I need to place a hub 100ft from the transformer. Is 14 gauge wire good enough for this length or should I get 12 gauge? The hub will supply power to 4 spotlights. Also, can I cut the wire from one spotlight to extend another by about 10 - 15 ft?
Hi, Jay. Someone here will correct me if I'm wrong but if possible, I'd personally go with the 12 gauge (and for a couple reasons). If you're just installing a handful of fixtures with LED bulbs, voltage drop should be inconsequential. If you're using something like 50W halogens, however, you're more likely to encounter voltage drop issues. Potential voltage drop is also the reason you want to keep all the fixture wires leading to your hubs the same length. So, rather than cut one fixture's wires (and have four fixtures with three different lengths among them attached to the same hub), I would create a separate run for the fixture whose length you wanted to extend. Sure, 14 gauge is a bit less expensive but those savings will be offset fairly quickly if you're having to replace bulbs more frequently (due to uneven power distribution issues). Hope this helps.
For anything over about 75ft, we'd generally recommend using 12-gauge cable. In this scenario with a hub at the end of the run with multiple lights you'd want to be sure the hub is receiving the optimal power so, 12-gauge would be the safest bet rather than using 14-gauge and likely having to play with a volt-meter and bumping up the voltage taps to compensate. Like @Mesodude said, the hubs are generally designed to disperse in a 25' pattern spread evenly but, with LEDs, we have more 'wiggle' room per se than traditional halogens so, granted that run and your system altogether were in the recommended range of fixtures/wattage, adding another 10-15ft with the proper wire should not pose an issue with voltage loss.
Thanks for correcting my homework, Evan. Some of the path lights I bought only have a 4' lead wire option and I had been wondering if that would create voltage challenges when designating my lighting zones. I also realize I need to be more mindful of how current my online information sources are (in particular, noting when recommendations and guidelines are for halogen lighting and when they're for LED lighting). Thanks again.
