.

References

• Malibu: Safe, Easy, Do-It-Yourself Installation
• Malibu: Low Voltage Light Fixture
• Home Depot: Installing Low-Voltage Lighting