PV Gap

Dwayne Said:

My wheaten terrier chews everything! Help!?

We Answered:

One thing that you can get a dog who chews things to ruins is a boiled bone or a nylabone.

When your dog chews items they are not supposed to say "no" firmly and replaced the not-to-be chewed item with a boiled bone.

As for the digging you may want to put red pepper flakes on the area he is digging up. They will get in his nose and eyes and act like pepper spray (harmless but unpleasant). Good luck

Arnold Said:

Seniors what do you have in your garden besides plants?

We Answered:

I have a large fountain, a small ornamental pond with fish, bird bath, wind chimes and bells, and always a squirrel digging.
The children used to like to come into my yard to feed the birds and the fish. That gave me an idea to make a larger garden and call it Creation Garden and have verses pertaining to creation along a path.
My health has put that off but now that I am reminded I might have my grandchildren do the work.
There are several heavy iron lanterns that hold candles. You want to be very aware where they are hanging in relationship to your head while working in the garden, something I don't seem to be good at.

Nellie Said:

how many amp/hours do 12 volt patio lights consume?

We Answered:

Working it out, 6 Watts / 12 Volts = 500 mA. That's 1/2 amp/hours per lamp. So, if you had 10 of them, it would be 5 amp/hours total. If you have a 5.5 watt solar panel, you'll have to realize that 5.5 watts is the maximum output on a bright day.

You'll need take into account the number of lamps, the duration that they are on per night, the (average) output of the solar panel, and the charging time per day. It looks like even one lamp will eventually drain the battery. If you had just one lamp, the battery would last 200 hours without charging. If you leave the lamp on during the entire night, and charge effectively for say 10 hours per day, you would be looking at (I'll use 6 watts for the charger to make the math easier) 5 amp/hours of charging, which powers the lamp for 10 out of 14 hours. This means that 2 amp hours for the single lamp are not made up for in the daily charging. With one lamp, this means that the battery would have sufficient charge to power the lamp for about 50 days.

Alexander Said:

Where can I find an outdoor solar activated switch?

We Answered:

Home Depot sells a replacement controller for exterior patio lights for about $45. It needs to be outside in the sun for the program to work properly, so I'm assuming it's weatherproof.

Mitchell Said:

Would a solar 12 volt charger keep a battery charged enough to run how many 12 volt bulbs at night to light ?

We Answered:

Impossible to answer without knowing the output of the charger, the typical amount of sunlight it would see, the capacity of the battery, and the wattage of the 12 volt bulbs.

Why not use patio lights that run off a transformer plugged into 110 instead?

Wendy Said:

Lawn/patio lights, can't figure out how they work?

We Answered:

It's either dead bulbs or a bad connection to the main wire.

Standard landscape lighting is powered by a transformer that steps down the 110 volt AC at an outlet to 12 volts. The transformer also usually includes a rotary timer that allows you to set when the lights come on and go off. The 12-volt wire that supplies the lamps is connected to terminals at the transformer and is run throughout the yard. Each lamp has a clip assembly of some kind (different actual mechanism for different manufacturers) that includes little barbs for piercing the insulator on the 12-volt wire for connecting the lamp to the wire.

Sometimes, these barbs develop a bit of corrosion and the electrical contact is broken. In this case, you can kind of jiggle the connector to try to remake the contact. Sometimes, you have to undo the connector and reconnect it at a different spot on the 12-volt wire.

Depending on how the installer connected additional 12-volt wires together, you might also have a bad splice connection. I always use wire nuts to connect the 12-volt wires together and wrap that up with electrical tape. However, this is not completely waterproof and may eventually corrode, breaking the connection.

To troubleshoot the system, take a known good bulb and, starting at the transformer, trace out the 12-volt wiring. Put the good bulb into each lamp in the system. When you get to a lamp that doesn't work, check the lamp's connection to the 12-volt wire. If this doesn't make the lamp come on, trace back to look for a bad splice. If you find one, cut the wires and redo the splice. A voltmeter is also handy for determining if you have a break in the continuity somewhere along the line.

When you're at the point where putting a good bulb in each lamp causes it to light up, count all the bad ones and go get some new ones. However, they must be the same wattage as the original bulbs.

The transformer only puts out so much power (in watts). Let's say it puts out 110 watts. Assuming a safety factor of about 10%, that means you can hook up about 100 watts of load to it. The standard (incandescent) bulbs come in 4, 7, and 11-watts. So, you can safely run 25 4-watt bulbs, 14 7-watt bulbs, or 9 11-watt bulbs off of that transformer. If you exceed the loading of the transformer, it will overheat and eventually shut off (thermal protection). You might even damage it.

The wattage rating for the transformer should be shown on a sticker on the bottom of the transformer.

Leo Said:

where would i find the best deals/items for landscapping garden/yard ?

We Answered:

I agree with previous answer. Target, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot. I will add that you should not buy solar lights. They are a waste of your money, so that would not be a "best deal".