12-Volt Or 120-Volt – Which is Right For Your Outdoor Lighting System?
It is not as complicated as you may think when deciding between a low-voltage 12 volt system and a 120 standard volt system or a combination of both. Just for clarification purposes a 120 standard volt system is what you use in your home to power all of your appliances. The 12 V or low-voltage lighting system will actually be plugged into a transformer that is then plugged into your home electrical 120 volt socket for its power. I want to now give you some specific instances where your outdoor lighting system would be best served by using one or the other power systems to meet your outdoor lighting needs.
Safety
A low-voltage lighting system is typically safer to install than a standard voltage system. In fact the only opportunity for danger when handling or installation is when making the connection to the standard voltage power source or when using a much too small wire size. So pretty safe as far as handling electrical systems go.
The standard voltage system requires that you be careful when making a connection to the main power source. You will also need to calculate proper electrical loads, pass all of your local electrical wiring codes, and have your system inspected prior to being connected to the main system.
Brightness Levels
Brightness with low voltage lighting systems will range from medium-bright to dim. One way to increase brightness would be to use an incandescent quartz 12 volt lamp. The area you will be able to light with a medium bright level with each lamp is lower than what most standard lamps will put out with a standard volt system. This can be remedied by using more lamps.
Standard volt brightness levels range from small lamps with dimmers putting out dim light to throwing out a very bright light with mercury vapor, quartz, and metal halide bulbs or lamps. Some of these lamps are capable of projecting light over thousands of square feet. Needless to say this is much more than you will probably need for most of your home outdoor lighting projects.
These are just a couple of the differences between the two outdoor lighting systems but let’s go into what you really want to know which is, what is the best system for your home? Smaller yards or gardens are better suited for low voltage systems because of the smaller area to light. Low voltage systems work well for providing small spotlights on medium-sized or small trees, small statues, and lighting small lawn areas.
The brighter standard volt systems are much more suited when illuminating large areas or when used for providing security or safety around your home. Due to their strength of light and ability to project it over large distances they also work well when the subject you want to illuminate is a long way from your light source or fixture. One example of this would be having a Well light or ground mounted light being used for up lighting into the branches of a large tree.
These are a few issues to consider when deciding between a low-voltage or standard voltage outdoor lighting system but the short of it is low-voltage works better for small settings or small areas and standard voltage works better for large areas or over long distances.