Whole garden / yard lighting setup

Hardware
1

I have fairly large garden / yard (27x70 meters) and now it has no lighting.
I am starting almost a blank page for this but I have a couple of objectives and a few situational advantages but also some concerns.

Objectives:

  1. Helping security cameras. I have good security cameras that are pretty good but they struggle in the depth of the night to cover the edges of the property. i.e. somebody drilled out my gate chain in between 2-5am.
    So to help that I need a few lights that are 3000K or warmer to kick in in those hours and run for long periods of time.
  2. To not need a hand torch in the evening. If am going to a shed or the gate or just coming in late at night because of dense trees (including firs and pines) I really can not walk without a flash light.
    To fix that I would need some lights that I could control based on presence or via HA automations.

Advantages:

  1. Powered structures in the ends of the property. I have garage and a shed that are on the opposite sides of the property and have mains power in them, so I can power or attach things too it.
  2. Re-fencing. I will need to build a new fence, soon and I could burry a wire along the perimeter of property/fence for some lighting.
  3. Recycling. I after some other work I have some outdoor light bodies with E27 sockets…

I was considering two options:
a) Fence lighting. I can put low voltage DC transformers and relays in the buildings and run a line around property.
b) Solar + battery in the trees. Using wireless for switching and some some smart bulbs in old enclosures and hanging them in the trees.

Concerns:

  1. Wireless reliability. Since there is a lot of vegetation, a longish range (50 meters from the house in the furthest point) and the house has metal roof. I am not sure if wifi or zigbee will reach the lights to turn them on and off reliably.
  2. Wired longevity. I saw some wired solutions that advertise “no soldering needed” clip ons that clip into wire with teeth that penetrate the isolation. Am I being paranoid or is that a really bad idea. (It gets really wet in spring or autum so wire would effectively be submerged if placed underground)
2

I use an ancient 12V 60W solar panel (it’s as big as a modern 200W panel) on my shed roof that charges an 18Ah SLA battery. There’s an ESP32 board running ESPHome with two relays attached that I can use to automate the garden lighting.

I used these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32889150501.html and am very happy with them. The price does reflect the fact that they are not cheap junk, are well made and will last a long time.

These come in handy for installation: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002658969979.html

3

I should probably mentioned that I am in Europe and the lamp listing is not available to me but the connectors look grate in local hardware store I saw similar ones for 6 EURs and that has t junctions for 3 EUR. I think I may consider using something like that if I go with wired option

4

That’s unfortunate. They are really nice garden lights.

5

Not being in Europe, I will give you some general pointers as someone who has kind of done what you want to do.

1.) Make sure you install your WiFi for great coverage and use the proper antennas required. 27x70 meters is a large area to cover. Most of your schools and other large organizations will pop one or two on a pole and trench power and even Ethernet to these locations. I know, this is going to be the ugly part of what I am telling you to do. Unfortunately, physics is something I cannot really cheat on. As far as me, I was lucky because I have a detached garage at the end of my property with underground Cat-6 and power to it so I have an access point on either side.

2.) Antennas matter. In your situation, I would look at access points where you can install different antennas. For instance, your access point at the edge of that area might not need to cover as much behind it as it does to that large area. Make sure you use antennas designed for that. Behind that area, you use other access points.

3.) Pay attention to wiring. Never leave it exposed unless you have lighting arrestors in place. One lighting strike and it is over. Most of your outdoor access points will have that or options for that. If you wire devices, make sure you conduit them and protect them from the elements. I always terminate runs in female RJ-45 because that male clip gets brittle with age and breaks off and then you have to re-terminate…easier to just replace a patch cord.

4.) Run around with an WiFi analyzer app on your phone and look for the dead zones and think about how to solve them.

5.) For WiFi, take advantage of your options. 2.4GHz is going to be slower but around twice the range of 5GHz. WiFI 6E with 6GHz is going to be even faster than 5GHz but a little shorter on range. I hate when people use separate SSIDs between bands (2G vs 5G). That is for marketing. Use band steering so that devices are more apt to connect to 5GHz when range but if they are not, they fall back to 2.4GHz.

6.) If you can, use the utilities in your access points to make sure your channels are assigned to channels with the lowest amount of interference. In your situation, transmit power is going to want to be high. If you are in an area with a lot of client density requiring shorter distance between access points, you want to reduce power so you do not interfere with those other access points.

Once you get your WiFi rock-solid in that area, then your options are better. I stream 4K movies over wireless in my backyard on my Plex server, uncompressed and I never have problems.

The rabbit hole goes deep and far. There is so very much to take into consideration, which is why they refer it as engineering.

6

I am not planning in covering the entire area in WiFi but I will add some point to point connections to the garage and shed and it will add connectivity to those places and option to control wired devices.