Call out ot Mustang69

[boomtakem]

I posted this earlier, but you seem to be the expert on LED lights.

I wired 6 LED's into my ice shack/hunting shack and I melted the underground low-voltage wiring I installed.

Any suggestions for me???

Thank you for your guidance!

[calli4120]

The only thing that I can think of is that the size of the wire you used was too small and couldn't handle the current from 6 lites.

What gauge wire were you using? How long was the wire you used?

[beer batter]

If you're melting wires, something is not wired properly. My guess is that somewhere in your circuit the wires are shorting out (meaning the positive wire path is connecting to the negative wire path). This will produce high heat causing wires to melt. LED lights are designed for low watt usage. They should never draw enough watts to melt just about any sized wires.

[boomtakem]

Thanks to both of you guys, I love this site because of the resource that folks like you provide.

I was using low-voltage wiring typical of that utilized for landscaping lighting. I think I likely had crossed the wiring in the ciruit, not being able to follow the positive and negative leads throughout.

Last night I purched 12-gauge red and black wiring and an in-line fuse. I will rewire the weekend and see what happens.

Thanks again for your help!

[Sonicrunch]

Are you wiring them in series or parallel?

[boomtakem]

I wired in parallel. Should it be done in series. Does it make a difference?

[cold one sd]

I would say to wire in Parallel so problems with one light won't affect the others. When wired in series, if you get a ground or short in one light they are all affected. Kind of like Christmas lights when you get a bad bulb and have to find it to make the string work.

[mustangt69]

did you get it fixed??? i cant imagine that any leds would melt your wires...did you have wires crossed? or maybe your solar panel hooked up backwards? I dont have a solar panel but i am building a wind generator for the fish house. MaKE SURE YOU HAVE A CHARGE CONTROLLER!

[boomtakem]

Thnak you all for your reply's! I did figure it out last weekend, and as expected it was installer (me) error.

Works like a charm today.

Thanks again. I love this site.