outside lighting advice needed

[stringman]

Hi all,

We are in the process of doing up the garden and i feel the need for various bits of garden lighting.

There is power( circuit board and trips) in the garrage at the end of the garden

There is a power junction box on the kitchen wall

there is an IP56 double socket halfway along the garden (this powers the pond pump.)

I am thinking of running in some mains voltage halogen spots around the garden (from the garage power) and wondered if they would be dimmable?

If they are is there such a thing as outside dimmer or would i be able to fit a dimmer in an IP rated enclosure?

I know the logical thing would be to fit the dimmer in the garage and then put in an IP rated switch out side but i would prefer to be able to control it from the garden

also is it best to run a seperate mains feed to each light or can i "loop" them?

many thanks in advance

Andy

 

[breezer]

You can buy such a thing as an IP rated box which you can install a dimmer, but my question is do you really want one?

why go to the bothe of installing lights in a garden and then dim them?

why not buy some nice decorative garden lights that are 12v , wont need dimming.

lots of small lights will look better than a few big ones

 

[stringman]

Thanks for that.
the reasons are two fold:

I like the idea of being able to control the light level.

Also with the 12v lights there seems to be limited cable lengths and the last lot of low voltage lights i had proved to be unreliable ( the transformer)

cheers

 

[breezer]

nothing says you can't join cable, and you do get what you pay for.

I made up my garden lights about 6 years ago, still running (well ok only at night)

my "problem" with a dimmer for garden lighting is that you have to go to the dimmer to dim them, (yes i know you can get remote dimmers, but most are IR not RF, which means you will need line of sight for them to work)

The other thing is with a dimmer they all dim at the same time.

for something to look nice why not have coloured lights? you can buy lighting gels to change the colour of white lights, some even have coloured glass filters

I have a mixture of lights around my garden, (some white, some fixed colour, a fewcolour changing) none of them dimmed

other thing is, if they are plugged in and say 12v you do not have to worry about part P