Dumb Landscape lighting question - transformer in garage..

[steam_mill]

So, my house has landscape lighting. Not the NOMA stuff but the higher end stuff that came with the house. Has a big tansformer about the size of two shoe boxes.

So, I have a short and need some new fixtures. Here's the dumb questions.

1. Is this stuff generally speaking AC or DC current.

2. Is it 12 volts?

3. Fixtures have two wires coming out of them, how do you install on the wire:

Option A: cut only one wire and install fixture in line on 1 wire. (SERIES?)

Option B: Attach the 2 wires from the fixture to the two wires from the box? (PARALLEL?).

I'm not a total fool when it comes to wiring, either house or car. This landscape lighting has me perplexed especially from the voltage perspective.

Any ideas?

 

[Ray-CA]

The lighting we had at our old home was 12-volt. When I added a couple of lamps, I split the wire, cut one and hooked that one to the lamp.

Hope this helps,

Ray

 

[ishiboo]

So, my house has landscape lighting. Not the NOMA stuff but the higher end stuff that came with the house. Has a big tansformer about the size of two shoe boxes.

So, I have a short and need some new fixtures. Here's the dumb questions.

1. Is this stuff generally speaking AC or DC current.

2. Is it 12 volts?

3. Fixtures have two wires coming out of them, how do you install on the wire:

Option A: cut only one wire and install fixture in line on 1 wire. (SERIES?)

Option B: Attach the 2 wires from the fixture to the two wires from the box? (PARALLEL?).

I'm not a total fool when it comes to wiring, either house or car. This landscape lighting has me perplexed especially from the voltage perspective.

Any ideas?

1 & 2. Landscape lighting is typically 12V DC, however I wouldn't rule out there are other systems out there... but chances are that's what it is.

3. Landscape lights like most things are installed in parallel. Most of the newer lights come with connectors which simply slip over the wire, so you just snap it over the top... no cutting/splicing/etc. to do, and they're easy to move around. So the newer lights do not have "two wires" coming out of them, the cable simply passes through the connector, and two small metal spikes pierce the insulation and make electrical contact.

 

[jhelrey]

And if it is 12V, it doesn't matter what is - or +.

 

[Norcal]

It's 12 V AC...

 

[jbberns]

It is most likely 12v ac unless it uses a rectifier. Then it doesn't matter +/-. Lights shouldn't matter anyway.

 

[slip knot]

You need to check the wattage as well as voltage. If you want to add on you may need to upgrade the wattage. I added @ 10 new lights and the Xformer couldn't handle the additional load.