Service and repair
Half a run goes dark and the assumption is that the lights have burned out. Usually they have not. We find where the circuit stops before anything is replaced.
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How a system is wired
A landscape lighting system is one line. Power leaves the house, passes through a transformer and a timer, and travels along a buried cable to each fixture in turn. A fault at any point takes out everything after it, so the place where the lights stop is rarely the place that is broken.
Point 1 of 6
The transformer plugs into an outdoor outlet, and that outlet is protected by a ground-fault device that shuts off when it detects current leaking to ground. Outdoors, moisture is the usual reason. A whole system that goes dark at once, with no warning, often starts here and not in the yard.
On the stairFrom the yard this looks exactly like a failed transformer or a timer that never switched on: every light is out, on every run.
What we checkWhether the outlet has power, and what made it trip.
Point 2 of 6
It steps house current down to low voltage for the yard. Every fixture adds to its load, so a transformer sized for the original system can be past its limit after years of additions. Many protect themselves by shutting off when they overheat and coming back when they cool, which looks like lights that quit some nights and not others.
On the stairEverything it feeds goes out together, which is the same picture a tripped outlet makes.
What we checkIts output, and the total load against what it is rated to carry.
Point 3 of 6
This decides when the lights run. A mechanical timer loses its place every time the power blinks, so the schedule drifts a little after each outage. A photocell stops seeing dusk when a plant grows over it or its lens clouds.
On the stairThe system is healthy and simply has not been told to come on.
What we checkThe settings, where the sensor sits, and what it actually does after dark.
Point 4 of 6
The cable is only a few inches down, which is shallow enough for an edger, an aerator or a new planting hole to find it. Voltage also falls the farther it travels, so the last fixtures on a long run are fed less than the first ones.
On the stairThe wall light is fed before the cut, so it stays on. The three steps after it go dark as a group.
What we checkVoltage at the far end of the run, not just at the transformer.
Point 5 of 6
Each fixture joins the run at a splice. In ground that stays wet, a twist-on connector corrodes until it stops carrying current, and everything past that point goes dark together. It is the most common reason a section of a system fails in Southwest Florida.
On the stairThe top step is before the failed splice and still lit. The two below it are not.
What we checkEvery splice along the affected run, opened and remade where it has failed.
Point 6 of 6
The part everyone suspects first. Lamps do fail, and thin aluminum housings pit from the inside in salt air, sometimes while the lamp inside still works. But a fixture is only the cause when it is the only thing that is out.
On the stairOnly the bottom step is out, and everything else is lit. This is the one pattern where the fixture is the likely cause.
What we checkThe housing, the socket and the seal, for corrosion and water.
Found and fixed
Whichever point it was, the repair is the same idea. Find where the circuit stops, put that right, and every light after it comes back on its own.
Ask for a repair visitStart from what you can see
Seven things a lighting system does when something is wrong, each marked on the photograph, with the causes behind it, most likely first. It is a guide to what is probable. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not replace someone tracing the run.
Part of the yard is out and the rest still works.
Where we startWe work back from the first dark fixture to the last lit one. The fault is almost always between the two.
Ask for a repair visitNo fixture comes on anywhere.
Where we startPower at the outlet first, then at the transformer, then what the timer is telling it to do.
Transformer and timer repairFixtures near the house are fine and they fade toward the end of the run.
Where we startA voltage reading at the first fixture and at the last. The difference says whether it is the wire, a joint or the lamps.
Redesign and expansionThey work, then they do not, then they do again.
Where we startWhether it follows the weather, the time of night or one particular run. Each points somewhere different.
Ask for a repair visitOn in daylight, off too early, or never off at all.
Where we startWhat the control thinks the time is, and what it can see from where it is mounted.
Transformer and timer repairIts neighbors on both sides are lit.
Where we startThe lamp, then the socket, then the splice. This is the one case where the fixture really is the likely cause.
RelampingEverything is on, but it is in your eyes or on the wrong thing.
Where we startThe whole system, end to end, before any single part is blamed.
Maintenance plans
Southwest Florida
Salt air, sand and standing water are what the hardware is up against. None of it is a fault in the lighting. It is the reason a repair that only replaces what is visibly broken tends to be followed by another one.
It reaches well inland on an onshore breeze. Thin aluminum pits from the inside, brass and copper last, and a socket that looks clean can be green underneath.
Summer rain arrives most afternoons, the water table is close to the surface, and irrigation runs year round. A splice that would last for years in dry soil sits in damp sand here.
Edgers, aerators, trimmers and new planting all happen at cable depth. Cut wires tend to turn up close to a bed edge.
Florida is one of the most lightning-prone states in the country. Surges are hard on transformers and controls, and every brief outage resets a mechanical timer.
A palm can outgrow the beam that was set for it in a few seasons. Nothing has failed, but the light is no longer where it was aimed.
Repair, convert or redesign
A repair returns a system to how it was built. Sometimes that is exactly right, and sometimes the fault is a sign that the system has been outgrown. These are the three directions a visit usually points in.
On a repair visit
The first thing we do is find where the circuit actually stops. That means working back along the run to the connections, the transformer and the wire itself before anything gets replaced.
It is slower than swapping the fixtures that are dark, and it is the only way a repair lasts. The point of the visit is to find the cause, not the symptom.
Ask for a repair visitRepair visit NightScapes Landscape Lighting
Cause found before anything is replaced.
Questions we hear
Six things people ask when a system stops behaving. Choose one and we will answer it the way we would on the phone.
NightScapes Landscape Lighting Outdoor lighting only, Naples since 1998 Choose a question
Ask us what your lights are doing. Choose a question, or call and we will answer it on the phone.
Because they share a wire. The fixtures on a run are fed one after another, so when a connection fails or the cable is cut, everything past that point loses power together. It is rarely several fixtures failing at once. It is one fault, upstream of the first dark light.
If it is a single fixture with lit neighbors on both sides, the lamp or the fixture is a reasonable place to start. If a group is out, a new fixture at the end of a dead run will not light either, because the power is not reaching it.
Voltage falls as it travels along the cable. A long run, a thin wire or too many fixtures on one circuit all make the drop larger, and the last fixtures show it first. It often appears after fixtures were added to a system that was sized for fewer.
Often, yes, when the wiring and the layout are sound. The question is usually whether to keep feeding it halogen lamps or to convert it to LED while the work is being done, since LED draws far less power and takes the strain off the same wire and transformer.
Usually it is the control and not the lights. A mechanical timer stops whenever the power does and restarts from where it stopped, so after a few outages it can be hours out. A photocell that is shaded by new growth will also switch on early.
Whether the outlet the transformer plugs into has tripped, whether any fixtures have been knocked over or buried, and whether sections that worked before are dark now. Standing water and fallen limbs both find the weak points in a system.
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Which lights are out, when it started, and anything that changed in the yard around then. We walk the property and find the cause before anything is replaced.
or call (239) 649-6940Ask for a repair visit
