There are plenty of DIY, easy-to-install pond and garden electrical products available to regular people like us who aren’t electricians, and they are safe and legal to install. This article aims to explain the basics of pond and garden lighting and how to set up your own lighting system at home.

First up, let’s talk volts. In Australia, our standard of low voltage electricity is 12 volts (also known as 12v) which is why a transformer is needed to convert 240v from your regular household plug to a much safer 12v. DIY electrical appliances that are 12v are legally allowed to be installed by someone who isn’t an electrician.

What are volts and watts?

When looking at electrical appliances, you’ll see volts and watts used together but they aren’t the same thing. It’s important to know what each means if you plan to set up your own pond and garden lighting system.

• A volt measures the potential difference between two points, so with low voltage transformers they adjust the energy from a 240v power point to a 12v electrical product. 
• A watt measures the power consumption of the appliance, and should be referenced against the wattage of the transformer. 

To start your own lighting system it is best to decide how many lights you would like in and around your pond. The higher the wattage measurement, the brighter the light and thus more energy they consume.

The smaller 1w lighting options are better for small ponds and accenting features and the larger 3w lights are better for shining across larger ponds or highlighting larger waterfalls, features and surrounding trees. The wattage is only referring to the size of the light's globe and power draw but we will get to that later. If you’d like to familiarise yourself with 1w and 3w lights, you can take a look at some lighting options in our store.

PRO TIP: Whatever collection of lights and accessories you choose, always calculate an extra 10% wattage in the overall calculation to account for variance. 

Example 1 - Using PondMAX lights

The pond we are lighting in this example requires the following PondMAX components:

• 1x large 3 watt spot light for a waterfall
• 2x smaller 1.8 watt lights throughout a creek 
• 1x 3-way splitter
• 1x 20 watt transformer

Let's calculate our total number of lights and their wattage:

3w + (1.8w + 1.8w) + 10% variance = 7.26w

The total power draw from all our lights is 7.26w so we can choose a transformer that covers that and allows for the addition of more lights down the track. We chose a 20w transformer for this set up.

This simple set of lights is easy to connect. Plug the 3-way splitter into the transformer, then each of the 3 lights into the 3-way splitter and off you go. 

PRO TIP: You can use extension cables to increase the distance from the 3-way splitter to the light if you need to, or if you were to add more lights you can add another 3-way splitter or convert to a 5-way splitter and add more lights. Watch the total wattage as you may need to increase the size of the transformer so remember to calculate existing lights with new.

Example 2 - Using Aquascape lights

The pond we are lighting in this example requires the following Aquascape components:

• 2 x 3 watt spotlight for a waterfall and two feature trees
• 5 x 1 watt spotlights throughout a pond
• 2 x 1 watt up-light to a cascade 
• 1 x extension cable with 5 quick connects 
• 2 x 3-way splitter
• 1 x 35w transformer

Let's calculate our total number of lights and their wattage:

(3w +  3w ) + (1w + 1w + 1w + 1w + 1w) + (1w + 1w) + 10% variance =  14.3w

Our power draw is only 14.3w so we can use the Aquascape 35w transformer. This transformer will handle a draw of up to 35w, plenty of space for our 14.3w plus room for more lights in the future. 

NOTE: It’s worth noting that you could also use a 20w transformer for this set of lights, however if you chose to add more than 4 x 1w of extra lights in the future, you’d need to upgrade the transformer to a larger one. 

For this example, to link our lights together we can plug the lights into any appropriate point along the extension cable with 5 quick connects and into 3-way splitters, which then connects into the transformer. As long as they all connect together to draw power, you can place the lights at any point that suits.

PRO TIP: Add extension cables to lengthen the reach of any of the lights to the right spot.