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E.L.V. Garden Bollards.

Zoomup
A customer has some underground S.W.A. cable supplying three low level garden lights. The installation is amateurish and now keeps tripping off an R.C.D. He does not want the garden dug up to replace the cable with bad underground joints at the lights. I was wondering if E.L.V. lights could be used at say 12 or 24 Volts via an isolating transformer. Does anyone know of a suitable type of light please? That way the S.W.A could be reused.


Z.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Zoomup:

    A customer has some underground S.W.A. cable supplying three low level garden lights. The installation is amateurish and now keeps tripping off an R.C.D. He does not want the garden dug up to replace the cable with bad underground joints at the lights. I was wondering if E.L.V. lights could be used at say 12 or 24 Volts via an isolating transformer. Does anyone know of a suitable type of light please? That way the S.W.A could be reused.


    Z.


    Have you done any testing, or inspection? How low level is the lighting? Would the customers budget stretch to one of these:


    https://www.poundland.co.uk/282239-silver-geometric-post-light/


  • 0
    Re use at ELV should be easy. Needs to be AC ELV and not DC. Even minute water ingress to DC connections will result in rapid corrosion.

    A halogen lighting transformer or similar should serve, provided that this is the conventional copper iron type and  not electronic.


    A vast range of ELV LED lamps are available from fleabay. Make certain that they are suitable for AC.


    Switch the mains side of the transformer, not the ELV side, to avoid the customer paying forever for the iron losses in the transformer.
  • 0
    Pretty much every time i have been called out to garden bollard lights the problem is water ingress caused by ants making a nest up inside the fittings and damp tracking up through the soil because they haven't been sealed properly.



    Gary
  • 0
    Might the underground joints be dodgy in terms of conductor resistance as well as insulation? Switching from 240V to 12V for the same power will mean a 20x increase in current - so much more likely to push any dodgy connections over the edge.

      - Andy.
  • 0
    With modern LED lamps I very much doubt that extra current will be a problem. A 12 volt, 6 watt LED lamp is bright enough for most such applications and is only about 1.5 amps in total for three such. Half that at 24 volts of course.
  • 0
    You would certainly need to check the current condition on the underground joints. My preference would then be collingwood LED lights fed from a constant current transformer.

    You can work out where to place the transformer and a likely isolator.

    Legh
  • 0
    Is ELV waterproof?
  • 0
    NO, ELV is not allways waterproof, but should be water resistant to a sufficient degree to allow reliable operation at 12 or 25 volts AC, think twice about DC though.

    My outdoor lights have worked faultlessly for over 20 years AND they are 12 volts DC.
  • 0
    Weirdbeard:
    Zoomup:

    A customer has some underground S.W.A. cable supplying three low level garden lights. The installation is amateurish and now keeps tripping off an R.C.D. He does not want the garden dug up to replace the cable with bad underground joints at the lights. I was wondering if E.L.V. lights could be used at say 12 or 24 Volts via an isolating transformer. Does anyone know of a suitable type of light please? That way the S.W.A could be reused.


    Z.


    Have you done any testing, or inspection? How low level is the lighting? Would the customers budget stretch to one of these:


    https://www.poundland.co.uk/282239-silver-geometric-post-light/




    Yes inspection carried out. The underground choc block taped joints at the three light positions are horrible. A return visit is necessary. The poundland jobbies are no good in the winter with limited light levels.


    Z.


  • 0
    aligarjon:

    Pretty much every time i have been called out to garden bollard lights the problem is water ingress caused by ants making a nest up inside the fittings and damp tracking up through the soil because they haven't been sealed properly.



    Gary


    Indeed, internal bollard condensation is a problem with changing humidity and temperatures. Preferably the top of bollards should be vented but designed not to allow rain inside them, but most are sealed tighter than a drum. Dampness can rise up from the ground and become trapped inside the bollards and can not escape.


    Z.


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