As soon as you put the system into the ground, you are asking for trouble with bad or poorly made wire connections. The one and only time a daisy chain method can be useful is when you mount fixtures above ground and out of the earth. Sometimes in lighting designs, you are very limited on your wiring space. The number of fixtures and the wattage of lamps along with the wire distance will determine the voltage disparity. The remaining fixtures get less and less voltage in sequence. One of the most common methods of wiring has been the “daisy chain.” The daisy chain brings power to the first lamp (fixture) on a wire run, often called the “home run.” That first fixture receives the most voltage or power. How do you solve this issue? If you have a multi-tap transformer, all you have to do is change to a higher tap at the transformer, and the voltage will increase to the lamp. The other big voltage drop killer is that we typically tap into an existing outlet, and the homeowner adds something to that circuit, thus causing voltage drop. Daytime line voltage at 130 volts ‘in’ giving 13 volts out of the transformer and 10 volts at the lamps can change at night to 120 volts ‘in’ giving 12 volts out of the transformer and 9 volts at the lamps. Use a multi-tap transformer - they have been available for more than 20 years and although we are using smaller-wattage transformers today (100 to 300 watts) we should still use a 12, 13, 14, and 15 multi-tap transformer.īesides the potential shortening of lamp life, we should also think about the future and the potential “what-ifs.” For example, what if your system is on the edge of 10 volts and you want to add lights? Or, what if your voltage changes from daytime to nighttime? This is a typical situation and happens all the time because we usually check voltage in the daytime when it is typically higher by 5 to 10 volts than at night. Let’s do everything we can to help them live a long happy life. So the goal then is to get 12 volts to all LED lamps. Make sure you use a true RMS amp meter this will ensure that you do not overload the wire, transformer or fuse. Now, that being said, all LED lamps have some increase due to the electronic driver. For example, a 4-watt lamp might pull 6 watts (that’s a 50% increase). Lamps are most affected by heat (the killer of LED lamps).
#Low voltage landscape lighting transformer drivers#
Years of lamp testing reveal that changes in voltage (decreasing and increasing the voltage) affect the internal electronics and drivers in four ways: Similarly, LED lamps have an hour rating of 20,000 to 40,000 hours, but not all LED lamps run at their peak performance. The engine running at 4,000 RPM may fail considerably sooner. Both engines will work, but my engine (running at 2,200 RPM) may last 200,000 miles or more. To explain, take the following example: A truck engine is designed to run optimally at 2,200 rpm, but I run my engine at 2,200 rpm, and you run yours at 4,000 rpm. With the advent of LED lamps with a range of 10 to 15 or 18 and even up to 30 volts, you would think “Oh boy, isn’t this great? No more voltage drop.” Well, this is really doing an injustice to our industry. Even many lighting manufactures now say that you can “live” with voltage drop. There are many myths, misconceptions and falsities out there in the common understanding of voltage drop.
This method requires equal lengths of wire on all fixtures leading to a central connection point (a hub). The only wiring method that can get equal voltage to every fixture is an equalized hub method of wiring.
Second, you need to be able to distribute equal voltage to every single fixture in your landscape lighting system, and that takes a well-planned wiring method.
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