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Pond lights in your Water Garden
When it comes to pond lights, we want to be very careful. We’re putting electricity into water and if that doesn’t come with a slight risk, then I don’t know what does. So – if you constructed your pond as per suggestions, you’ve had a licensed electrician run the power lines to your pump area. This is a good start. And that person has also installed ground fault interrupter boxes that will instantly kill the power if it detects any moisture in the circuit. This is good. Because now what you’re going to be doing is stepping that 120 volt power over to a transformer that will lower the voltage to 12v. The wattage will depend on the transformer you pick. The higher the wattage, the more lights and 12v accessories you can run. Volts x amps = watts. This means your voltage is always the same at 12v. If you total up your wattage needs, and the transformer is sold by amperage, you can figure out the amps needed. If the attachment you want to add is rated in amps, you can figure out the watts and whether your transformer has the juice to run it. You can go either way with a bit of math. This is why it is better to reverse engineer the entire pond lighting system before you go out to buy the stuff. If you know you want 10 light fixtures in your garden area and you know that each one of those fixtures needs 15 watts, you will require a 150watt transformer to run them all. Buying a 100 watt transformer is going to leave you disappointed and under-lit. In practical terms, total the wattage of all the light bulbs, throw in a few extra light bulbs for good measure and then always buy up of your requirements. If your total need is 150 watts, and you have a choice of a 125 or 200 watt transformer, always pick the 200 one. You might have to spend a few extra bucks but in the long run, you’ll only buy one of the 200 watt systems while you might have to wind up buying 2 of the 125 watt systems to handle the next garden pond light project you want. Because you’ll only need one transformer to handle the pond as well as the garden lighting. (Once your better half sees pond lighting, be prepared to install garden lighting.) I know I don’t have to tell you this but I will anyway. Always buy safety certified pond rated equipment. Even 12 volts out of place can kill your fish pretty quickly.
And when you’re laying your pond lights into place, leave two or three feet of wire at the fixture that will be long enough to lift the pond light fixture totally clear of the water. Changing light bulbs (yes, they blow out) is so much easier when you can lift the fixture clear of the water to change the bulb. Doing it underwater or draining the water out to change a light bulb is a royal pain in the anatomy. Did I mention that you unplug the transformer whenever you have to do this?!! The specific pond lights you use and how you design your night lighting system is a subject for another page. But get that transformer right and you’ll be well and truly on your way to happiness with pond lights. Click here for free newsletter or to ask Doug about pond lights
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