Landscape Lighting Troubleshooting

15 years ago

I have multiple landscape lights around the yard that will work one day and not the next. It can't be a bulb issue since I constantly replace the older bulbs.

I don't know what the problem source would be. Is it the actual lighting fixture or it's connection to the wiring underground?

My fear is that there is a disruption in the wiring in an area where it isn't accessable (ie underground somewhere).

Can anyone direct me to where I could start tinkering around with these.

thanks.

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Comments (2)

azlighting
15 years ago
Your fear may be correct. There is a short somewhere that is causing the outage. You can try wiggling the connection at the base of each fixture, if that doesn't work, you will need to dig up the buried conductors and check those. You may want to get a voltmeter to see what you are getting at each fixture head.
chr1ssy
15 years ago
I would need more info. For example does the transformer trip and then you need to reset the gfi outlet, or transformer circuit breaker? Is it all lights? Does it happen only after they are on for a while? Is it all lights?

Some potential causes include:
-outlet connected to a wallswitch which gets turned off without you knowing
-timer shutting them off
-transformer overloaded or faulty and gets hot and trips
-short in transformer
-short in a fixture or wiring (would only shut off that zone/circuit of the transformer.

You can disconnect all runs and only hook up 1 run per night until you identify the run that has the issue. If it happens on all runs, then its your transformer or outlet.

For more info regarding landscape lighting questions we have a large learning area on our site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Low voltage landscape lights learning center