What Is Considered Low Voltage Lighting

The transformer plugs into a grounded outdoor power receptacle and reduces 110 volt current standard to a safe 12 volts low voltage.

What is considered low voltage lighting.

A low voltage lighting system consists of a plug in transformer low voltage cable and low voltage light fixtures. In electrical power systems low voltage most commonly refers to the mains voltages as used by domestic and light industrial and commercial consumers. Low voltage light has reduced brightness regardless if it is powered with solar or direct electricity. Tungsten halogen and standard incandescent are the lamps of choice in the growing low voltage lighting system world each of the three basic types of light sources incandescent fluorescent and hid has its own particular applications and advantages.

Installing low voltage outdoor lighting is a big impact diy project. As a professional landscape lighting designer looking to install and operate a new low voltage lighting system you need to consider what transformer will be required to convert your standard line voltage outlets using 110 120v into your outdoor low voltage 12v 15v lighting design. For this line voltage fixtures are basically plug and play. Low voltage lighting typically uses 12 or 24 volts and requires a transformer to lower the line voltage from 120 volts to avoid immediately burning out the low voltage bulb.

Low voltage lighting pros and cons. Safety the voltage that runs from the transformer to the fixtures is significantly less powerful than line voltage. Originally developed to facilitate landscape lighting low voltage lighting soon made its way indoors and is now very common for lighting applications like track lighting recessed lighting under cabinet lighting strip lighting and more. The safe 12 v power supply cannot create bright flood lights.

Outdoor lighting can be used to illuminate paths steps and dark zones plus it can add artfully dramatic emphasis to your yard s best features. The international electrotechnical commission iec defines supply system low voltage as voltage in the range 50 to 1000 v ac or 120 to 1500 v dc in iec standard voltages which defines power distribution system voltages around the world. Low voltage lighting pros. Because line voltage lighting is the standard way to get power to lighting fixtures we ll only look at the pros and cons of low voltage lighting in this article.

The transformer for low voltage lighting is either built into the fixture or located remotely. Low voltage lighting got its start in american residential settings in the 1950s. Low voltage lighting systems can carry a higher amount of current and will need larger diameter wires. And since it s low voltage lighting it s safe to use and install even for beginners.

In the right diagram below a 20 w bulb with a 12v source draws 1 6 amps 10 times more current than a 120v source.