Hi all,
I'm landscaping the garden and would like to incorporate some lighting while I have the opportunity.
I'm thinking around 5 or 6 spike spotlights - 2 will uplight a couple of tall trees which are on the side and back boundary of the garden and the rest I will space out equally along the fences. Though not essential, would be good if I can also incorporate a rope light along a pathway.
I have two weatherproof outdoor sockets fitted already so would like to use one of those sockets to power all the lights.
I would like smart control of the lights and already have a number of smart devices inside my house with a Smartthings hub bringing them all together.
What is my best option? I won't be able to use a smart plug socket because the weatherproof enclosure will not close with a bulky smart plug attached. I can think of two options:
Finally, if anyone has experience or knowledge of how bright the spotlight bulbs should be at a minimum for decent ambient uplighting of fences and trees I'd appreciate the insight!
TIA.
I'm landscaping the garden and would like to incorporate some lighting while I have the opportunity.
I'm thinking around 5 or 6 spike spotlights - 2 will uplight a couple of tall trees which are on the side and back boundary of the garden and the rest I will space out equally along the fences. Though not essential, would be good if I can also incorporate a rope light along a pathway.
I have two weatherproof outdoor sockets fitted already so would like to use one of those sockets to power all the lights.
I would like smart control of the lights and already have a number of smart devices inside my house with a Smartthings hub bringing them all together.
What is my best option? I won't be able to use a smart plug socket because the weatherproof enclosure will not close with a bulky smart plug attached. I can think of two options:
- Buy normal LED spike spotlights which take GU10 bulbs and then install smart GU10 bulbs in each one. I'm not sure if I might have connectivity issues with the bulbs which will be farthest from my house and this could get expensive even with 5 or 6 bulbs but seems an obvious option. For the rope light, see if I can find a smart weatherproof strip to connect to my Smarttings.
- Buy normal LED spike spotlights with "dumb" bulbs or built-in LED chips and a "dumb" rope light and wire all of these to a module like Fibaro which gives me the smart control. I'm not sure how I would wire the Fibaro module and whether that many lights can be wired up to one module.
Finally, if anyone has experience or knowledge of how bright the spotlight bulbs should be at a minimum for decent ambient uplighting of fences and trees I'd appreciate the insight!
TIA.