"Greg R." wrote in message
news
I recently bought a house that has low-voltage outdoor Malibu lighting
(by Intermatic). Currently it has a 200w power supply to power 10 tier
lights and 5 20w flood lights. The setup is as follows, power supply -
3 spot lights - 10 tier lights - 2 spot lights. The strange thing is the
first 3 spot lights in the circuit are much brighter than the last two
spotlights (in relation to the the power supply). All the tier lights
seem the same brightness. My question is, why are the last two spotlights
so dim? I would assume that if the power supply was not strong enough,
all the lights would be dim. Do halogen bulbs dim as they are burning
out? Could they be different bulbs that the brighter flood lights (the
fixtures appear identical). Any suggestions?

Malibu makes bulbs of different wattage for different sets. They look
exactly the same. Only the small number printed on the bulb can indicate
the difference. Yours may or may not be readable at this point in time. You
may in fact have a lower wattage bulb at the fixtures on the end of the run.

As for your power supply, I think an 80% load is the recommended. I do
recall that there is a minimum and a maximum and you should be somewhere
between the two. Even if I am wrong about the % I do recall that all the
bulb wattages can not exceed the % of transformer rating. I'm not sure you
are correct about an over wattage reducing the brightness of all the bulbs.
It might only affect the ones on the end. I just can't recall.

Colbyt