This is why there are different terminal blocks to distribute different levels of voltage to the system. In a large / long run of lights, the voltage can be boosted by moving the wire up to a terminal with a higher voltage to compensate for voltage drops caused by longer distances and higher counts. is because it is made to power a larger system. The reason a larger transformer will have more terminals and comm. In a transformer this size you are likely to see terminals with different voltages: 12v, 13v, 14v, 15v or even higher. Let’s take a 300W transformer for example. But depending on the size of the transformer, there can be multiple terminal blocks and multiple commons. The wiring is pretty straightforward in a smaller lighting system. One wire is connected to the common and the other wire is connected to the 12V tap. Direct burial cable used in landscape lighting there are two wires.
In a small, 75 Watt transformer you will typically have two terminals: one labeled common and one labeled 12V. Metal box that provides power for the whole lighting system. Wire runs should be split down the middle & center fed to help evenly distribute power and reduce voltage drops. This is why evenly distributing power is vital. But this power is diminished by each fixture added to the run until the last fixture is noticeably underpowered. When daisy chaining is done, the first fixture in the wire will get lots of power. No, we aren’t talking about decorating them with flowers. It’s also important to note that daisy chaining light fixtures will yield poor results. The longer the wire run, the more voltage will be lost going from one end to the other. It’s important to also note that voltage also decreases with distance. If you place too many fixtures on one wire run, the voltage will be poorly distributed and make it more difficult to get enough power to each light. Voltage drops are a bad thing, but so is having the voltage too high (we’ll get to this in a little bit). Low voltage lights work the same way as sprinklers, the more fixtures you add to a wire run, the more the voltage (again, think water pressure) is reduced. If you add too many sprinkler heads, the amount of water pressure will be diminished and greatly hinder the performance of the irrigation system. In a sprinkler system, the amount of water pressure is reduced each time you add a sprinkler head to the water line. The way the lines are run has a big impact on the performance of the system and influences the way power is distributed.Ī low voltage lighting system can be likened to a sprinkler system. Wire Runs & Transformersįor Simplicity, let’s break this up into two parts: wire runs and transformer loads.
Let’s take a look at what all this means & how it all works. In addition, the lines need to be wired into the transformer in a way that sends the right amount of power down the line to each fixture. What does this mean exactly? It means that the wires need to be run in such a way that they distribute power as evenly as possible between each fixture. This question made me realize that this was a topic we haven’t covered yet, but really ought to! Low Voltage Lighting Requires EngineeringĪ well-engineered low voltage lighting system has to have balanced wire runs that are wired for an appropriate voltage load. If it feels like we already jumped from 0-60, don’t worry! There isn’t a quiz at the end. He wanted to know why his transformer was wired to the 12v terminal instead of the 14v. Recently a client asked me a specific question about the technical side of his system.
There is a lot that goes into the technical side of how a low voltage lighting system works and operates.
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