Garden Lights transformer: choosing 24, 60 or 150 W

A Garden Lights transformer turns 230 volts into 12 volts and comes in 24, 60 and 150 W. Do not load it up to the number on the box. Garden Lights allows 45 W of lights on the 60 W and 112.5 W on the 150 W, because LED lights load a transformer more heavily than their wattage says.

Anyone who sees "60 W" on a box in the shop, adds up six spots of 5 W and two wall lights of 4 W, gets 38 W and thinks there is plenty of room. That is right, but only just: 7 W is left, not 22 W. We did not find such a 75 percent rule at in-lite or Lightpro.

Which Garden Lights transformer do you need?

Choose on what your lights ask together, and compare that with the column "what you connect", not with the number in the name. Up to 24 W the smallest one fits, up to 45 W the 60 W and up to 112.5 W the 150 W.

From left to right: the 24 W, 60 W and 150 W transformers and the Flex main cable SPT-2. Product photos by Garden Lights.

The reason is in the manual of the 60 W and the 150 W. Because of the power factor of LED lighting, the transformer may be loaded to at most 75 percent of its rating. For 60 W that is 45 W, for 150 W it is 112.5 W. Those are also the figures on the product pages. For the 24 W, the product page gives a maximum load of 24 W.

Do not go over it. The manual warns that too high a load can do irreparable damage to the transformer. Garden Lights counts everything that hangs on the cable: lights and accessories.

The product pages of the three transformers mention no timer or dusk sensor. You buy one separately: the dark/light sensor with timer (6009011). It switches the lights on when it gets dark and off when it gets light, takes up to 150 W and has a 1 metre cable.

How far can the Flex cable run?

Up to 80 metres of cable, when you load the transformer to its maximum and spread the lights evenly along the cable. That is how the Garden Lights FAQ puts it. If most of the light sits at the back of the garden, at the end of the cable, you do not meet the second condition.

The main cable is called Flex, type SPT-2. It has no fixed connection points and comes in rolls of 10, 25 and 50 metres. The wire is 16 AWG. That is thinner than Lightpro's 14 AWG and in-lite's 14/2. Besides Flex, Garden Lights sells a fixed cable system, SPT-1 and SPT-3, with fixed connection points. Which system you take depends on your preference, not on your garden.

Here too, the transformer decides how many lights a cable takes, not the cable. Buying a second cable for more lights does not help; a bigger transformer does.

The cable does not have to go underground, because the system runs at low voltage. Lay it along the inside of a border or against an edge, where the spade does not go through it. A steel edge along the border is a good guide for it; which edge suits which surface is in the types of garden edging and their sizes.

Connecting lights and branches with the Flex connectors

A light goes onto the main cable with a Flex connector Female, at any point you like. You use the Flex connector Male at the end of the cable, to connect it to the transformer or to make a branch.

For a branch with a leftover piece of SPT-2 you need both: a Female on the main cable and a Male at the start of the loose piece. That way a side run goes to the fence or to a tree at the back of the garden.

Three lights in one spot, around a tree or by a seat? Then the cable splitter is handy (6006011). It has three outlets, is waterproof and handles up to 150 W.

Choose the fixed system and still have a connection point free, and you plug an extension cable straight into it. On a Flex cable you always work with the Female.

Worked example: six Arcus spots and two Gilvus wall lights

Take six Arcus spots of 5 W in the borders and two Gilvus wall lights of 4 W on the fence. Together that is 30 W plus 8 W, so 38 W.

The 24 W is too small. The 60 W carries 45 W of lights, so 38 W fits, with 7 W left. One more Arcus makes 43 W and still fits. Two more make 48 W, which goes over the 45 W: then you need the 150 W, which carries up to 112.5 W.

For the cable in a garden of six by twelve metres, a Flex roll of 25 metres is enough. Run it from the transformer along the borders, put the spots on it with a Female, and use a Female and a Male to make a side run to the two wall lights. At 38 W the cable stays far below the 80 metres Garden Lights gives at full load.

Smart switching with the Smart Life app

The Garden Lights transformers are not smart. Smart control runs through the Smart Life app, in two ways.

With the Switch Smart you make an existing or new 12 volt system controllable from the app. It works over Wi-Fi and needs no gateway.

For the Zigbee lights and the Motion Sensor Smart you need the Gateway Smart. It converts Wi-Fi into Zigbee. You then set up a Zigbee light in the app, and on the colour lights you also pick the colour.

Both work only on a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network, not on 5 GHz. If you want automatic light without a phone, the dark/light sensor with timer does that.

Planning Garden Lights in your own garden

How many watts you need only becomes clear once you know where each light stands. In tuinontwerp.app you put your plot down to scale, with your house, your terrace and your borders. Under Lighting you choose Garden Lights, and then you see only the lights, cables and transformers of Garden Lights, because brands do not go together in one cable system.

A light gets the size the Garden Lights product page gives in the app. A Gilvus hangs on the house wall, a shed or the fence; a pond spot stands in the water. You draw the Flex cable past your lights. The overview adds up the watts of your Garden Lights lights and sets them beside what your transformers supply. Under Needed the app names which transformer you need and how many, and when the lights ask more than a transformer supplies, or the Flex cable runs too far, it says so, with what to do about it. Move the clock to the evening and you see where the light falls.

Garden Lights and Lightpro come from the same maker, but we found no statement that their parts fit each other. Read also how the Lightpro transformers work and which HUB and cable to choose at in-lite. The other posts about building your garden are in the construction category.

Count 45 W on the 60 W and 112.5 W on the 150 W, and keep the Flex cable within 80 metres. Start with your address at the bottom of this page and place your Garden Lights lights in your own garden.