custom led yard lighting

[asimba2]

I plan to retrofit 12 outdoor yard light fixtures with Q5 Cree LEDs and drive them off a 12W Xitanium driver at 350mA. I have always worked with DC up to this point, so can I have a few questions:

- I would like to use an existing 115V AC outlet located on the back of my house as the power source. Can I simply cut an AC plug off something and connect the cut side to the Xitanium to bring power to it? The Xitanium will sit in a waterproof box outside.

- What size wire should I use for this application? The total length of the wire will be around 150 feet.

- I assume the Xitanium converts the household AC to DC and will keep any number of LEDs at 350mA right up to the maximum 12 watts? (Cree LEDs pull ~3.3V each at 350mA, so I could theoretically run up to 34 LEDs in series with a 12W Xitanium?)

 

[shortstack]

1. yes you can
2. are you running the AC wire or dc wire 150'?
3. that driver it puts out 32.8v which you can connect 8 leds, maybe even 9, this will drive them at 350mA (1 watt each).

 

[asimba2]

2. are you running the AC wire or dc wire 150'?

Sorry for not specifying, I plan to run the DC wire 150'. I could definately use recommendations on the wire--it must be waterproof as some of it will be attached to my fence and some of it will be below ground.

3. that driver it puts out 32.8v which you can connect 8 leds, maybe even 9, this will drive them at 350mA (1 watt each).

Ah, I hadn't noticed the output voltage spec, thanks for pointing that out.

I would love to see some LED yard light retrofit pics...

 

[shortstack]

22 gauge will do fine. are you going to use conduit? you can always use an extension cord and just cut the ends off also (although the gauge is like 16)
http://www.rofu.com/download/wiringchart.pdf

 

[blasterman]

22 gauge will result in voltage loss over a run of 150'.

My trick is to use inexpensive speaker wire (or zip cord) and just pull it apart. Speaker wire usually has finer strand and easier to solder.

14-16 gauge should do fine and last forever outdoors.

 

[asimba2]

Thank you for the recommendations! I am looking forward to this as a winter project and will post pictures once the project is complete.