How Many Lights Fit a Low-Voltage Lighting Transformer?

Wondering how many lights you can fit on your in-lite transformer? It involves a little bit of math (don’t panic!) and it’s a lot simpler than you think.

Follow these few simple steps to manually calculate how many light fixtures fit on your transformer. Or, shoot us an email at info@in-sider.com or message us on the website and we can send you our watt calculator that will do all the math for you (we told you we’ve always got your back).

To watch the full video on how to determine how many lights fit on your low-voltage transformer, click here: https://youtu.be/tvzV_DlnDNc

1. Determine Your Transformer’s Current Capacity

First, you have to determine how many watts your transformer can hold. With low-voltage lighting, we recommend only using 90% of the available watts. This will ensure you don’t run into any issues by overloading your transformer and tripping the system. The number of watts a transformer can hold will be listed on the website or on the box of the product.

(Note: W = Watts)

For this example, we are using the in-lite 108 W transformer. Of the 108 W, we only want to use 90% so we have about 97 W to work with.

2. Determine the Wattage of Your Low-Voltage Light Fixtures

Next, determine how many watts each fixture consumes.

This information can be found on the back of product boxes, on our website (scroll down on the product page until you see ‘More Information’), in our brochures, or in our spec sheets. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, shoot us a message and we can help you out. But trust us, you should be able to find the watts your fixture consumes (we put it everywhere to make it easier for you!).

When you find the wattage for your fixture, write it on a piece of paper. Do this for every different fixture in your project.

3. Multiply the Watts by the Total Number of Fixtures

Once you’ve done that, write down how many of each fixture you need. Then multiply the watts by the number of fixtures you will be using in your project. Do this for each fixture type individually. This is the amount of wattage that each type of fixture will consume.

Finally, add all the wattage totals together.

If your total is less than 90% of your transformer capacity, all of your lights fit one transformer!

For this example, our transformer holds 97 W  (90% of 108 W) and our fixtures only consume 44.5 W. So, we only need one transformer and we have room to add more lights at a later date.

It may seem tricky at first, but don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.

Find a Transformer for Your Landscape Lighting Project

We want to help you make your outdoor space unique. Low-voltage landscape lighting adds security, safety, and beauty to any outdoor space. The above steps can help you determine what size transformer you need once your lighting design plan is complete. 

For landscape lighting pros, in-lite offers two professional-grade transformer options compatible with our entire suite of landscape lighting solutions: the HUB-100 and SMART HUB-150.

• The HUB-100 Transformer is a sleek, modern landscape lighting transformer that plugs directly into any standard GFCI outlet to power in-lite’s 12-volt lighting fixtures. Built with a high-impact plastic casing, the HUB-100 Transformer can be mounted just about anywhere indoors or out ‒ on an exterior wall, under a deck, inside a shed, you name it!
• The SMART HUB-150 is a smart lighting transformer that lets your clients control their landscape lighting from any smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. Three individual outlets allow for control of up to three lighting zones independently (for example the backyard, patio, and driveway.) And just like the HUB-100, the SMART HUB-150 works with in-lite’s entire landscape lighting catalog!

in-lite's outdoor lighting products are designed with sustainable materials and the best quality components, and this is no different with our low voltage transformers. These patented products that are constructed with the professional installer in mind: saving time on installation and reducing installation costs.