"I've been doing some homework and it seems like it all starts at the Transformer..."

No just the opposite ...

Design wise it starts with the selection and placement of fixtures and deciding which lamps or bulbs each fixture will hold ... the location and size (wattage) of the transformer is your "last" decision to be made. Each fixture lamp combination will give you a different lighting pattern of different illumination given that you supply each lamp with the right current and voltage. This requires that you balance the total number of watts .. the length of the run from the transformer and wire size for each wire leaving the transformer.

A "good" brand will have available a design manual that will give you the electrical calculations you need and the specifications and descriptions for each lamp and fixture combination you may want to add to your landscape.

So .. a brand with many different fixtures and lamp combinations will give you unlimited design options. Systems that are pre wired are very limited.

A practical tip is to go out at night and temporarily hook up some of the common fixtures and get an idea of what different lighting effects look like .. this will help you plan your overall lighting scheme.

"Any certain brands better than others?? "

Sure ... and the good brands cost a bit more .. check out Nightscape to see what a good brand has to offer then check out other brands and compare ... by no means am I saying Nightscape is the best but it is a good brand and a good starting point.

Inexpensive brands give you no or little choice when it comes to fixtures and lamp selections. The fixtures are often plastic NOT metal and glass while good brands have many different fixtures that give different lighting patterns and come with various finishes like copper .. black ect. some brands will even custom finish fixtures to your specifications.

As always before designing your system go sit in the garden ... just sit.

Plan on working the night shift !!

Good Day ...

MHK is giving you good info. Shemins Nursery often has seminars for landscape lighting. They just bought out Gold Star/Seasons Four in Lexington and are a dealer for a certain light company whose name escapes me. This means that they likely have staff that is well versed in lighting design who can assist you which will help them sell product (just remembered - Unique Lighting)

That company uses some good methods to even out the current which makes it a little more fool proof.
The better transformers have multiple voltage hubs to even out the current. There are several good companies out there. I just happened to take their seminar a few years ago.

What you don't want to do is use a system that has a certain voltage transformer and then tie a lot of lighting to it. That is what you will find at a box store.

Wow, this exact project is what I want to do next on my own. I was thinking the exact same thing.

Heres another question... let see if i can mentally illustrate it.

I have a square backyard, perhaps 40x30 feet. I have planters on 3 sides of the yard, obviously, one side is the back of the house (no plants). The planters pretty much run the length of the sides of the yard. The electrical will come out of my garage, which is on the back right side of the yard. One of the planters goes along the garage wall. My question is, if you can only use one transformer, how am I to get lighting all around the 3 sides? Do I space the light more, perhaps 3 lights max for each planter? and run extra cord? or do i need 2 or 3 transformers? one for each planter?

Any help is appreciated. I am aiming for low voltage (not solar)...

I'm not sure I am clear on your question ..

I assume you can route wire from your garage .. that is there are no obstacles stopping you from getting to all the planters ... like walls ect.. If so one transformer should work well but make sure it is a good system with a spec book ... don't go extending an in the box system. Right ??

In general the longer a wire running from the transformer the less wattage you will want to place on that individual wire.

Roughly in your case .. I would ** "guess" ** .. that after you do the calculations you will end up either running a single wire from the garage to connect all your lights or have perhaps three wires ... one for each planter area so a total of three wires connected to the transformer.

The transformer will need to be large enough to supply the total wattage of all your lamps plus maybe 15 % more to be safe.

How many lights you will need is up to you ... there are many different ways to set up your lights .. you could for example light up the walls behind the plants ... or the lighting fixture itself could be the central focus and the plants only slightly illuminated ... still if you have flowers in the bed you may wish to illuminate the colors at night and hide the light fixture altogethjer behind lets say a boulder or something.

This is why it is very helpful to play around a bit with a few standard fixtures to see what you can think up ... and again a good design manual will be a big help ... How much area will a given lamp and fixture cover ?? ... if your planter is 30 feet long and your selection of lamp and fixture will illuminate 10 feet ... well you will need three fixtures .. simple enough .. right.

That type of insight can be gained from a brand that has a good design manual to accompany their products.

Good Day ...

Other than cost.... Is too much wattage not a good thing??? "If I had 260w of lights... and 600w transformer???" Also, are there transformers that allow me to have different zones of lights. So I could have certain ones on at certain times, And allows me to have different lengths of times for differnt zones... Or is it all or none??

"Is too much wattage not a good thing???"

No .. it will not cause a problem but the cost goes up quite a bit so it is best to not have too much extra wattage wise .. but extra wattage lets you expand the system if you wish and provides a safety margin.

"Also, are there transformers that allow me to have different zones of lights."

That's a feature that would be nice to consider .. the last time I looked it was not readily available ... I'm sure it could be done with some electrical knowledge ... so shop around.

Good Day ...

MohaveKid, thanks so much. The info you gave me makes complete sense. I have *some* electrical knowledge and you cleared it up. Now Im going to go price it out. I think im opting for a 3 lights to illuminate in a 30 foot long area. My planters have boulder edging, so the lights would go right behind them. Metal casing would be nice, but plastic is fine too since the boulders will protect them. Now like you said, I need to take a look at different lighting techniques and see how they would work.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

There is a site dedicated to the very narrow field of low voltage outdoor lighting containing details on many topics related to this subject written by the member participants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Low Voltage Lighting Forum