Four adults seated at outdoor dining table with purple and blue landscape lighting

Transform your outdoor space with low-voltage landscape lighting

January 31, 2025

How to use low-voltage landscape lighting

One of the benefits of smart lighting is how easy it is to use — even outdoors. Thanks to the Low-volt collection of outdoor smart lights, you can easily install path lights to help guide you to the door, deck lighting to create the just the right atmosphere, or even party lights for outdoor occasions.

What is low-voltage landscape lighting?

Low-voltage lights simply plug into any standard wall socket instead of being hardwired directly into your home’s electricity (also called line-voltage lighting or mains). Line voltage in North America is 120 V, and it’s 230 V in most other parts of the world. Low-voltage lighting uses a transformer to reduce that voltage so it’s safer and easier to use.

Philips Hue offers low-voltage landscape lighting with the Low-volt collection, which are specially designed for outdoor spaces.

The transformer in the Philips Hue Low-volt collection is in the included power supply unit (PSU), which comes in two variants in the US: 95 W and 40 W.

Backyard illuminated by low-voltage outdoor wall lights on brick wall

How to install low-voltage landscape lighting

When you set up Low-volt outdoor lighting, you’ll only need a few things to get started:

  • Hue Bridge (if you already have one for indoor lighting, you can just add outdoor lights to it!)
  • Power supply unit (PSU)
  • Low-volt light fixture
  • Cables

Note: All Low-volt light fixtures come with the necessary cables. All base units include both a PSU and cables. Check the packaging to make sure you have everything you need to get started.

  1. Place the light fixture where you'd like, ensuring it’s within 50 feet of the closest Philips Hue light in your house or the Hue Bridge.
    (Wondering why? Philips Hue smart lights form a mesh network where each light extends the Zigbee signal. If your light is too far from the nearest light or your Hue Bridge, it won’t be able to communicate with your system.)
  2. Connect the extension cable between the light fixture and the PSU. If your light is located close enough to the PSU, this may not be necessary.
  3. Plug the PSU into an outdoor socket.
  4. Add the light to your system in the Hue app.
This is a very simple outdoor smart light setup to start with — but the Low-volt system means that extending and expanding is as easy as simply plugging it in.
Close-up of two hands plugging in Philips Hue low-voltage outdoor lighting to a T-connector

Choosing the right Low-volt power supply unit

When adding new low-voltage lights to your existing setup, keep in mind that one PSU can only power so many lights. To figure out how many lights you can use on a single PSU, simply add up the wattage of the light fixtures:

Low-volt setup with 40 W power supply unit

Here’s an example of a Low-volt setup using a 40 W PSU and two types of lights: Lily spotlights and Calla pedestal lights. Both Lily spotlights and Calla pedestals are 8 W each, resulting in this setup:

Lily (8 x 3) + Calla (8 x 2) = 40 W

Diagram of a Philips Hue outdoor lighting setup connected to a 40-watt power supply unit.

Low-volt setup with 95 W power supply unit

Here’s an example of a Low-volt setup using a 95 W PSU and three types of lights: Lily spotlights, Calla pedestal lights, and an 80-inch outdoor lightstrip. Both Lily spotlights and Calla pedestals are 8 W each, while the 80-inch outdoor lightstrip is 19 W. 

Calla pedestals (8 x 6) + 1 outdoor lightstrip (19 x 1) + Lily spotlight (8 x 3) = 91 W

Illustration of low-voltage lighting setup with 95 W power supply and 8 lights

*When a bulb displays "Up to" a certain number of lumens in its specifications, it displays the maximum lumen output of the bulb. It shows how bright the bulb can get at 2700 K (White bulbs) or 4000 K (White ambiance or White and color ambiance bulbs). Learn more about brightness