Joshua Peterson with Peterson Electric, we are in Littleton, Colorado working outside here in a beautiful yard for one of customers. We are installing some low voltage lights for them and they have issues with, the bulbs are good and the photo-eyes are good and so is the transformer, but the connections are bad. I want to talk to you today about low voltage wiring, which is 12 volts sometimes 24 mostly 12. Anything under 85 volts, you should not be worried about getting shocked unless something has really gone wrong. Here today on this system, if you are not getting a good clean copper connection and you see really pure copper there. You see any black or a grayish look through the strands. It is really fine strand, probably a 22 to 32 strand. The gauge wire can be a 10 gauge to a 12 gauge or even a 8 gauge to get some of that voltage out there. Some of the reasons why the low voltage fails is the potential of that pressure. It looses its voltage drop through bad connections, that potential, that pressure of voltage starts to dwindle really quick especially at such a low voltage. When you are drawing 50 watt bulbs, they really start to dwindle. Right here I can show you a really poor connection here. Someone used some typically blue wire caps that you get at Home Depot and they are not rated for outdoor use. This is something that are used for commercial with some 10 gauge wire. Another connection that a guy made here. You can see this. Nothing is taped up, that is a poor connection too. Water is getting in there. Here is a good connection. We use the right wire caps. We also taped them up as well. There is a special compound inside there that keeps the strands from deoxidizing or getting wet and start corrode. It kind of does what your car battery does on a 12 volt car. It just starts to corrode in there. Here is a better connection. Again, you can do this hot, you aren’t going to get shocked. The worst you will do is blow up your transformer. You can see it is lit in my hand. This 12 volt. I like to test my stuff hot, so I know before I put the light in and tape up all the connections that I am actually good. We do those simple projects for yard lighting. Keep in mind, if you are going to tackle it yourself, make sure that your wire depth is deep. If you hire a guy that says I do low voltage wiring and he is not an electrician, be careful. There has been many times, I have come in a yard and I have had to diagnose an area, where one side of the yard is an island and the other side of the yard is a peninsula and the next thing you know the wire is traveling through the yard and end up getting cut up by the aerator guy, who comes in with his machine and starts poking holes are about 3 inches deep. You have to be fairly deep in your wiring, when you are crossing like that. If you are going through your bark and everything make sure that gets tucked in, so that wires doesn’t get knick too, when you are putting your stakes or even your silver siding in there. Another thing to keep in mind is when you are placing your lights, you have to make sure your transformer over here will handle the load. Your transformer should be correct wattage for how many bulbs, what type of bulbs, what type of fixtures and how far away, considering your gauge of wire larger to smaller as you did your last light. Thanks for joining us! Sorry this video is a little long, but there is a lot of good tidbits for outside lighting. Give us a call if you need any help.
