Fixing/replacing outdoor bollard light?


  #1  
Old 06-29-19, 11:23 PM
B
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 54
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
Fixing/replacing outdoor bollard light?

An unknown driver (ok, my wife) ran over our outdoor light, and now it doesn't turn on. I've never messed with landscape lighting so I'm trying to figure out how this works.

1) I presume these PVC pipes are one set of wires coming in for power, the other going out in series to the next lamp over?

2) Are these PVC pipes standard? Everything I can find at Home Depot uses a stake. Do I need to dig these pipes out to switch to a "normal" replacement light?

3) How can I tell whether this is 12v or 120v lighting? It's powering a CFL bulb, and it has white, black, and a green ground wire, if that helps.

4) I took the wire caps off, and tried measuring voltage between white and black with the power on. Nothing. All the lights around me (other than this one) were on. What gives?

Any guidance appreciated if you've seen something like this before. This is a house, built around year 2000.
 
Attached Images  
  #2  
Old 06-30-19, 04:12 AM
P
Group Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: NC, USA
Posts: 27,660
Received 2,154 Upvotes on 1,929 Posts
1. Yes, that makes sense and is how outdoor low voltage wiring is often done.

2. It just depends on the style of light you choose. If only looking at HD you might not find something exactly matching what you have now.

3. Your multimeter could tell you right away the voltage. Did you try checking for voltage between the other wires? You are correct though that I would expect the black to be hot and the white neutral. You can check the wires at the base of a working light. Inside your home do you have a power supply for the outdoor lighting? If so, it's most likely it's 12VDC but you'd normally only see two conductors instead of the three you have.
 
  #3  
Old 06-30-19, 04:25 AM
Marq1's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: USA MI
Posts: 9,745
Received 1,210 Upvotes on 1,098 Posts
It looks like 120V with the single wires and wire nuts, low voltage lighting use large gauge corded strip wire, like what is on a typ lamp, toaster and it is usually not run in conduit!
 
  #4  
Old 06-30-19, 01:07 PM
PJmax's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Jersey
Posts: 64,939
Received 3,952 Upvotes on 3,545 Posts
I'd agree on the 120v. Typically a ground is not run with low voltage.
If it were low voltage there would be a transformer in the mix too.
 
  #5  
Old 07-02-19, 11:00 PM
B
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 54
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
FYI: It was indeed 120v, ugh. Thanks for the help!
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: