Water features and led lighting

I'm thinking about getting a nice water feature and some led lighting for the garden, and was just wondering wether anyone had any recommendations of any good products?

Looking for some good quality lights that I can either mount next to the water feature in the floor, or on the fence.

Thanks

I would suggest you find some ELV (12v) fittings that accept MR16 lamps, then change out the included halogen lamps for 3 or 5w LED replacements. Most outdoor fittings that I've seen (those within a sensible price range, anyway) have extremely poor light output, and those that use LEDs tend to be pretty unreliable on account of the light source being made up of multiple 5mm LEDs driven hard. Even those with 20w halogen lamps aren't fantastic, and in terms of installation flexibility you're limited on cable length due to volt drop. A 3 or 5w LED lamp as described above with one or three luxeon style emitters will be far more reliable, and give a lot more light.

It's then just a case of finding a fitting that you're happy with in terms of aesthetics and build quality!

Thanks for the reply.
That sounds like a good idea, I will look into getting some of those. The light output does not have to be fantastic, they will be more decorative than anything else.

eds_taff said:

Thanks for the reply.
That sounds like a good idea, I will look into getting some of those. The light output does not have to be fantastic, they will be more decorative than anything else.

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Fair enough. In that case, hozelock manufacture a set of three lights that can be completely immersed to light the feature if you wish. Might be worth consideration if your priority if lighting the fountain itself rather than anything else around it.

electronicsuk said:

I would suggest you find some ELV (12v) fittings that accept MR16 lamps, then change out the included halogen lamps for 3 or 5w LED replacements.

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As most transformers I know have a minimum load of 20 watt, how would you work out how many lamps to achieve that level using led's thanks

333rocky333 said:

electronicsuk said:

I would suggest you find some ELV (12v) fittings that accept MR16 lamps, then change out the included halogen lamps for 3 or 5w LED replacements.

Click to expand...

As most transformers I know have a minimum load of 20 watt, how would you work out how many lamps to achieve that level using led's thanks

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Most outdoor lighting sets I have come across/used seem to include a traditional laminated transformer. That said, if you do come across a set that uses a switch mode supply and requires a minimum load, it wouldn't be hard to incorporate a standard 20w lamp into the circuit somewhere. Alternatively, acquire a new transformer that doesn't have said requirement!

333rocky333 said:

electronicsuk said:

I would suggest you find some ELV (12v) fittings that accept MR16 lamps, then change out the included halogen lamps for 3 or 5w LED replacements.

Click to expand...

As most transformers I know have a minimum load of 20 watt, how would you work out how many lamps to achieve that level using led's thanks

Click to expand...

How about 20 ÷ either 3 or 5?