Installation Manual
Charm-Lite Electric-Gaslight Conversion Kit Installation Manual
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This manual covers the assembly and installation of the patented Charm-Lite Gas Light Conversion Kit. Read this manual thoroughly before beginning installation. Standard installations can be completed in 1-2 hours with absolute ease. However, consumers should evaluate our product and make sure it is suitable for its intended purpose. While many homeowners will install this product with ease, depending on yard size and placement of the lamp, please evaluate the level of difficulty, and individual state and county building and electrical codes concerning low voltage lighting. Most states do not require an electrical license to install low voltage lighting, but checking with your state and county for appropriate laws and regulations will dictate rather a professional is needed to complete the job. This instruction manual is intended for the standard installation, however, we have included a few special circumstances that are by no means the “standard or normal installation.” The Special Circumstances section is not indicative of every installation and is more suited to custom installations. This section has been included simply as instruction on a few unusual situations some consumers may face while installing Charm-Lite Kits. The normal consumer will likely never encounter these problems, but consumers should strictly evaluate the level of difficulty for particular circumstances before beginning the job, and ascertain rather a professional is needed. Charm-Lite Inc., recommends hiring a professional for sidewalk obstructions or split foyer home installations.
TOOLS
The Transformer is tested and certified “In Good Working Order” with sufficient power to operate (2)-LED bulbs or less than 50 watts. (The 2 LED bulbs use less than 12 watts of power!) DO NOT OVERLOAD THE TRANSFORMER. Always wear eye protection and unplug or discontinue service to all electrical devices before wiring, and make sure you... ***CALL BEFORE YOU DIG! *** Call your local Utility Protection Service at: #811 MATERIALS
Wire Layout Calculate where the wire will enter the house and extend the wire to the pole. If something is in the way go around it, move it, or go under it. It can be a hassle to cut wire only to find it’s too short to extend inside the house because it is IMPORTANT! To have one continuous run of wire, any splice may fail a year or two later. Start job at pole and if something is in the way, go under it, bury up to that point and then cut. Ideal locations for power sources for transformer are inside the house, basement, or garage. Ideal rafter access into the home is a crawl space or basement. BE SURE WHERE THE DRILL IS GOING INTO THE HOME! DO NOT DRILL INTO HOME FOUNDATIONS!! |
STEPS
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1. Remove the glass from the lamp head. There should be a set screw at the base. If it doesn‘t turn, push up at the bottom of cage and force head off the pole. Use both palms in a synchronous bumping straight-up method. Do this on each side of the head.
2. You MUST DISCONTINUE SERVICE TO YOUR GAS LAMP. First, turn off and disconnect the gas line to the gas lamp at the flair fitting at the top of the pole and plug it off with a 1/4" flared plug, or locate the gas light supply line from the meter, and cap after the gas lamp shut-off valve if there is one. Use a 3/8 or a 1/2-inch flair fitting. If unsure how to do this, consult a licensed plumber or consult your local Gas Company.
3. Remove gas fixture inside lamp head. Two pairs of pliers should do the job nicely. Steel lamp-heads may take a bit of persuasion in freeing the center for the Charm-Lite, however, a chisel and hammer, or drill can be used. In rare cases a new lamp head is necessary.
4. Once you’ve disconnected the gas line, and removed gas burning components, paint interior and exterior of the lamp head using average spray enamel. Eagles on lamp-heads are painted gold.
5. Drill a 3/8-inch hole in the pole, 4 inches down from top of pole, or approximately 1/2 inch below the lamp head seat line. Aim it away from major light sources – North if possible.
6. Drill or chisel another hole just below the dirt line. Make sure the bottom hole is rounded out nicely for slipping wire through. Make certain not to accidentally nick the gas line unless the supply line has been capped off at the meter,
7. Stretch the wire from the house to pole. We push the wire up from the bottom with an 8' piece of fish tape or you could drop a string down the pole to bottom opening and retrieve it through the opening with a wire hook or paper clip. Attach wire by lifting and pushing until wire extends about six inches out top of pole. Fold over to keep it from falling.
8. Remove the cap and one nut lower the photoelectric dusk-to-dawn eye into the pole with a pair of pliers. Push the end through the hole made earlier, at the top of pole, and screw the nut; place cap on end.
9. By now the lamp-head is dry and ready for the bulb tree. Place the bulb tree inside the lamp-head, with one flat nut and one washer assembled onto all thread. Guide it through the center hole in the head. Place the other washer and nut on the end of the all thread and tighten down. Make sure it’s centered in the head. Modification of the bulb tree is easy you can pull the copper top off the stem and cut to the desired length. Push wires back into the stem and slip the bulb sockets onto the new end pinch the top of the stem if it is loose.
10. Most poles have two slots cut in the top. This makes it handy for wiring. Place the head on top of the pole and stick all wires out one of the slots. Wire accordingly.
Transformer wire: One of Two wires ran from Transformer in the house
Lamp Head wire: One of Two wires from Bulb Tree in Lamp Head
Eye wire: One of Four wires from Dusk-To-Dawn Control mounted in Post.
11. Use an up and down method for smooth paint lines on the pole. Be sure to use the original color. When reinstalling the glass, some heads use a glass clip. Bend a paper clip or piece of wire braid to fit around the hold down screws.
12. Now it’s time to install the wiring system to the house. Start at the pole and work towards the power supply. Now calculate the optimum path for the wire to go, taking into consideration barriers. Map out the job like a professional. If the front door is in the middle, and the sidewalk extends to the drive then go to the side that has no sidewalk. Look along the top of the foundation wall in the basement for a good wire entrance location, on that side of the porch. Use the water faucet as a good location finder. If you have no basement, you will have to run wire through the crawl space to the garage or straight up through the floor to an existing outlet. If it’s a split-foyer home, many consumers have run into demise by running the wire improperly. Never drill through a foundation! It will crack. About the only way to drill into a split foyer home is to go to the lowest level through the window frame or the finished garage. This is tough because you have to tack a wire from the front of the garage to the back outlet or go to the ceiling fixture and install a pull chain socket. Such homes always have sidewalks, or a concrete drive is connected to the porch, which means about fifteen feet of concrete molloys exposed. You could go up the wall to the second floor, into an outlet there. Either way it doesn’t look very attractive. The trick is to hide the wire. Impress yourself!
(Remember we suggest hiring a professional for split foyer homes.)
13. Begin burying wire by slicing ground at a 45-degree angle, breaking down and then pushing up, causing a tilted "V" gap. The wire doesn‘t have to go to China. The voltage is only 24V. The transformer has a fused secondary, in case of a short. About 6 inches deep is all that’s necessary. Push the wire in with a dandelion digger at an angle, in order to stretch out any slack and keep wire from creeping out. This will take some getting used to, so take your time. Once reaching a point where going under something is necessary, do it now, and then continue until reaching entrance point of home. Cut off a piece of conduit and run wire through it. Cut the wire now. Give enough slack to splice the basement wire and the outside wire without standing on a ladder. Shove wire through hole and seal with caulk.
14. Splice into the basement wire and staple to the rafters. Just remember to take a look at the example left by the phone, cable or existing electrical wiring. Don‘t run staples too close to 110V wires, and if you can, try to hide them as much as possible. Go to the nearest outlet for hooking up the transformer. Make sure it’s not on the basement switch at the top of the stairs. If you have an outlet in an enclosed wall you can fish the wire behind the wall, assuming the ceiling tiles are removable. Go around the outlet box and fish up. Attach the wire and pull down.
If you are unfortunate enough to have an enclosed ceiling then you have to be tricky about where you come in with the wire. Most of the time there will be a water meter at the front wall and assuming there is it will also be enclosed. If you look up inside this you will have a little space to come in. BE ACCURATE as to where you come in, there is sometimes only the width of a rafter in which to do so. Remember the water faucet? It is usually right there! MAKE SURE with a visual check. If not, then whip out the tape measure. Don‘t forget the width of the wall when measuring the outside, which is usually about 10 inches. Then run the wire down to the baseboard. Like an extension cord go to the nearest outlet. An alternate method is to go in through the utility room rafter with your fish-tape, and literally hook the wire by attaching a wire clothes hanger to your fish tape and reel it into the utility room.