Meyerssb Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Have any of you done anything to control landscape lighting yet? I've just been asked to bid a project, I don't know all of the specifics yet, but the electricial contractor said that the owners plan on spending in excess of $50k on landscaping and he is pretty sure they will be doing landscape lighting - probably low voltage. Is there a system out there that can be controlled by Control4? Thanks for any input.Blake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Wired Up! Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Sounds like a big job for low voltage. We have done a landscaping job and the landscaping company separated the areas around the house into zones and prepared for us by installing switch boxes with a neutral. We then used standard switches. Outside of one switch in a detached garage it's worked very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danlevine Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Yup, thats the way we are designing a Landscaping project as well. Have them bring all the switches to a central location and then put in Dimmers / Switches. Probably switches with Low Voltage Lighting, but I could be wrong about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Wired Up! Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 If it's not low voltage and they use transformers don't use dimmers, they'll burn up the transformers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meyerssb Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 I won't know for a few days whether or not it is low or line voltage. The people are coming up from California (we're in Idaho) and apparently have a little money tucked aside for a pretty nice house. The lot is a 5 acre lot and from what I hear they are going to go all out on landscaping. Anyway, the owners haven't actually talked to the electrician or myself directly yet so we've just been kicking ideas past each other. Thanks for the ideas.Blake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambrick Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Most landscapers I've run into or spoken with, especially with bigger projects like what you're referring to like to use a mixture of high and low voltage lighting. High voltage is easy--as Dan mentioned wire everyting with switch loads and put in C4 switches/dimmers, don't let them put too much load per switch load.The only low voltage system's I've seen are with transformers. But those transformers have to be plugged into an outlet (high voltage). So have the electrician wire those outlets to a switch to which now can be replaced with a C4 switch for control.What I have not tried is using the C4 wireless outlet switch to plug the low voltage transformer box to. I assume it would work.What I've also found is that many landscapers think we're speaking chinese when discussing control of the landscape lighting. They are just used to using a photocell on the transformer box and be done with it. So tread lightly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfleck Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 convince the electricians/homeowners (however is responsible) to use LINE LEVEL (110V) lighting with halogens. you want to be able to use a mix of dimmers and switches for special effects.110v lighting is not more expensive to purchase or operate and far more reliable.besides, try getting any reasonable brightness out of any outdoor low-voltage lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 How landscape low-voltage different from indoor low voltage (monorail, cable... etc) ? I have C4 dimmers controlling my indoor low-voltage lightning and it works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 110v lighting is not more expensive to purchase or operate and far more reliable.besides, try getting any reasonable brightness out of any outdoor low-voltage lighting.Wouldn't 110V be more expensive to install ? Do you need to put it in condo when its underground ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy.cytexone Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Could the soon-to-be-released zigbee outlets be of use (in weatherproof boxes)? How soon do they want something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samer Shami Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 FYI: I have run the 110V dimmers and switches succesfully at 24VAC to run lighting with low load levels (<150W). To do this I used a step-down transformer to lower the incoming voltage to 24VAC (which actually turned out to be 27VAC unloaded) and then used that to power the C4 dimmer instead of 110V. I spoke to tech department, and I am running it below spec (which was a min of 32VAC from memory) - but it worked for me. Now would I put it into a real job? Not without major testing. The loads that I used in this case were regular incandescent bulbs, so nothing was harmed or blown up in the process.I don't know much about outdoor low voltage lighting, but if the loads require some electronic circuitry to work, this process is going to blow stuff up. It worked for me because I used plain incandescent bulbs with nothing but wire between them and the dimmer. Try this under controlled conditions first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfleck Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 110v lighting is not more expensive to purchase or operate and far more reliable.besides' date=' try getting any reasonable brightness out of any outdoor low-voltage lighting.[/quote']Wouldn't 110V be more expensive to install ? Do you need to put it in condo when its underground ?no, you don't need conduit to run the wires between the fixtures. just use direct burial 110V 14-2 wire. when the wire arrives at the fixtures the light post is set in place with a shovel full of concrete and backfilled with dirt. very simple and no different procedure than low voltage.i use conduit for crossing walkways or pathways or driveways.most low voltage lighting systems tend to be very cheap in quality. the systems that are not manufactured cheaply are more expensive than 110V systems. take a look at something like Red Dot that you can get at Home Depot in the US. I have used these and got them 1/4 the price from toomanyamps.com off of EBay because the CDN Home Depot stores don't carry them.http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0929933111.1137120710@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgaddgkdjddghcgelceffdfgidgmn.0&CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc/searchResults.jsp&MID=9876&N=2984+4233&pos=n12that link doesn't work directly.go to landscape lighting->(by manuf)Red Dot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambrick Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Your local electrical code will state what you need for underground 110v.I agree with fleck. Low voltage lights are nice for down lighting for walkways but that's about it becasue they put so little light out. Although some of the latest products do seem to have gotten brighter. All I know is if I can talk them into putting something on a switch it's much easier for me so I try as hard as I can to get a switch put in if applicable and feasible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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