Tivah Solid Copper TRI Colour

There is one instruction on this fitting that catches almost everybody, and it is worth knowing before the box is open: wear gloves. Havit's installation sheet for the Tivah range states it plainly — when installing copper fittings, gloves must be worn to avoid oils transferring to the fitting. Skin oil on raw copper does not wipe off. It sets as a fingerprint that patinates at a different rate from the metal around it, so a fitting handled bare-handed can carry visible prints for its whole life. Five minutes of care at installation is the difference.

Solid copper, and it is meant to change

The head is solid copper, and the datasheet describes the colour as "copper (will age over time)". New, it is bright pink-orange. Outdoors it moves through bronze to a dark chocolate brown, and in a coastal or damp position it will eventually pick up green in the recesses. There is no coating to fail, which is why copper is the finish people choose when they want the fitting to look better in five years than it did in its first week. If you want it to stay bright, this is not the material.

A metre of stem, which is what makes it a bollard

The spike is 1000 mm long and 23 mm in diameter. Set into a bed it puts the head near knee height, which is where a path light belongs — high enough to clear planting, low enough not to glare at anyone walking past. Bury or sleeve as much of the stem as you need. Fix the height before the run is buried; the cable leaves the bottom of the column.

Globe, beam and supply

One 5 W MR16 tri-colour globe is supplied, in a 20 W socket. The colour is set on the globe itself — cover off anti-clockwise, glass out, switch on the side of the globe between 3000K, 4000K and 5500K, preset to 3000K. Output is 270 lm, 285 lm and 300 lm respectively. On copper the warm setting is almost always right; cool white fights the metal. Because the globe is replaceable the beam angle belongs to the globe, and the one in the box is a 120° flood.

• 12 V DC via a suitable 12 V DC LED driver; do not connect the fitting directly to 240 V.
• Within 25 m of the driver and ±5% of 12 V — both are warranty conditions.
• 2 m of reinforced cable, joints soldered and sealed watertight.
• Not dimmable. 90° tilt / 270° swivel, and never force it past the stop — the internal cable tangles and shorts, which is excluded from cover.

IP65, IK08, protection class 3, CRI above 80, and a 3-year replacement warranty.

Ask Lights For You for the copper if you want a garden that looks lived-in rather than installed — it is the one finish in this family that most people end up preferring after a couple of years.