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Portfolio Landscape Lighting Troubleshooting10/25/2021
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. The easy thing to do is pay a hefty contractor fee to get your. When your Portfolio lighting isnt working correctly, it causes your landscape to look incomplete or simply not finished if you can even see the lighting at all that you created. Portfolio Lighting Troubleshooting For Outdoor Landscape And Indoor Lighting Common Problems Easy To Fix.Troubleshooting a 12V System - Landscape.Some Landscape Lights Not Working For incandescent bulbs, look for breaks in the wire filament (the wires inside the glass part) Look to see if the light fits properly in the socket Check the socket to see if it is giving power. Portfolio 600 Watt Transformer Manual - Falling Water Designs. This method requires equal lengths of wire on all fixtures leading to a central connection point (a hub).Portfolio Landscape Walkway Lights with Low Voltage.Even many lighting manufactures now say that you can “live” with voltage drop. Three of the most widespread problems are burned out bulbs.There are many myths, misconceptions and falsities out there in the common understanding of voltage drop. By scheduling prompt landscape lighting repair in DFW, you ensure that a burned-out lamp is.
Portfolio Landscape Lighting Troubleshooting Drivers In FourYears 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. Let’s do everything we can to help them live a long happy life. Make sure you use a true RMS amp meter this will ensure that you do not overload the wire, transformer or fuse.So the goal then is to get 12 volts to all LED lamps. For example, a 4-watt lamp might pull 6 watts (that’s a 50% increase).Now, that being said, all LED lamps have some increase due to the electronic driver. Volt amp changes in the lamps. 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.Now let’s move on to wiring methods. 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. Minitool partition wizard crackThere are many more disadvantages, including too many points of connection, time consuming install, difficult to troubleshoot, short wire leads do not allow for much movement at the fixture, and daisy chaining does not get equal voltage to all lamps.One last point of concern with the daisy chain method is that generally every fixture needs splicing into place, creating the multiple points of connection expressed above. As soon as you put the system into the ground, you are asking for trouble with bad or poorly made wire connections.There is really only one advantage to the daisy chain method, and that is when placing fixtures in hard-to-reach areas such as rain gutters, second stories and under fascia. 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. When using this method, the home run wire goes to the first fixture, other fixtures are then daisy chained while maintaining wire polarity (very important). The loop method brings the same voltage and power to both ends of the wire run. Due to the large amount of potential voltage drop, you might also experience failing lamps and a poor-looking lighting job due to unequal voltage.Another common method of wiring is known as the “loop” method. Unfortunately, the loop method shares many of the disadvantages of daisy chaining, such as multiple points of connection, time-consuming installation, difficulty troubleshooting, short wire leads that do not allow for much movement at the fixture, and the loop method does not get equal voltage to all lamps. One last caution: do not cut into the “loop” part of the wire when you add a fixture, because you will minimize the loop’s stabilizing effect on the voltage.The main advantage of the loop method is that it can be a quick way to remedy an existing daisy chain voltage drop problem. Matching wire polarity is easy to do just connect the wires with identical markings to each other. It works the same way in electrical wiring by providing the proper voltage to both the first and last fixture on the wire run, helping stabilize the electricity to all fixtures — but only to a point.When using the loop method, the one thing you must be entirely sure about is matching the polarity of the wires or you will create a short, possibly causing bodily harm or damage to the circuit. A similar method is used in irrigation by double feeding the sprinkler zone to help equalize the water pressure throughout. With the “T” method, you are still not getting equal voltage to all lamps, and you can still have numerous connections in the ground. (Note: you can use the loop and “T” methods together.)Again, many of the same disadvantages mentioned above hinder the “T” method and you can add one more — this method requires the use of heavier-gauge wire. This method is great for placing fixtures in hard-to-reach areas. This cuts the wire lamp load in half, in essence, cutting the voltage drop in half too. Although not as common as some other methods, the “T” method brings your home run wire to the middle fixture first, then “T’s” off in both directions. It is easier to avoid any wiring mistakes in the field too. Not being able to relocate a fixture due to changes in the landscape (landscape growth, changing landscape features).The HUB method is the best way to wire, because it delivers proper voltage to each lamp. Check any wire nut connection unprotected in the ground, and you will see for yourself. Wicking draws moisture up under the insulation where it hides, doing its damage by tarnishing the copper wire and destroying conductivity. Reducing in-ground connections, corrosion and wicking. The HUB method is simple: you run a home run wire from the transformer to a HUB and then connect all your fixtures to the HUB — that’s it!The HUB method solves the two biggest problems you face: You are able to check voltage at the HUB instead of finding each fixture. You can cut your wire connections by 80% with the HUB method. Allows you to easily add more fixtures later. The ability to install a secondary fuse for protection. Always buy fixtures with a 25-foot wire lead, and then simply connect them to a HUB that is a central point of connection. ![]()
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