Street lighting device on the country area or in the courtyard of a private house is a very important task that requires a comprehensive solution. Unlike the apartment in a high-rise building, the situation outside of which is not entirely interested in the owner, owners of their own homes need to control the site around it. Yes, and much better to walk in the evening along the fresh air along the lit path of your yard.

Installing the street lighting system of the courtyard at first glance seems simple matter. However, for normal operation of the entire equipment complex, it must be properly pick up and mounted. On how to make lighting on the household site - hereinafter.

Types of courtyard lighting in a private house

Lighting on the summer or household plot performs three functions:

1. Technical. It consists in highlighting the site to ensure the safety of moving on the site in the dark. For this purpose, ordinary halogen or LED lights are bought. Place them along the tracks.
2. Decorative. Such lighting is part of the landscape design and serves that with the help of light, emphasize the beauty of the vegetable world of the indent. Especially often many owners highlight alpine slides, mini-pools, flower beds. To arrange decorative illumination, color lights are used with a wide palette. To make the picture pleased with the eye, some decorative backlight systems are managed by special computers that are satisfied with the real color shows. True, it is worth noting that they stand quite expensive and only specialists should be mounted.
3. Security feature. The lighted household plot does not attract small thieves that are constantly trying to pull from the yard all that "badly lies." Even if the owners are not at home, then the illuminated area will force thieves to think about whether it is worth climbing there. Sometimes lighting with motion sensors works better than security alarms.

Private Lighting Planning

No installation of the lighting system is impossible without detailed planning. Ideally, a plan for the placement of light sources should be drawn up indicating their type, features of the connection, types and sizes of wires, posting columns, etc. Thanks to this planning, the installation of lighting on the household plot will be made much easier.

The main place where the mandatory installation of lighting devices is necessary is the porch of the house and its gate (wicket). In the dark, the owner of the manor should control everything that happens at his gate. As a rule, lamps that illuminate the area in front of the wicket are supplied with motion sensors. In this case, the light will turn on when the person approaches the goal. It is very convenient and also allows you to significantly save electricity. Usually, LED searchlights are used as a lighting instrument, which differ in excellent light output with a small electricity consumption. Another indisputable advantage of LED lamps is their long service life in comparison with other types of lighting devices.

If there is a recreation area on the site (barbecue area, playground, a bath with a surrounding area) is highlighted both, and the tracks that lead to it. For the convenience of parking in the dark, the car parking place should be covered.

When planning the entire lighting system, it is necessary to clearly understand how they will be connected by an electrical cable. The cable can be laid through the air line between the lighting columns either by the underground tunnel. Each methods have its advantages and disadvantages.

Mounting the air line is much easier and cheaper. However, for this operation it is necessary to buy a special cable that will not be exposed to stretching under the influence of wind. Also, for its suspension, it is necessary to use a special wire that will hold it canopy. In addition, with strong hurricanes there is a high probability of a cable break from a strong wind.

With underground cable location, it can serve several decades, because there are no external forces on it. True, the cable laid in the trench must be hiding in a metalwork that adds costs to a general estimate.

Installing lighting posts in a private yard

If there are natural supports for installing lighting lamps, the task of installation of the entire system is greatly simplified. As a natural support, the wall of any building or its roof, etc. Under objective reasons, the trunks of trees are undesirable.

In the absence of supports, they must be constructed independently. Lighting columns are made of hollow steel pipes, and installed on a concrete foundation. For its arrangement, pits of 0.4х0.4 m and a depth of 0.5 m are digging. At its bottom, it is placed by a layer of sand or rubble, and form a formwork. In the formwork, a hole is done in which the corrugation is carried out. It is displayed upstairs to pave the lamp cable. Further, several pieces of reinforcement are installed inside the formwork, or thick wires as a reinforcing belt. Then the anchor bolts are installed inside the formwork, to which the pillar will be screwed. After that, the formwork is poured concrete. Concrete is prepared on the basis of cement-sand mix in the ratio of 1 part of cement on 3 parts of sand. When the places for setting the poles are ready, the pillars are installed in a vertical position with the required leveling. Adjustment is carried out using metal gaskets.

The wires are stacked in a trench of a depth of at least 0.7 m. The distance from the power cable to the nearest building should be at least 0.5 m. The bottom of the trench is swept away with sand or explosion. The cable is placed in a protective metalwork. After the cable is laid, the entire system is connected. Lantern wiring is connected to a trunk cable using special terminals. Wiring twists in this case are not allowed.

Special attention when installing the courtyards lighting system, it is necessary to pay the choice of the power cable. It must have a margin of strength at least 25% of current consumed by all lighting devices. For example, if all lamps in the system work at a current 10a, that is, it is about 2 kW, then the wiring must be calculated for the current 13-14a. If it is planned to additionally install light sources on the site, the track is better to pave with a margin. Select the cable is better in double insulation, so it will be better protected. For such work, an aluminum cable is quite suitable, it is much cheaper than copper analogs.

The entire lighting system is assembled on the same shield on which the machines are installed to disable each branch. It is better to make lighting from several branches, as it will give the opportunity to turn off only one of them for repair.

Choosing Lighting Lighting

Currently, the choice of external lighting devices is very high, which makes it possible to assemble the system under your requirements. All lamps are divided into several groups. Basically division occurs depending on the lamp, which is used in it.

• Halogen lamps. The glow of halogen lamps occurs due to the transmission of electric current through the flask with vapors of substances - halogen, such as iodine, bromine, fluorine, etc. Such lamps are not too sensitive to voltage drops and rigid operating conditions. Therefore, the term of their use in comparison with incandescent lamps is much greater. Also, they are much more effective than "Ilyich's light bulbs", since with the same light output, consume much less electricity. There are such lamps are not too expensive.
• Sodium. The principle of action of such lamps is almost identical to halogen. In the flask of such a lamp glow sodium pairs. Their glow has a warm, gentle shade, which allows them to be used to create various light effects. Another positive point in the work of sodium lamps is the service life, which reaches 30 thousand hours.
• LED lamp. The most modern types of lighting devices. Different with low power consumption, long service life, low sensitivity to voltage drops. LED lamps can be built on the basis of one over a bright LED or a large number of details of less power. Since the LED lamp is a high-tech product that has a special voltage controller, prices for these products still remain quite high prices. However, it is worth noting that every year they decrease.

Autonomous lamps for the coverage of the courtyard of a private house

Many owners of sites on which frequent shutdowns occur, prefer to collect an external lighting system based on autonomous luminaires. The principle of their work consists in nutrition from the battery installed inside. The latter is charged in the daytime of the day from the solar cell.

Advantages of autonomous lamps:

1. Mobility. Since when installing autonomous luminaires, there is no need to install the wiring, they can be installed and disassembled in a short time. This allows you to remove the system from the country area for the winter, if the cottages do not use.
2. Small costs of installation work. Some lamps just stick to the ground, and they will earn at the right time. There is no need for electrical and earthworks.
3. Low electricity consumption. Basically autonomous luminaires are based on LED lamps, which reduces electricity consumption several times.

Lighting in the yard: photo

Lighting yards: video