Before we start placing lamps in the garden, you need to plan everything and try to predict what it will look like. If we want to install an electrical installation, it is best to do it before setting up a garden in order to avoid the need to dig up existing beds, roads and flower beds. See step by step how to install garden lighting.
Installation of garden lighting should be done before laying paths and setting up a lawn
How to connect garden lighting to home installation?
Installation of garden lightingusually involves the need to connect the installation for garden lamps to the power source coming out of the house. This should be done in an appropriate way so that the garden electrical system does not pose a threat. Therefore, the external installation supplying garden lighting should be connected to the home installation, to a separate circuit protected with two types of switches:
- overcurrent matched to the load power,
- anti-shock (residual current).
Automatic devices are used to turn the garden lamps on and off. In addition to them, you should also remember about the device for manual lighting control from inside the house, as well as relays (mounted in the switchgear), which will allow the manually switched system to return to automatic settings.
If in the garden there are to beseveral lighting circuits(for example several groups of lamps that can be switched on separately or lamps powered by different voltages), then separate these circuits from the main circuit supplying external lighting and connect them to appropriate devices controls, and to the circuits which are to power low-voltage lamps (for 12 or 24 V), connect transformers and additional fuses installed downstream of the transformer (on the low-voltage side).All these devices and fuses are mounted in an additional switchgear located in an easily accessible place, and the power cables are led outside in pipes routed along the wall of the house.
Power supply for garden lighting
The voltage (12, 24 or 230 V) to bepowered garden lightingdepends on the permissible lamp power and the possibility of using the outdoor installation also for other purposes (for example connecting electric tools, electric grill or other equipment). Power supply with low voltage of 12 or 24 V will be beneficial in small plots of land, with several lighting points located, for example, along the entrance to the building. When large garden lamps or facade illumination are planned, the installation should be made with 230 V mains voltage.
Laying cables for garden lighting
Before the cables are distributed, it is planned where the garden lamps, belonging to the individual lighting circuits, will be placed and what voltage they will be supplied with. Depending on the power supply, the wires to the lamps must meet the following requirements.
Any wire is used forlow voltage supply . It should be laid in the ground at any depth and in any way. However, care should be taken to ensure that it is not damaged during garden work or cut by rodents. For this purpose, it is placed in a corrugated protective tube. The cross-section of the conductors is selected according to the length of the installation and its load. The number of wires depends on how many circuits we want to control independently. In the places where the lamps are to be installed, the cables are led out above the ground to a height of about 1 m.
For230 V mains voltageuse only a cable with an insulation voltage of up to 1 kV (YKY symbol) and a conductor cross-section of 2.5 mm². The route to be led by the power cable for individual lamps must not be close to large trees, along foundations and at a distance of less than 80 cm from water pipes. Cables run in a straight line, and if necessary to avoid an obstacle, they are curved at right angles, not in an arc. The cables are placed in the trench at a depth of 70 cm, and 30 cm above it a blue warning tape is placed. A three-wire cable is sufficient to power a single circuit, but a five-wire cable allows the three circuits to be independently controlled. When in one circuit consisting of several lamps, the first and the last lamp are at a similar distance from the power supply, the so-called ring feed, i.e. the supply cable for all these lamps is arranged in the form of a loop going from and returning to the power point. Thanks to this, the lamps will be powered from both sides and in the event of damage to some section, they will continue to work.
