24VAC to 12VAC

[perfectbite]

A friend of mine has (had) a 120 VAC to 12 VAC 20W wall wart running a tabletop lighted fountain his wife is fond of.

The light bulb burnt out and he replaced it not with a 10 Watt halogen bulb but with a 20 Watt halogen bulb which eventually caused his non fused, potted 12 VAC 20 Watt wall wart transformer to burn out in short order. He wasn't clear on the length of time it took before the whole system quit but his wife isn't happy. As seems to be the way now, no-one sells replacement parts for anything that isn't a big ticket item and I have looked everywhere for that transformer without success.

It is my mission to find a replacement transformer.

The smallest outside landscape lighting transformer that I could easily get is 12VAC, 88 Watt and up so I know they'll do but it says on the box 'FOR OUTSIDE INSTALLATION ONLY' and although I do have him convinced that that big ugly brick looking power supply with a 24hr. timer will work for his set up and, because of the low wattage draw, won't heat up, I find myself wondering if those power supplies perhaps gas off and what would be acceptable outside of the house would not be acceptable inside the house especially where folks sleep. I don't want to poison them.

However, I did find a 24VAC 38 W wall wart that was made for inside use (powering an indoor irrigation system) but is there a way that I can safely convert that 24VAC to 12 VAC?

[Robert Reed]

Have you tried Digikey or Mouser Electronics ? The wall-wart you are looking for should not be difficult to find, although you may not like the price.

[philba]

Friend, huh? wink...

well, you could rewind the tansformer but I think that's really unnecessary.

You should be able to find one that will work and looks a little better than butt-ugly. Have you looked at mouser, digikey and so on? [edit] beat by 8 minutes [/edit] The surplus places often have them - ah! bg micro has 2 - I can't seem to link to the page but go to www.bgmicro.com and search for 12vac. I regularly see them at a local PC recycler (RE-PC in seattle) in the "wall warts for a buck" bin.

I'd get a 2+ amp version so the 20watt scenario doesn't happen again. It is trivially easy to get the wrong bulb.

<small>[ March 13, 2006, 09:53 PM: Message edited by: philba ]</small>

[MrAl]

Hi there,

They have one at Jameco for $7 plus s/h.

Take care,
Al

[perfectbite]

Thank You. It really was friend whose wife was PO'd that her husband had broken her lighted table top fountain.

He showed me the remote controller for the ornament and it was an X-10 thingy. The utility company had had to replace a neighbourhood transformer on Christmas Day and the surge (apparently as usual) had fried the X-10 transponder so it wasn't working too well to begin with (it was just doing a remote ON/OFF having lost dimming control) and his 20 Watt halogen bulb instead of a 10 Watt halogen bulb 'fix' had entirely finished it off.

Mr Al, Jameco sent me the 20W transformer and he was very happy. No more upset wife. Thank you for restoring my friend's marital bliss once again.

[MrAl]

Hi p.bite,

Well that's good news At least i helped make
somebody happy this week!

Take care,
Al