LED lights for the pond, mains or solar powered?

[difflock]

As the title, looking to put a row of lights at the back of the pond, say 30m/40m from the house, plus 20m frontage, about 50m/75m max of cable, or do I go solar?

Marcus

[BishBashBosh]

Late reply, but I'd go for a 12v AC cabled system.

 

Generally the commercially available solar lights are utter rubbish, the pv area is inadequate and the internal batteries are very low quality/capacity. They glow rather than illuminate.

 

I've have one mains voltage to 12vac transformer which runs all my LED lights. That's 7 pedestal types on a 30m run from the transformer to the front of my house (1.5W each) and another 7 at the rear (25m run) and then from the end of that I have a

40m cable to a small footbridge which has 8 x 1.2W LEDs underneath. Despite the cable run lengths there's minimal voltage drop at the end of that run, a previous 12 DC system didn't like those longer runs.

 

 There's more 12v AC LEDs available now and I make up my own light fittings because I like to be able to chose and or replace the LED.

 

There's some silly money asked for some of these LED garden lights, but it's easy enough to buy regular "waterproof" fittings and convert them to LED. It's only 12v so the worst that'll happen is it won't work. HTH

[difflock]

Stepped out at about 80m, and visited the 3 electrical wholesalers in Coleraine this morning.

It seems that most any of the(and see example;https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLGUSPBK.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=315107931576&placement=&kw=&network=u&matchtype=&ad_type=&product_id=GLGUSPBK&product_partition_id=295798815819&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7YblBRDFARIsAKkK-dK8IuMSkATYUxjENxR0dKjTEwXuGONFgpONeqWp2gojVOayGZAmtkUaAu1LEALw_wcB)230V ground spike lights have a 2.0m trailing lead, therefore each will need a junction box, which will essentially be lying in the dirt, unless I bring them all back to a (minimium) IP65 enclosure, since I saw these;

https://www.rapidonline.com/CamdenBoss-CPWP3I-IP68-Waterproof-Field-Assembly-Connector-23-3020?IncVat=1&pdg=pla-339087520473:kwd-339087520473:cmp-757438067:adg-44804851896:crv-207912323492:pid-23-3020:dev-c&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7YblBRDFARIsAKkK-dIllLydpPQ-qAzZ3Qn7255sH2-ZEgT4YSbcBW0M9dkzulNMp1hVCf8aAu9tEALw_wcB

which will allow a tidy solution.

I got oodles of 1.5mm2 blue flex and roll of 40mm ducting, plus a suitably sensitive plug-in RCCB, i.e. bugger the SWA cable.

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by difflock

[BishBashBosh]

Bodger's approach to garden lighting.

 

I went for a 12v system all the way from the house, running mains voltage underground requires a degree of caution. I wouldn't place too much trust in an RCD.

With the 12v stuff I started doing it properly then got bored and did most of it the easy way.

 

 I had an old 210mm circular saw blade which I mounted on a couple of bits of 2x4 with some studding, it ending up looking like a cross between a pizza cutter and a unicycle ? and used that to cut a slit about 4 inches deep into the lawn when the soil was damp/soft, laid the 12v cable in that and then used a bodger made from 5mm ply to push the cable into the slit. Felt like a bit of a bodge, but I only ever run the ride on over that area, 10 years on and it's still working fine and hasn't been lifted by frost etc.

 I have a switch for the bridge so I can turn that off independently of the other lights, where the cable comes up I slipped a bit of old metal  pipe over it, angle grindered a slit for the cable subsurface and hammered it into the ground to protect it when strimming, the switch being on an old gate post.

 

 Dedicated 12v garden lights are stupidly expensive. I bought some which look the same as your link and converted them from GU10 (240v) to MR16 (12v) fittings, you can get MR16 bulb holders cheaply from Amazon/ebay etc and it doesn't take long to do each one.

 Most MR16 LEDs are DC, but it's not too hard to find ones are AC capable. I like the warm white ones for landscaping, some of the cheapies are very harsh and make your garden look like a golf driving range.

LEDs are bright, so depending on your intention (landscaping lighting/accenting or security) you might have to try a few different wattages. The brochure links at the end include 1-3w MR16 LEDs, I got rid of the 5w ones I had as they looked like security lighting ended up with 1.1w in the spots and 0.7w in the pedestal lights. The 0.7w are as bright as the old 9w halogens as an example.

 

 Those spike lights have gaskets but rarely keep all water out forever, so that's another advantage of the low voltage approach. I had one which I forgot to properly tighten the face plate on and it filled with rain water, I only noticed when it started to grow algae inside, still worked despite effectively being submerged.

 

  Whilst mine is a bit of a DIY bodge it has all worked flawlessly for 10 years. All the mains voltage elements are correctly installed and protected (IP64 or better) doing a full 80m mains voltage install is a different scale of job to 12v system. Most of my connections are inside the supports of pedestal lights, just crimp connectors, the two underground ones are crimped with heat shrink on, inside a budget plastic junction box then filled with silicone. Classic bodge again, but it works.

 

- This Techmar Brochure indicates that an 80m run is feasible depending on the load.

 -Luxform Brochure. The transformer I have is a Luxform 105w, my total load is about 25w, nothing like having some headroom! You might find some useful ideas in there, or not. Most of the LEDs are regular items, they just rack up the price because its specialist landscaping lighting, only the "system builder fittings" are unique, it's easy enough to do your own connections for a fraction of the cost. HTH

 

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by BishBashBosh

[difflock]

Really only want enough light to reflect romantically off the surface of the pond, when required, I was intending to simply run the flex back to a socket in the garden room and switch the lights on as and when required, so the circuit would only ever be live after dark, when hopefully I should not be mucking about with a spade, lawnmower or rotovater.

Cheers

Marcus

[scbk]

Build a cabin on a jetty half on half off the pond, put a solar panel on the roof, a few old 12v batteries in the cabin, hidden under the seating, next to the mini bar, then run some cheap 12v dc lights from that, on a timer or lux sensor to keep it lazy, then relax on the decking, as the midges devour you

Edited April 1, 2019 by scbk

[difflock]

But my cunning plan was to lure the midges away to the other side of the pond with the lights, cos vividly remembering a heavy courting session up a Glen at the back o Helensburgh, many many year ago, where ah got the sweaty bollocks ate af me, ah proper hate midges.

But anyway, you were saying  .  .  .

P.S.

Already got the sheltered area sussed out for the decking/shelter/seating etc.