During the fall season, special steps should be taken for your landscape lighting system. These steps will ensure that the system will avoid damage and continue functioning as it should.
One of the most common calls that we get for backyard lighting systems that include pool area lighting is that the lights are no longer coming on. Typically, we see this right after pool companies come and close the swimming pools for the season. It is a very common practice that the pool company crews will just simply shut off all of the breakers at the remote pool equipment panel. All too often, the service receptacle that the landscape lighting transformer is powered from is fed from one of the breakers that were turned off. The majority of the time, this is easily remedied by simply turning on the one breaker that does the service receptacle or the pool area landscape lighting.
Another common issue we will see in late summer and early fall is in regard to in grade fixtures or “well lights” that are in the lawn for lighting trees and other things that are not in planting beds. If these areas are not flagged or noted before aeration, spit-seeding or over-seeding, damage can be done to the fixture as the steel spikes smash through the glass of the fixture. It is highly recommended that these areas are known and marked each season that these lawn services do not damage the lighting system.
Lastly, as the seasons change and we see weather patterns shift, the fall rain and storms start to roll in. Be aware, that after electrical storms, it is very common to see nuisance tripping of GFCI outlets. If your lighting system is not working, check the GFCI outlet that the transformer is plugged into. It is supposed to be GFCI protected because it is an outside outlet so this is one of the first things you should look in the event that the lighting system is not working.