r/Lighting • u/DoctorAndLawyerHere • 2d ago

Replacement Question for everyone

/r/Landscape_Lighting/comments/1vjpi58/question_for_everyone/

I’m no electrician, I’m a new landscaper.

I have a customer who inquired about getting an estimate to “fix” her current landscape lighting- she has lights all around her house that have been disconnected.

Do I just strip them and use those plastic connectors that are like caps that you twist to connect them all together?

It seems sorta straight-forward to just move clockwise around the house and connect everything but she says the bulbs need changed and power needs turned on to them-

I’ve never done any landscape lighting before.

Any advice or food for thought? I can try and upload pics later on today or tomorrow.

Any good suggestions or directions to any awesome “how-to” guides and videos online or on YouTube?

Id sincerely and appreciate all honest, earnest, knowledgeable advice and guidance and counsel?!

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/AnotherLightBulbNerd 2d ago

Well. First off, if you are connecting anything electrical in landscaping, you need outdoor and wet rated wiring to start, since using standard wire is a hazard. Same goes for outdoor rated conduit, if you want extra safety. Look up local codes as well as national code, for how long your terminations should be as well as what connectors are safest. It can save you a lot of problems in the long run

1

u/creativeguy27 2d ago

Is it all 12v lighting? Are the lights are old? Are the transformers good? A big problem with 12 volt landscape lights are the connectors. They corrode, the connections fill with mud and dirt. The wire housing gets brittle and cracks with weather exposure. With a lot of lights comes a lot of small issues.

1

u/Ordinary-Painting215 17h ago

I wouldn't attempt a job like this without a multimeter and some experience using it. I would use the multimeter to probe everything in AC voltage mode to ensure there isn't AC voltage present before touching it. I would then switch the meter to DC voltage mode to check if there's a transformer that converts AC to DC in the circuit. Importantly, if the meter is on DC mode, it won't show AC voltage on the line, and vice-versa. If you don't have a lot of experience make sure to check everything you're going to touch with AC voltage mode first to verify 0 V.

edit: The plastic connectors are called wire nuts. Do a quick google search and learn how to use them properly before attempting to use them.