Hello, I'm Bob...

I live in Sun City Palm Desert - District 4.

I wanted my address number fixture light to be brighter and more evenly distributed over the five numbers. I was hoping to accomplish this by only changing the lamps. This is what I decided to do.

This information is specific to my house only... but might apply to your house as well.

I am told that my house was built after all the other ten houses on our street were built and occupied. There are several original owners on our street - they all tell me the same story. However, most of the houses seem to be arranged in a similar manner with respect to the address number fixture light.

Your house might be arranged differently. I am just trying to point you in the right direction. If you don't know what you're doing - consult someone who does.

bob@infoforyouand.me  

Figure 1 - My address number fixture illumination printed circuit board - trace side

The incandescent lamps I replaced have a BA9S base and are marked 1815.


CEC Industries #1815 Lamp
14 V, 2.8 W
BA9S Base (9MM Diameter)
T-3.25 shape

The voltage at the printed circuit board (L1 to L2 - from the transformer in the attic - see Figure 6) with all four lamps removed is 13.27 VAC.

With a 13.27 VAC power supply at the fixture and two groups of two lamps each in series rated at 14 VAC, each lamp only had slightly less than 7 VAC to energize the filament. This is a technique to provide sufficient light with extended lamp life - provide a lamp with a higher voltage rating to extend the life of the lamp.

VOLTAGES - INCANDESCENT LAMPS:

Figure 2 - Lamps/bulbs I purchased from Amazon

See the lamps here...

Figure 3 - My address number fixture illumination printed circuit board - component side

Figure 4 - Back-to-back sockets with LED lamps/bulbs

Figure 5 - A poor solder joint at the L2 terminal

Did you happen to notice in Figure 1 that the L2 terminal solder joint was never completed properly?

I resoldered all eight solder joints on the circuit board.

Figure 6 - Two transformers in the attic

The upper transformer is the chime transformer because it has two bell wire cables terminated on the secondary side - one from the chime button at the front porch and one from the chime in the hallway. I would have terminated and made my connections at the chime but... I was working on elevators during the time my house was being built.

The lower street number transformer has a single cable running to the address number fixture.

Figure 7 - 6V AC/DC LED lamps/bulbs are installed

If you decide to remove the fixture from the building be careful that the number tiles do not fall out of the holder from the back side. They can break if they hit the concrete. My fixture was provided with a device that looked like the back of an envelope to hold the tiles in place. I neglected to make an image of this clever device.

Figure 8 - 6V AC/DC LED lamps/bulbs are installed - close-up