Understanding LED Garden Lighting

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If you are at all interested in developments in outdoor lighting you cannot have failed to notice the relentless rise to prominence of LED garden light fittings. So what’s the deal with LED lights and what should you look out for?

First of all, virtually all LED lights currently available for the domestic market (both indoor and outdoor) are designed to run off 12 volts direct current. This seems at first sight to be most fortuitous since the vast majority of conventional incandescent outdoor lights also run off 12v DC. However, you would be extremely well advised not to mix these two types of lighting on the same circuit (i.e. the same transformer and run of cable).

The reason is that whereas incandescent light bulbs are remarkably tolerant with regard to fluctuations in voltage, LED lights are most definitely not. You should therefore invest in a separate LED specific transformer and cable for all LED fittings. There is nothing though to stop you running two or more cables to the same parts of the garden and thus enjoying a mixture of lighting types, just don’t mix them on a single transformer or you will drastically reduce the lifespan of the bulbs and/or transformer.

Second, the nature of LED lights means that they consume vastly less power than conventional 12v garden lights and also convert most of that electrical input into light with very little heat given off. The obvious attraction to this is that they cost considerably less to run and also they can be powered much more effectively by solar powered batteries, but there is another aspect to consider.

Because LEDs run “cold” they suffer very little operational wear and so last easily 20 to 50 times longer than incandescent light bulbs; they can also be fitted into very tight spaces with minimal clearances since there are no issues with heat. This means that manufacturers invariably package outdoor LED lights into highly robust and sealed units that have no replaceable parts.

This characteristic of being extremely tough and long lived has undoubted advantages when fitting for example solar deck lights that are fairly inaccessible once installed and also have to put up with being walked on constantly. But the down side is that once they fail they must be completely replaced with a whole new fitting.

So, to sum up, if you want to install LED garden lighting then be sure to invest in a separate cable and transformer specifically rated for driving LED fittings and be aware of both the pros and cons of their operational characteristics.

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