Equipment upgrade choices - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

chan58 · 11-12-2008, 08:15 AM

Hi all -

I tracked back through several pages of posts, and didn't really find the answer I seek. Sorry if this is a FAQ-type question.

I inherited some Home-Depot "Malibu" landscape lighting when I bought my home. It worked well enough that I've actually added on to the system. At this point I'm now running about 40 fixtures at 800 watts, through 4 transformers.

I find that I am unhappy with the result (probably no surprise to you pros). The system works perfectly for those 20w pathway lights, and seemed to work fine for the uplights as well. The problem didn't surface until I finally finished building four stone pillars on the side of the house. Naturally, I wanted to illuminate them. What I found is that when using this system to illuminate a series of identical targets (the pillars), you can really notice the degradation of wattage - the first pillar is brightly illuminated, but the last is dim. This installation of four 50-watt uplights is powered by one dedicated 300-watt transformer, using one continuous 100-foot run of 12-gauge landscaping wire. The fixtures, bulbs and wire are brand new. I've played around with the configuration, and I've discovered that this Malibu system is doing a very poor job of delivering steady, clean wattage along the entire run.

So..... What do you recommend in order to upgrade my system without spending thousands? I'm thinking that I can continue to run my Malibu path lights, but upgrade my spots. Specifically, I'm wondering:

1 - if I purchase Kichler spots, what kind of transformer should I use? I need to power about 24 uplights.

2 - what is the ideal wattage for uplighting? I'm thinking 20w on the house (single story), and 50w on the pillars.

3 - I have installed a dedicated 20amp, timed outdoor lighting circuit in my main service panel. The circuit powers 5 incandescent fixtures (mostly entry sconces). If possible, I'd prefer to connect my transformer to this circuit and disable the transformer's timer, so that all the lights come on at the same time, and I only have to adjust one timer. Thoughts?

thanks....

chan58 · 11-14-2008, 12:56 AM

At the risk of sounding as though I'm talking to myself...

I purchased a Kichler 900w transformer, and Kichler uplights. Haven't installed it yet, so jury is still out.

I decided against installing on the outdoor lighting circuit, since I'll likely want to time the landscaping lights differently from the incandescent entry lights...

LightYourNight · 11-15-2008, 03:51 AM

Hi Chan, The 900watt kichler transformer was a good start. I would recommend using 10/2 wire for future wiring this helps with the voltage drop.

Also try making a T connection:
On the 4 columns run the wire past the first 2 columns make a 3 wire splice using some type of sealed splice kit.

Run one wire back to get the first 2 lights and run a second wire to the remain 2 wires. This will even out the voltage on these 4 lights, lowering the drop.

We almost always use 10 gauge wire to help with drop especially on long runs and when you want to add thing you have room. I would recommend using 10 gauge for everything. You will notice that your lights are much brighter.

We use 20 or 35watt lamps on most installs. 50 watt will get too hot and put stress on the sockets and fixtures.

Let me know if you have any more questions. You can find wire, kichler products and other supplies on my our website. Hope this was helpfull.

jrpaul · 03-11-2009, 02:20 PM

another simple fix would to reduce the lamps wattage to at most 35w then you can do the next to the best thing as far as wiring (best being a multi tap transformer with a hub system) and that is to go the the last fixture connect another 12 gage wire running back to the transformer and run a loop method. That is when you feed the lights from both directions. The only draw back is you have to carefully wire the system making sure that you do not cross the wires. As a rule of mine I always tell my guys to make their connections Rigid to Rigid and Smooth to Smooth.