Outdoor & Landscape Lighting

The Challenge

A newly built home on a hillside property in Promontory had stunning landscaping — mature trees, stone retaining walls, landscaped garden beds, and a multi-level deck with mountain views — but after dark, the entire property was invisible. The homeowners were hosting outdoor gatherings with temporary string lights and portable work lights, and the unlit pathway from the driveway to the front door was a safety concern for guests.

The property's topography added complexity: a 600-foot driveway with a steep grade, multiple elevation changes across the landscaped area, and a desire to avoid visible conduit or junction boxes that would detract from the landscaping during daylight hours. The homeowners also wanted app-based control so they could adjust lighting scenes for entertaining versus everyday use.

Our Approach

• Designed a four-zone outdoor lighting plan combining low-voltage LED pathway lights along the entire driveway and walkway, line-voltage uplighting for six mature maple and cedar trees, architectural wash lighting on the home's stone facade, and under-rail LED strip lighting on the deck — with a detailed photometric plan showing fixture locations, beam angles, and expected light levels.
• Installed two multi-tap low-voltage transformers concealed behind existing landscaping — with capacity for future expansion to a planned garden area — and ran all underground conductors at proper burial depth with conduit protection where required by Canadian Electrical Code.
• Mounted hardwired deck lighting with concealed wiring — all connections made inside weatherproof junction boxes, with GFCI protection per code and a dedicated indoor switch bank that controls each zone independently.
• Integrated a Wi-Fi smart lighting controller compatible with the homeowners' existing smart home system — enabling app-based zone control, automated dusk-to-dawn scheduling for the pathway zone, dimming for the deck zone during entertaining, and a vacation mode that randomizes lighting patterns to look occupied.
• Installed a dedicated outdoor sub-panel with capacity for future lighting expansion, a future hot tub circuit, and an outdoor kitchen power supply — all documented with as-built drawings showing circuit layouts and transformer locations.
• Coordinated with the homeowners' landscaper to minimize disruption to existing plantings — using directional boring under garden beds and root zones, and hand-trenching in sensitive areas — with full restoration of mulch, turf, and ground cover after conduit installation.

The Result

The completed lighting system transformed the property after dark. The illuminated driveway and pathway provide safe, welcoming access from the street to the front door. The uplighted trees create dramatic silhouettes visible from inside the home's floor-to-ceiling windows. The deck lighting makes the outdoor living space usable for evening entertaining year-round — and the smart controls let the homeowners switch from a bright "arrival" scene to a dimmed "dinner on the deck" scene with one tap.

The Technical Safety BC inspection passed on the first visit, and the homeowners have since hired CN Electrical for their outdoor kitchen electrical rough-in. The landscaper who collaborated on the project has referred CN Electrical to three additional clients seeking professionally installed outdoor lighting.

"We spent so much on landscaping and couldn't see any of it after dinner. CN Electrical changed that completely. The pathway lighting alone is worth it — our guests aren't tripping in the dark anymore — but the tree uplighting is what everyone comments on. It looks like a resort. And being able to dim the deck lights from my phone while we're sitting outside is something I didn't know I needed until I had it."