Elite LED Inground Light 12v in Black or Silver Havit Lighting - HV2881T

The Elite 3 W is the smallest fitting in Havit's aluminium recessed range — a Ø52 mm face over a 38 mm hole, drawing 3 W from a 12 V DC supply. It is sold in two finishes on this page: HV2881T-BLK-12V in poly powder coated black and HV2881T-SLV-12V in natural silver aluminium. Nothing else differs between them.

Check the IP rating before you decide where it goes

This fitting is IP65. That is protection against water jets, and it is not a rating for temporary immersion — a distinction that matters the moment the hole holds water. Havit's data sheet gives the installation type as Ground or Wall – Recessed, and its drainage detail is a warranty condition rather than advice: a 100 mm space beneath the canister, 100 mm to 150 mm of crushed rock under that, and a slight fall on the finished ground so surface water runs away from the fitting. Set the canister flush with the finished ground. If the hole holds water, an IP65 fitting is being asked to do something it is not rated for.

Supply, driver, and two conditions Havit puts in writing

It runs on 12 V DC from a suitable 12 V DC LED driver. Do not connect the fitting directly to 240 V. Two warranty conditions travel with the low-voltage supply and both are easy to breach on a long garden run: the voltage arriving at the fitting must be within ±5% of the rated figure, and the fitting must sit no more than 25 m from its LED driver. Where several fittings share one driver they are wired in parallel, and the 300 mm tail on each fitting is soldered, then sealed with adhesive lined heat shrink or a gel cap — Havit voids the warranty if that joint is not made watertight. Its HV9911, HV9912 and HV9913 weatherproof connectors are the alternative it lists.

Colour temperature is chosen in the wiring, once

The light source is a built-in LED — there is no globe and no socket. It is tri-colour, and the setting is made at installation rather than on a switch: the neutral cables are marked 3000k and 5500k, and joining both together to the driver's neutral gives you 4000K. Output climbs with colour temperature here — 240 lm at 3000K, 250 lm at 4000K and 270 lm at 5500K — so the coolest setting is the brightest, which is the opposite of several other Havit tri-colour fittings. Whichever cable you do not use must be terminated and made watertight. The beam is 36° and the lens is traffic resistant, with an IK08 impact rating.

Aluminium, and the one place it must not go

Body and face are aluminium, and Havit's instruction sheet is explicit: aluminium and 304SS fittings must not be installed within 5 km of any salt water environments. That is a siting restriction, not a maintenance note. Lights For You publishes these figures from the HV2881T data sheet and the HV2881T/HV2882T installation instructions, with Havit's 3 Years Replacement warranty on items ordered after 01/01/2022.