ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Landscape lighting booster

I remember a few things from the RUUD methods, transformer location preferred in the 'middle' of the layout, 3 wire system, and HEAVY gauge cable.

They also had (have?) a really great application engineering dept. that provided a lot of layout help to me for sports and site lighting design/build jobs.

Soon as the weather breaks here, I have to redo my dock lighting.

I am not really much of a low voltage fan. If I was trenching wire in very far, it would be a chapter 3 method. Even if I was running it on low voltage, I would still have the option of cranking it up to 120 or even 240 later.
Wire is cheap compared to labor. (pavement cuts, landscape repair etc)

Converting VAC to VDC in no way increases the net deliverable power for a circuit of this type.

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It should be apparent that without further specific details from the OP everyone is left guessing -- too much.

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The odds favor a solution that requires no digging to speak of.

But, it's impossible to solve anything working blind.

I think most of the bulbs and a lot of the newer low voltage LED lamps are rated both AC/DC, so looks like a conversion would mainly involve finding a suitable power supply.

Thanks for all the input. As far as all the specific information, I cannot give ALL of it, since it will take quiet a bit more labor to determine all this, and that the customer has already stated that they want to go the "economical" way. I probably will not get paid for the amount of time I've already got involved. But discounting all of that, in my original post, I ask about the possibility of a booster. If there is not one available, then I'm just waiting for the customer to get back with me on their decision to let met run 120 volts up to the sign. The wiring is already there, looks like they got #8 coming out of the transformers. They are 300 watt multitap transformers, with 13 volts being the highest tap. There are other lights on this circuit, but not too sure how many. The 4 lights at the sign are on separate circuits, in other words, 2 are on one of the circuits, and the other two are on another circuit. As far as my experience, I have installed quite a few low voltage systems, though not as thorough as the "Low Voltage" specialist that runs landscape lighting to "Hollywood houses" etc., etc...
I changed probably 40 bulbs at this place around 1 1/2 years ago, and there are spot lights that are even farther away from the transformer than these sign lights. So, in summary, all I need to know was about the "booster" possibilities for the existing lights. I am not trying to re-design the wiring system. That's out of the question, too much money involved. Thanks for all your input. I did look on the Kichler site, but have not looked on the "Ruud"site or "Hadco", or the other brand name manufacturers. Also, I gave them the option of changing transformers, but to do that, especially with one that has only 14 volt taps, would be probably around $1100.00 or so, and still not sure it will get the voltage where it needs to be. Now, I have NOT looked into any with higher voltage taps, such as 22 volts etc. That may get them high enough, if it don't make it too high for any that is closer and are on the same circuit as the sign lights.
Anyway, it's been about 3 weeks now, and the customer has not got in contact with me, so they may have decided to leave it the way it is:( Thanks again for all your input though. Steve...

I was just wondering if you could increase the apparent voltage by exploiting the peak to peak.

Maybe this is another experiment for me. Put a 12v AC load out there with enough resistance to drop the volts to 8 and then do the rectifier thing. I have a hockey puck sized wire wound pot that is good for this kind of thing.

Greg, I don't know about that. Might work, I don't know. I have found a transformer with up to 22 volt taps, at a reasonable price($523.00), but now I can't find the right size low voltage LED flood lights that I think would do the job. If I can find them, I may submit another price to my customer. Thanks

Steve:
$1100 sounds really outrageous for a transformer.

I did a quick look at the landscape lighting site connected to RUUD and a 600 watt, timeclock & photo cell is a wopping $209.00

I did not dig into the specs, but their transformers used to be two circuit.

Just an FYI in case you get into landscape lighting in the future

Edit to add link:
http://www.e-conolight.com/landscape/transformers.html

Yea, John that figure was just off the top of my head from what I thought I saw from previous searches a few years ago. I haven't done a thorough search recently. I thought the multitap transformers were much more than the Lowes or Home Depot transformers.... Also I think I was pricing Kichler,Hadco, and more "upscale" manufacturers...
The transformers at "Econo-light" don't look to have as many taps as one of the "higher name brands" do.

Greg,

When I did LV landscape lights, I would always run 10-2 LV wire to help with the voltage drop. Even so, you would still have to calculate distance, # of lights, wattage of lights and voltage output of transformer. The lights I used where Hadco lighting and their transformers had several output voltages. You could crank it up (If I remember correctly) maybe 2-4 volts higher so that your output was 14-15 VAC.