PRODUCT FOCUS: The Lowdown on Low Voltage

Most homeowners love lush lawns, neat ornamentals and tidy shrubs, and landscape contractors dedicate hours of work each week to keep these homes in tip-top condition. But when the sun goes down, all that hard work goes unseen. That’s where a contractor’s knowledge of landscape lighting comes in handy.
 
“Some homeowners put so much money into their homes and landscapes and then at night they lose it,” says Jim Poplin, owner of Nightscapes Landscape Lighting and Design, Huntersville, N.C. “You have to convince the customer that actually being able to see the beauty of the home and landscape at night is a good investment.”
 
Contractors and manufactures agree that landscape lighting is an effective way to make a client’s home shine. Unlike mowing, trimming or edging, illuminating a home is a more personal way to establish client relationships as well as let contractors unleash their creativity. “Many contractors see landscaping lighting as fulfilling, rewarding work – especially after experiencing homeowners’ reactions,” says Steve Parrott, media and marketing director, CAST Lighting, Hawthorne, N.J. “They mow a client’s lawn and the client is just glad the job’s done. But they light up a home and the client’s hugging them afterward.”
 
But there is more to landscape lighting than simply installing light fixtures. Contractors need to stress the importance of system upkeep and maintenance to ensure this sometimes significant investment doesn’t get lost in the dark.
 
“Every contractor who installs a system should try to get a maintenance agreement with the client,” Parrott says. “They should discourage homeowners from maintaining their professional systems because it takes a trained eye and it benefits everyone to have that ongoing relationship.”

GETTING STARTED. “The beauty about low-voltage landscape lighting systems is they’re easy to assemble and easy to maintain,” says Keith Isley, manager of business development for Ambiance Lighting Systems, Seagull Lighting, Snow Camp, N.C. Most all landscape lighting is low voltage, usually 12 to 24 volts, meaning safety issues during installation are virtually nonexistent. In fact, there is no possibility of electrical injury when working with fewer than 30 volts, Parrott says.
 
Poplin uses the safety of low voltage, as opposed to the more dangerous line voltage, as a selling tool when discussing a client’s options.
 
“If a client stresses a desire for line voltage rather than low voltage, we stress the safety issues of children,” he says, adding low voltage produces just as much light but with a warmer feel. “It’s safe around water, and if lines get cut you can’t get shocked and if kids pull them up they’re still safe.”
 
Low-voltage landscape lighting also requires very little training. Most manufacturers offer one-day training sessions that quickly show contractors the nuts and bolts of what they need to know to install a system correctly.
 
Some manufacturers provide on-site training representatives for in-house assistance. Poplin shows his employees a training video that explains how to break down a lighting system, and also has demo systems set up in the office for hands-on practice.
 
Manufacturer and contractors agree the most training is needed not for the installation but for the design of a landscape lighting system.
 
“The installation is fairly simple,” Parrott says. “The design requires more experience in terms of picking appropriate fixtures, knowing where to position them and learning the different effects they can achieve.”
 
Some manufacturers offer advanced design courses and have reps that will join contractors in the field for hands-on design interaction. (See Aesthetic Ambiance on page 134).

THE ENERGY FACTOR. Installing energy-efficient lighting systems is another way contractors can strengthen  a client’s investment. While the client communicates the ambiance they wish to see, deciding on the pieces and parts falls to the contractor.
 
“Low-voltage lighting can be good for the environment because it can use less power than other forms,” Poplin says. “Anything that saves is a plus.”
 
There are five main steps contractors can follow to install an energy efficient lighting system, and most are as simple as choosing one component over another, Parrott says.
 
The first is choosing a toroidal over an EI-type transformer because less energy is lost through a toroidal transformer’s ring-shaped core than an EI-transformers flat core. This choice can increase system efficiency by 10 percent and save an estimated $63 over the course of a year, Parrott says, citing a CAST Lighting system case study.* Toroidal transformers cost about $40 to $50 more than EI-types, he adds. 
 
The second step is choosing the system’s wire size. Most energy in low-voltage systems is lost through the wire, Parrott says. The heavier the wire, the thicker the gauge and the more energy is conserved. In landscape lighting, two primary wire sizes are used: the thinner and less costly #12/2 and the thicker, more expensive #10/2. By choosing #10/2 over #12/2 wire, contractors save their clients an estimated $32 in energy costs each year, according to the case study. However, #10/2 wire costs about $45 more than #12/2 wire, Parrott says.
 
But #12/2 wire is not all bad, Parrott says. It’s fine for short runs with a low-wattage load, he says.
 
A good rule of thumb is for runs with more than 100-watt lamp loads or for runs longer than 100 feet, use #10/2 wire, and for runs with less than 100 watt-loads or for runs shorter than 100 feet, use #12/2 wire, Parrott says.
 
Step three involves connecting an appropriate number of fixtures to each run. Energy is lost when too many fixtures are attached to too few runs. The more runs with lighter loads, the better the system. For example, distributing the case study system’s 25 fixtures among seven, rather than five, wire runs save about $42 a year in energy costs at an additional cost to the contractor of about $24 for the extra wire runs, Parrott says.
 
The fourth step is to use the correct wattage of lamp in the system.
 
“Many contractors have a tendency to light things too brightly,” he says. “It’s common for contractors to use 50-watt lamps, which are almost never necessary for nice lighting. Most can get by with 20- or 30-watt lamps and use half the energy.”
 
Replacing half of the 35-watt lamps in the 25-fixture system with 20-watt lamps saves about $111 a year in energy costs, Parrott says, at no additional cost to the contractor.
 
A final energy-saving strategy involves monitoring a lighting system’s operating time. Transformers installed with both a time clock and a photocell save more energy than those installed with just one or the other, manufacturers say. A photocell turns the system on when the sun goes down, but a timer allows the homeowner to turn them on and off at their preference. Separate transmitters and timers operate lights important for decorative and safety reasons at different times, Parrott says, adding  not all landscape lights need to burn the entire night. 
 
KEEP IT GOING. For many contractors, a good design and energy efficient system installation is just the beginning of a landscape lighting job.
 
Maintenance contracts are a practical, and profitable, add-on service to keep lighting systems up and running all year. While maintenance can be difficult to sell to homeowners who believe they can upkeep their own systems, contractors need to explain the benefits to having a trained professional keep an eye on a project that can cost a homeowner $2,500 or more to install, Poplin says.
 
“A lot of customers initially choose to do it themselves because they feel they are keeping costs down,” Poplin says. “But usually within a year they call you back because they can’t figure out what to do.”
 
Poplin has offered lighting system maintenance for the past 10 years, and his contracts include visits every six months, usually in the spring or fall. During these visits, Poplin’s crews of one or two technicians check the whole system and replace any broken bulbs or fixtures. They also reconfigure lamp placement to accommodate for growing plant material, such as shrubs or roots.
 
Other maintenance services include lens cleaning and replacement, tightening of terminal block screws, replacement of fixture sockets and the re-aiming of fixtures, Parrott says. Contractors should replace all of a system’s lamps about every 18 months, he adds.
 
“If one lamp burns out and is not soon replaced, it could cause the other lamps on a system to burn out more quickly,” he says. When a lamp burns out, it reduces the voltage draw on the system and causes the others to burn brighter than normal, eventually causing successive burnouts, he adds.
 
When clients decide against a maintenance contract, Parrott suggests contractors recommend customers keep up with lens cleaning and lamp replacement and schedule appointments on an as-needed basis to check the system’s internal parts like sockets and terminals.
 
Better yet, contractors should offer their new clients a year of free maintenance. “During that year, show the homeowner that it is significant work and they will most likely buy into the program,” he says.
 
Contractors price their maintenance services differently. Poplin begins with a $65 service fee and then charges per part, aiming for a 50 percent profit on each one. Prices of parts will also vary for different systems. For example, one lamp replacement can cost from $17 to $35, depending on the type of fixture. An average maintenance contract costs about $300 a year, he says.
 
Some contractors price based on system size and the number of transformers, and a typical maintenance fee for a 20-fixture system could be $350 per year, Parrott says.
 
Larger systems can cost from $400 to $500 a year. “This price is a fraction of what most clients’ actual landscapes cost, so if they get to enjoy it at night, it’s really a good investment,” Poplin says.
 
By thinking of the future – whether in terms of system maintenance or energy savings – contractors give their clients the best possible lighting experience, and even have some fun in the process.
 
“Some contractors will get into lighting because they see the profit opportunity, but once they start doing it they become passionate about it,” Parrott says. “If they focus on doing it well, the service’s rewards will come on their own.”

*Editor’s Note: Case study was performed by CAST Lighting on a 25-fixture system with an EI-type 1200-watt  transformer, #12/2 wire, five 80-foot wire runs, 35-watt lamps and all fixtures on a single transformer.