A little help please.

[hoskm01]

Originally Posted by klkanders

Gregg is correct! Use all the helpful stuff already stated and perhaps if you have time read as much as you can handle in the lighting forum.
By the way I have been to the New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins CO. Man do I love the free samples! Fat Tire Amber Ale mmm

I appreciate it. I will be reading around some more; I like landscape lighting, just no motivation professionally or monetarily at my house to get into it seriously. Ill stick to pipes, heads and turf.

Originally Posted by JoeyD

Funny you mention that, I have been there as well!! That was the first place I ever had Fat Tire. now I can buy it my local liquor store. I love that brew!!

They absolutely make the most delicious brews in the country. Look around if you can, they have MANY more than just Fat Tire which is a staple most places here in the west.

[irrig8r]

Matt, reading your post again it sounds like you have two runs coming off of a single cable that then runs back to the transformer? Better if you have them run back separately in your case, or like Joey says use a higher voltage "home" run out to where you split off, with a multi-tap transformer like Unique's or FX's.

Do you have a decent multi-tester? What's the outgoing voltage at your transformer?

And "multi-tap" refers to the different taps with incrementally increasing voltage available. FX goes up to 15 V. Unique goes up to 15 or 22 V. Malibu doesn't offer such as far as I know.

[INTEGRA Bespoke Lighting]

Bollocks to a new transformer being necessary. If the off the shelf kit transformer is 300W and delivering 12V at its secondary tap, then you can sucessufully deliver enough voltage to the fixtures in a simple system with the right wire and good connections. Its a matter of understanding and technique.

This guy is clearly looking for a simple solution to a simple system... lets not dismiss him becuase his technology and techniques are not Pro Grade.

Please contact me directly via email or phone and I will help you through this.

Have a great day.

[klkanders]

Right On Gregg and James! Good Advice
Joey If I make it to AZ lets have a Fat Tire or two!

[JoeyD]

Originally Posted by klkanders

Right On Gregg and James! Good Advice
Joey If I make it to AZ lets have a Fat Tire or two!

klkanders Absolutly!!



James..I would be thrilled if you could explain to us how you would prevent VD from effecting a light 100ft away and only a 12v tap. Please enlighten us??

Lets just say that Matt here on one run is using 20w lamps. He has 4 20w lamps on a 12/2 cable. 20X4=40 divided by 12 (voltage)=6.67amps

So our VD method is as follows:

Distance X 2 (AC there and back) 200ftX.00162(12/2 resistance)X Amps
200 X .00162 X 6.67 = 2.161 volts of drop.
That means it would require a 14v tap to get 12v out to his lights

Now we can do the same thing for 10/2 wire. Resistance is .00108
8/2 wire Resistance is .00064

10/2 is 1.44 Volts of Drop requires a 13v tap
8/2 is .854 Volts of Drop still would require a 13v tap.

Next you have to discuss the wiring layout. More than likely this is a daisy chain, so you will have continues drop. Light closes to TF will be burning nice and bright the lamps further down the line will still be dim.

So you can argue 8 guage wire, but at that point you may as well buy a decent TF. I dont know off hand how much 8/2 costs but it has to be well over $.60 per foot?

On top of that once you put a load on that TF that 12v tap is no longer 12v.

Now maybe I am missing something but I have a pretty hard time believeing that you can go 100ft with 4 lights with only a 12v tap and still get 12v to your lamps.

Matt, if you do want to upgrade to a new unit I would be more than happy to tell you exactly what you need to do here. But maybe James has a magic trick that will not require you to spend any more money.

Joey D.

[INTEGRA Bespoke Lighting]

Joey, I am away from home right now in Toronto on a commercial job and thus away from my tables, resources and slide rule. But off the top of my head:

80W load on 100' of 12/2 cable = 1.0 Volts Drop giving 11volts at the LAST fixture in that scenario. Certainly above the lower limit threshold of 10.75 volts to maintaim lumen output and colour accuracy of a 12v lamp. Its not perfect, but clearly "do-able"
(Total watts on Cable x Length of run in feet / Cable Size Constant (7500 for 12/2) = VD

I have always preferred to run my lamps at between 11.2 and 11.7 volts. The output is still very good and the extra lamp life helpful.

Gregg, do you have your handy dandy NS Voltage Drop Slide Rule handy? Care to chime in?

[hoskm01]

Thanks for the help guys.

My system is "Daisy Chained" so I dont know if that technically qualifies as a splice. Nice and easy, just two 100 foot sections tied together. The wire is #12. I would describe it as two multistranded braids wrapped individually by the plastic/rubber coating though together as one, like the picture.





The transformer has terminals "A","B" and "C". Apparently "C" is only for a photo cell? This is the piece seen here.



You guys totally lost me on the math/conversion nonsense, but Ill try to get out there with my meter and check it out.

[hoskm01]

I want in on the beer, Ill bring.

[JoeyD]

Originally Posted by James Solecki - INTEGRA

Joey, I am away from home right now in Toronto on a commercial job and thus away from my tables, resources and slide rule. But off the top of my head:

80W load on 100' of 12/2 cable = 1.0 Volts Drop giving 11volts at the LAST fixture in that scenario. Certainly above the lower limit threshold of 10.75 volts to maintaim lumen output and colour accuracy of a 12v lamp. Its not perfect, but clearly "do-able"
(Total watts on Cable x Length of run in feet / Cable Size Constant (7500 for 12/2) = VD

I have always preferred to run my lamps at between 11.2 and 11.7 volts. The output is still very good and the extra lamp life helpful.

Gregg, do you have your handy dandy NS Voltage Drop Slide Rule handy? Care to chime in?

You forgot to multiply the wire times 2. Remember we are talking alternating current, you have to meassure to the end of the run and back therfore you distance on a hundered foot run should be 200 in when measuring voltage drop. The volt meter does not lie.

But I am sure your tables may show that.

Bottom line is Matt now will make a decision to improve his lighting and that is what this is about.

Joey D.

[JoeyD]

Originally Posted by hoskm01

I want in on the beer, Ill bring.

Join the AOLP and attend the annual lighting conference. A bunch of us will be there, First round is on me!