Outdoor Lighting Repair
Half a lighting system going out is almost never half the fixtures failing at once. It is one thing upstream of all of them.
What actually fails
- Connections at the fixture, corroded where the cable was joined without a proper waterproof connector.
- Cable cut by later landscaping, a fence post, or a spade in a bed nobody knew the run went through.
- A transformer that has quietly died, or one that tripped and was never reset.
- A photocell or a timer that stopped switching, so the system is healthy and simply never comes on.
- A run carrying more fixtures than it was ever sized for, where every light on the leg is dim rather than out.
- Water in a lens or a socket on a fixture that has lost its seal.
Dim is a different fault from dark
A fixture that is out has lost its supply. A whole run that is dim has too much voltage drop across it, usually because fixtures were added to the leg over the years without anyone recalculating what the transformer tap could carry. From the patio they are the same complaint. They need opposite fixes: one is a connection, the other is how the system is wired.
Finding it before replacing anything
The transformer output gets checked first, then the voltage at fixtures along each run, which narrows a fault down to a section of cable instead of a guess. Buried cable can be traced. Digging up a whole run is a last resort, and it is rarely where the answer turns out to be.
If the answer is that two connectors need redoing rather than that the system needs replacing, that is what you will be told. Systems installed by somebody else years ago are most of this work, including ones with no record at all of where the runs go.
Halogen systems and what to do with them
Older gardens often have halogen fixtures on a transformer sized for them. Those can usually be converted to LED one fixture at a time rather than torn out, which drops the load on the whole system and sometimes fixes a dim run as a side effect. Whether it is worth doing depends on the condition of the cable and the fixtures, and that gets checked before it is recommended.
Repair, or start again
Weekend and seasonal properties account for a lot of this work, because a fixture that failed in February is not reported until somebody arrives in May: that is part of what landscape lighting in Collingwood is about. There is a point where a system is more corroded connectors than cable and replacing it is the honest answer. That point is further away than most people expect, and most systems that look finished come back. Where a rebuild genuinely is the better value, you get shown the reasoning, and the new work goes in as a proper lighting design rather than a like-for-like swap.
Lighting repairs, asked and answered
Can you repair a system you did not install?
Yes, and most of this work is exactly that. Systems put in years ago, sometimes with no record of where the cable runs, are the normal case rather than the exception.
Half my lights are out. Is the transformer gone?
Possibly, but a whole section going out more often means one failed connection or a cut in the cable upstream of them. The transformer gets checked first because it is quick, then the runs.
The lights come on late, or not at all. Is that a fault?
Usually the photocell or the timer rather than the lighting itself. A photocell shaded by planting that has grown in switches late. One in the wrong place never switches at all.
Can old halogen fixtures be converted to LED?
Often, one fixture at a time, which lowers the load on the run. Whether it is worth doing depends on the state of the cable and the fixtures, so it gets checked rather than assumed.
Is it worth repairing, or should I replace the system?
Repair, more often than people assume. Corroded connections, cut cable and dead transformers are all fixable without touching the rest of it. If a rebuild really is the better value, you will be shown why.