Why we install landscape lighting cable inside protective conduit pipe

Why we install landscape lighting cable inside protective conduit pipe

By Mike Gambino

Recently we got a call from one of our clients because one section of lights were out in the frontyard of their home. They just had a new sod lawn installed. To give you a little background on this system it was installed 10 years ago by us before we adopted the practice of placing our lighting cable inside of protective PVC conduit. We started that practice 8 years ago and as far as I know we still are the only low voltage landscape lighting design/install builders who do this as standard on all systems. Yes it requires extra effort, materials and labor costs however I know that this practice is essential and necessary. Reinforced even more so with this recent service call. After all our slogan is High Performance Landscape Lighting Systems designed and built to last. Any system is only as strong as its weakest link and exposed lighting cable is very much a weak link when not placed inside of protective pvc conduit.

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cut cable 1When we installed this system we dug the cable 4-6″ below grade. After 10 years we noticed where the cable was installed around trees the roots had pushed the cable up close to the surface of the ground about 2-3″ below grade.

All was well for all these years until extensive digging was required to install the new sod lawn. Gardens are never static and are constantly changing. Trees and plants and lawns die or fall out of favor and get replaced. These major changes to the garden leave cable exposed to being damaged and the worst kind of damage is the type done to the cable in that it does not sever it completely . So there is no shutting down of a section of lights that makes it readily apparent that something is wrong that needs to be fixed.

Damage to the jacket of lighting cable exposes the copper to moisture that can and does contaminate the copper and oxidizes it. Moisture can also travel between the jacket and copper strands, compromising fixture connections and in some instances we’ve seen moisture travel right back up to the power source inside of low voltage landscape lighting transformer terminals. Terminal connections corrode , cutting down on the transmission of “clean” power. The results are dimming of lights and a lack of performance. When this occurs the system needs to be completely rewired (hopefully placed inside of protective conduit this time).

In this particular instance, as you will see in the photos, the landscaper had cut several main cables in a common trench and then made an attempt to improperly repair the cable with electrical tape and non waterproof connections. Had we not found this damage now and repaired it it would have become a huge problem in the near future when rolling up the sod is not possible and location of the damage very difficult to detect and find.

Regardless it was still a very expensive time consuming repair as most of the cables in that trench were cut in multiple locations requiring them to be replaced with the new connections placed into accessible junction boxes should they need to be accessed in the future.

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Facebook-ice-256This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.Gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

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