Why did all my landscape lights stop working at once?

Start at the power. Check the outdoor outlet the transformer plugs into: it should be GFCI-protected, and a tripped one resets with its button. Then check the transformer’s own breaker, and the timer, which can lose its time in an outage. If the breaker trips again straight away, there’s a short in the cable that needs tracing.

How often should landscape lighting be serviced?

Once or twice a year. Spring and fall: the clocks change in March and November, timers drift, and a season of growth has moved plants into the beams. Between visits, a light that’s out, dim or on at the wrong hour is worth a call, because one bad connection can take out every light after it.

Landscape Lighting Maintenance & Upgrades in Solano, Napa & Sonoma County

When landscape lights go dark, the bulb is only one suspect. We trace the fault from the outlet to the last fixture: transformer, timer, every connection and the cable between. Then we repair the cause, move halogen systems to LED where the fixtures allow, and re-aim every light at dusk.

Call for a free quote(707) 329-8391

Illustration: path lights along a front walk at dusk, two glowing and the nearest one dark, beside an overgrown lavender. — Illustration

Why do landscape lights go dark?

Which lights are out tells you where to look. All of them points to the power; one run points to a connection; dim lights at the far end point to the cable. Pick what you’re seeing, and the drawing marks where we check first.

Sample system drawn for this page, not a customer’s yard: an outlet and transformer, a home run to a hub, then three runs (a bed of path lights, two uplights on one tree, a long chain of path lights).

Every light on. Pick what you’re seeing above: the lights it puts out go dark, and the places we check first turn blue.

Should an older halogen system go LED?

Yes, when the fixture bodies are sound.

An LED lamp uses a fraction of a halogen lamp’s power and lasts several times as long. On the example twelve-light system here, the load falls from 240 to 60 watts of a 300-watt transformer, leaving room for new lights. Choose the color on purpose: early LEDs ran blue, and warm white keeps halogen’s look. Sound fixtures keep their housings and get new lamps; cracked or flooded ones are replaced.

We repair and upgrade lighting across Sonoma County too, and right now repairs are what we’re scheduling first there. In Windsor, the Town limits how bright, what color and how late outdoor lights can run, so on a Windsor upgrade we ask Windsor Planning first. Checked Oct 2026.

How much of the transformer the lights use

Halogen

LED

Example system, not a customer’s: the same twelve lights on one transformer, on halogen and on LED.

What happens on a lighting service visit?

Half of it happens in daylight, half after dark.

Illustration

In daylight

We open the transformer, measure its load against its rating, and test the breaker, photocell, timer and backup battery. Every connection is checked; any that has let water in is replaced and sealed. Lenses get cleaned, buried fixtures dug out, leaning ones re-staked, and a spray head fouling a fixture is turned: the same crew works on irrigation.

Adding lights, not only fixing them? Start with Assessment & design, or see Low-voltage installation.

…explain any possible complications to clients before they arise when it comes to Low Voltage Lighting System…

Carlos, owner, replying to a lighting customer on Google

The landscape lighting completely improved the look of the property at night
PICHIN PLATA · Google review, Jul 2026 (opens in a new tab)
…gave us suggestions for things we weren't very sure on
stephanie s · Google review, 2024–25 (opens in a new tab)

Before you call about your lights.

Start at the power.
Check the outdoor outlet the transformer plugs into: it should be GFCI-protected, and a tripped one resets with its button. Then check the transformer’s own breaker, and the timer, which can lose its time in an outage. If the breaker trips again straight away, there’s a short in the cable that needs tracing.
Once or twice a year.
Spring and fall: the clocks change in March and November, timers drift, and a season of growth has moved plants into the beams. Between visits, a light that’s out, dim or on at the wrong hour is worth a call, because one bad connection can take out every light after it.