The electrician was out today to work on the lights and it appears he was able to get power restored to all of the standard voltage lighting, including those in the median and right side of the entrance. We dodged a really expensive bullet there!
He also installed a photo switch to automatically turn the lights on at dusk and off a dawn. No more having to adjust that darn clock with the changes in daylight! Yes, there was a clock controlling when the lights were turned on and off. It was a royal pain to adjust and I’ve only been at this for six months.
We still need to replace the low voltage lighting. The low voltage lighting consists of several submersible lights that help illuminate the sign at the top of the waterfall and also provide additional accent lighting. Most of these had been out for a while. We were gearing up to get estimates for repair when we lost power to all the lighting.
Why didn’t we just have this all repaired at once? The simple answer is that the electrician has no experience with low voltage lighting. He is a licensed electrician who is experienced with work involving standard line voltage. As he explained to me, the electrician typically gets power to the low voltage lighting transformer. From there, the landscaper or low voltage lighting designer takes over.
The other factor in the phased approach is cost. Electricians get paid very well. The cost of any work they do can add up quickly. Diagnostic work doesn’t have a duration that’s known up front, making it difficult to know the total cost. Also, commercial grade hardware that’s listed for outdoor, wet locations can be very expensive. And since it requires expensive diagnostic work to determine which, if any, of the hardware might need to be replaced; this was another unknown that could have had a large influence on the total cost. Given all this, we felt it was best to proceed cautiously and monitor the cost closely. I hope you’ll agree this is the best approach and continue to be patient with us.
Waterfall 
It was nice to see the lights on this morning! Thanks for working with the electrician on this. I’m not sure most people realize how much time it takes to handle these things so we really appreciate your efforts. See you at the parade!