Installing a driveway light may seem complicated but it can be an easy affair if you are aware of the layout of your drive, the construction of the drive and the distribution of driveway lights along the drive.
Making a survey draw is the first step to installing driveway lights. The drawing is supposed to drawn according to the scale and need not contain fine details. You can use an A4 sheet and scale of 1:50 to draw the survey drawing. Some of the things that you need to mark on the drawing sheet are: source of electrical supplies i.e. either your mains box or the garage, the distribution of the street lighting etc. It is advisable to put the street lights on one side of the drive and on a distance of 6-10 meters.Each street light will require a junction box, which can be purchased from the market. Lay the junction box on some concrete material (100cm thick), a meter away from the street light. Once this is done, you can start installing driveway lights. Dig a trench to lay the ducts. The ducts are to be laid on sand above the cable and the rest of the trench is to be filled with soil. Dig trenches of about 60cms in depth and refill the trenches with graded stones to make it compact. After this is done, restore the drive surface. Around each duct, lay a base that is concrete. Streetlights are fixed to this concrete base (this may require drilling of the concrete base). You can read through the installation instructions for more details.Take out the cable through the chambers and ducts with the help of draw cords. You can either loop the cables through the street lights or make a T-joint in the chambers. You can take the help of an electrician if you find it difficult. In the concrete base (streetlight base), join the cables to the junction boxes. Fit the bulbs to the streetlights. Your driveway lights are installed and now you can connect the system to the source of electricity. To save electricity, you can even attach a photo-sensitive cell to the driveway lighting system.Driveway lighting not only enhances the beauty of your house especially if you have a long drive but also increases the security of your home.