"Neil Jones" wrote in message ...
I've cross posted this to uk.rec.gardening and uk.d-i-y because I
believe it's on topic for both groups.

I'm redesigning my back garden at the moment and my thoughts have turned
to lighting. I would like to illuminate the terrace which is just to the
rear of the house, but also I'm considering some path lighting and maybe
some accent lighting to highlight specimen trees, planting groups etc.
This would mainly be for use during the summer but occasionally we would
switch the lights on at other times, for effect.

I live in a rural village so I'm conscious of light pollution and don't
really want to brighten the night sky which could affect other locals.

I'll discuss my plans with my neighbours before I go ahead but I have a
number of questions initially:-

What is best practice regarding this kind of lighting?

Mains voltage, low voltage or a mixture?

Is this a daft idea and I should forget about it?

Many thanks

Neil


Well, some good qs. Firstly light pollution: its a relevant but
overused term. Sending light up into the sky is wasteful, but
'pollution' is really a misnomer. If vast amounts of light are sent
upwards, it reduces visibility a bit for astronomers. Hardly what one
would seriously call pollution, but waste.

The prime way to do this is to put uplighters under tree canopies.
With full canopies there will be almost no light escape upwards, with
thin canopies there will be some, but frankly its all fairly trivial.

Equally one can put small CFLs in among shrubs bushes etc to light
them up nicely. Very low powers work well.

Mains or LT? It basically comes down to total project cost, what you
can do safely, and reliability. Mains lighting has fault modes that
render it unusable, whereas with an LT system those fault modes just
wouldnt be a problem. OTOH CFLs are normally found as mains voltage.
12v lights will normally be halogen or fluorescent. 12v CFLs do exist,
but expect to pay much more for them, and have to search to find them.


For see your way round lighting, several small low level lights are
good. One big high up downlighter works but doesnt look good, and
gobbles power.

CFLs and fluorecsents are the most efficient, but perform poorly in
the depths of winter unless you get tubes specifically intended for
cold working.

Outdoor lighting is much more fault prone than indoor, as it lives in
a far harsher environment, so I would recommend putting the lights on
several switches, so that a fault only takes out a percentage of them,
not the lot.

If you buy decorative garden lights, you can usually add some
reflector pieces and cut the bulb power right back for the same amount
of wanted lighting. They are often not well designed in that respect.
Also never use steel screws in outdoor fittings: substitute plastic
ones, as long as they dont heat up, or wire ties, etc.


Regards, NT