Thread: Night before Halloween blues!!!

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Well,
I did a test run on thursday before Halloween and I found I did'nt have enough lighting on my showcase. I was only using Led black lights and a few Par 30 green flood lights. I was so discusted, how can this happen, I worked all year long on all these props and they where vertually in the dark.
I went to Home Depot Halloween morning and bought a outide low voltage transformer for landscape lighting 300 Watt made by Hampton Bay. I used 4, 50 watt spot light made by the same company and my yard was lit up like Christmas time. I thought about the theory and then the day after returned the transformer and purchased a 600 watt transformer and now I have two curcuits to utilize. I wanted lighting on the other side of my driveway but almost gobbled up the wattage for my main needs. Don't let this happen to you, they are very simple to install and work very well. I had many compliments on the lighting and effects this year. Hope this may help you guys not be in the dark next year!!

Good thinking! Is that a system similar to Malibu lighting, in that it is comprised of a transformer which feeds into a rather long wire which you run around your yard, and can tap in to at any point along the wire?

Did you use white lighting, or the colored bulbs? I believe they also make colored covers for the spots (similar to using a gel on a typical spotlight can), if you don't want to fiddle with changing bulbs.


As a side bonus (in my opinion), the system is 12v, so you can hook home-made LED spotlights to the system and barely make a dent in the load on the transformer (depending on the number of LED's per spotlight...mine usually consist of 4 bright LED's and one 640ohm resistor, and I think they operate around 2-3 watts per spotlight (half-watt per LED or so), so you can sprinkle these spots all over the place if you need to).

Yes it is the same as Malibu transformers or lighting. I did notice that they do offer a spot with different colored lenses you could attach to the spot. I am not sure of the wattage of the spot light but will investigate that. I noticed that Led's are very cool burning but do not give off the brilliant light light like a halogen. I did touch them through out the night they do warm up. Unlike a led light which is very cool to the touch but Led gives off a much bluer tint and not as bright.

I used a couple of the plastic $5 Malibu 4 watt spots in my yard and they worked great. You can get colored bulbs in bulk on Ebay. I was only running 2 of them, so i just used a wall wart. I am planning on buying a power supply this year and then just snaking a cable throughout the yard and using those to highlight various props. You can even adjust the diameter of the spot.

I was thinking if you invested in enough cable to run a line through the yard, you could just move the spots where you need them from year to year since the just pinch the cable and really leave no damage behind.

That is a very good idea to use landscape lighting. Low wattage and easy to use.

Just remember, more light is not better. But since those more highlight then wash you can get away with more of them. I am sure those work great when you have a line of lights or props in a row because you only need one cord.