New home and question on a transformer


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Old 09-19-17, 06:39 AM
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New home and question on a transformer

Hello all,

We just closed on this house less than two weeks ago. I've been going through all the wiring in the basement and removing dead coax, phone, and alarm wires. While doing that I found a doorbell transformer and then the transformer pictured in the attachment. The output of it runs through our front wall below ground and appears to run the post lamp in our yard. It hums something fierce when the lamp is switched on, to the point it could be disruptive to a quiet evening in the living room which happens to be right above where it's mounted. From my research it appears to be a 115VAC to 25VAC transformer. Just wanted to see if anyone was familiar with this and could verify this. I hadn't heard of a 25VAC lamp before. If so, I am thinking of replacing this with a lamp that uses 120VAC so we don't have that annoying buzz whenever the light is turned on.

Thanks!
 
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Old 09-19-17, 08:33 AM
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If the wiring to the lamp is low voltage you can't just simply replace the lamp with a 120V one and remove the transformer. Just replace the transformer with a new one that will power a 12V LED lamp.
 
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Old 09-19-17, 08:37 AM
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The wire going outside appears to be 16/2 or larger. I haven't checked the actual gauge yet but it's not thin stuff. It is a thought to move to an DC powered LED and replace that transformer accordingly. Thanks for that thought.
 
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Old 09-19-17, 10:36 AM
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Gauge alone does not determine if the wire can be used for 120V. The wire should be marked if approved for 120V, and if approved for 120V, it must be the correct type wire for underground and be buried at the required depth for 120V use. Also if 120V there should be a ground wire included in the cable.
 
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Old 09-19-17, 11:17 AM
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One thing to check before replacing things... does touching it stop the humming/buzzing? Sometimes the mounting screws loosen up on the transformers, and a little hum turns into a huge vibration that can be fixed with some different mounting or maybe a some rubber between the transformer and the joist.
 
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Old 09-25-17, 10:19 AM
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I would just remove the transformer and disconnect and abandon the wiring and replace the fixture with this one. I have a friend who bought one of these and says it is amazingly bright for being a solar fixture.


https://www.lowes.com/pd/Gama-Sonic-...ght/1000083703
 
 

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