Garden Lighting: Techmar
Discussion
I-A said:
£356 for a 32 lamp system - that's really good going!
How are they holding up?
Pretty good, the only weakness is the lamps themselves. Around 10% of them have had to be replaced as they start to flicker and then just don't work. But it take 5 mins to change and about £4 a light. How are they holding up?
bosshog said:
For those out of town, please avoid uplighting as it really messes with nocturnal animals like bats etc.
I live in a town and the lights don't seem to bother the bats that arrived after I installed the lights. It's one of my little pleasures seeing them flying about on a night. The lights do seem to attract a hell of a lot of moths though......Some good ideas on here and garden lighting is certainly a job for me in the spring.
I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
RichB said:
Some good ideas on here and garden lighting is certainly a job for me in the spring.
I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
I use a SONOFF inline smart switch. You can switch it on and off with Alexa/Google assistant etc. I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
Using the IFTT app I have linked the switch to a weather app. It then turns on with the constantly changing sunset time as it was getting a bit annoying changing the timer all the time.
Uggers said:
RichB said:
Some good ideas on here and garden lighting is certainly a job for me in the spring.
I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
I use a SONOFF inline smart switch. You can switch it on and off with Alexa/Google assistant etc. I probably only want to pick out two trees; one, an old oak that's probably 120' high, the other a beautiful maple that spreads about 30' over one of our lawns. I don't want them illuminated every evening (as on a timer) I'd rather light them on occasionally, so I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing? And, I wonder if the remote would work from the house which is about 100' from the oak? I have mains power in the greenhouse at the top of the garden so I was thinking I could perhaps get a remote controlled on/off socket and plug the tree lights into that?
Using the IFTT app I have linked the switch to a weather app. It then turns on with the constantly changing sunset time as it was getting a bit annoying changing the timer all the time.
LeadFarmer said:
RichB said:
I was wondering if anyone has used remote controlled lighting, indeed is there such a thing?
Could you plug the lighting into something like a Kasa smart plug, then link that plug to an Alexa device so you could just say something like "Alexa, garden lights on"?My lights, though, are a pain. Animals love the wires and keep chewing through them. Even lightly burying the cables has not worked.
Also, my robotic mower, confused by the 12v cable (the same as it uses for its own boundary wire, went haywire a few weeks ago when it went out at night and the Techmar system was on and decimated both the lighting cable and my flowerbeds.
Bad times at Flashman Towers.
Blast from the past but has anyone got anything good to say about low voltage garden lighting in the four years since this was last replied to?
I installed around half a dozen 12V AC outside lights with 4W LED bulbs from Toolstation around four years ago, with a transformer rated double the maximum load, so say around 40-50W. I must have since replaced the transformer at least once every year. And I can't have the lights on for more than a few hours between failures as I tend to just put them on when walking down the garden and this year we've hardly been outside with the weather.
Transformer is in the garden shed (which is properly wired up to one of the house mains, with RCD circuit breaker and armoured cable to the house. So although rated IP67 or whatever the waterproof rating is, it's bone dry. If the transformer blows it can blow the house ring main which is then a pain to work out what's happened as I don't instinctively think of the shed.
Is there a particular reason why these transformers are so unreliable, and are there any particular brands or types worth getting? I've had several, all Chinese, all different brands, and all not especially inexpensive to be happy at replacing them on a regular basis. Is garden lighting really that unreliable?
I installed around half a dozen 12V AC outside lights with 4W LED bulbs from Toolstation around four years ago, with a transformer rated double the maximum load, so say around 40-50W. I must have since replaced the transformer at least once every year. And I can't have the lights on for more than a few hours between failures as I tend to just put them on when walking down the garden and this year we've hardly been outside with the weather.
Transformer is in the garden shed (which is properly wired up to one of the house mains, with RCD circuit breaker and armoured cable to the house. So although rated IP67 or whatever the waterproof rating is, it's bone dry. If the transformer blows it can blow the house ring main which is then a pain to work out what's happened as I don't instinctively think of the shed.
Is there a particular reason why these transformers are so unreliable, and are there any particular brands or types worth getting? I've had several, all Chinese, all different brands, and all not especially inexpensive to be happy at replacing them on a regular basis. Is garden lighting really that unreliable?
I've always had solar lights around the garden - when I need more I can switch on two fairly powerful LED security floodlights (they are on PIR but switched off 99% of the time) - but some of the lighting pictured in the thread make me realise that I should do something a little bit nicer for not a huge investment
Chromegrill said:
Blast from the past but has anyone got anything good to say about low voltage garden lighting in the four years since this was last replied to?
I installed around half a dozen 12V AC outside lights with 4W LED bulbs from Toolstation around four years ago, with a transformer rated double the maximum load, so say around 40-50W. I must have since replaced the transformer at least once every year. And I can't have the lights on for more than a few hours between failures as I tend to just put them on when walking down the garden and this year we've hardly been outside with the weather.
Transformer is in the garden shed (which is properly wired up to one of the house mains, with RCD circuit breaker and armoured cable to the house. So although rated IP67 or whatever the waterproof rating is, it's bone dry. If the transformer blows it can blow the house ring main which is then a pain to work out what's happened as I don't instinctively think of the shed.
Is there a particular reason why these transformers are so unreliable, and are there any particular brands or types worth getting? I've had several, all Chinese, all different brands, and all not especially inexpensive to be happy at replacing them on a regular basis. Is garden lighting really that unreliable?
The 12v AC LED lamps have what I think is a lagging current, the shorter less technical version of which means they draw more current for a given power than you'd expect, and also many have a bit of a surge on startup which multiplies when using lots.I installed around half a dozen 12V AC outside lights with 4W LED bulbs from Toolstation around four years ago, with a transformer rated double the maximum load, so say around 40-50W. I must have since replaced the transformer at least once every year. And I can't have the lights on for more than a few hours between failures as I tend to just put them on when walking down the garden and this year we've hardly been outside with the weather.
Transformer is in the garden shed (which is properly wired up to one of the house mains, with RCD circuit breaker and armoured cable to the house. So although rated IP67 or whatever the waterproof rating is, it's bone dry. If the transformer blows it can blow the house ring main which is then a pain to work out what's happened as I don't instinctively think of the shed.
Is there a particular reason why these transformers are so unreliable, and are there any particular brands or types worth getting? I've had several, all Chinese, all different brands, and all not especially inexpensive to be happy at replacing them on a regular basis. Is garden lighting really that unreliable?
I've installed tons of them, and find using varilight 0-50w transformers running no more than 3 LED lamps each to be the sweet spot, or wirewound running below 50%. You can buy gu10-mr16 lamp converters which opens up what fittings you have available, generally rated very poorly on Amazon etc because thickos buy them without understanding what its for.
Using mr16s instead is far more robust as they can be replaced and repaired easily and you have options such as narrow beam bulbs, you keep all 230v off the ground and dry.
Another of my top tips is I gut in-wall recessed lights and fit either G4 or 12v LED tape, again with remote transformers. Retaining walls will always always push moisture through a fitting. Also do this for in-ground lights, if the client really can't be talked out of the insidious things.
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