low voltage wiring

[Cracker]

Hello helpers!
I just bought a low voltage system for the deck. I bought a roll of 12g wiring thinking that it would be enough but I'm about 10 feet short. Now the kit came with some 14g wiring. I wondering if there would be a problem with mixing the wiring? If not would it be best to put the 14g at the begining or the end of the run?
Thanks!!!

[pushkins]

It would need to be at the end of the run, however you might find that any lights connected to this might be less bright than the others. Usually they add the extra smaller wire for smaller wattage lights that might be in the kit.

[Cracker]

Thanks Pushkin. I finally got around to installing the lights and all of the lights (4) that are connected to the 12g wire are working fine. The 2 lights connected to the 14g wire at the end of the run aren't working at all. I've checked all of the connections and the splice and all are fine. Any ideas what the problem might be?
Thanks!!

[Cracker]

OK, for anyone reading this, I got another 50' of the 12g, removed the 14g wire, spliced it on and the lights work fine. So, I guess the lesson learned is that you can't splice a smaller gage wire onto a larger gage and expect it to work.

[jeffo]

Splicing smaller gauge wire onto the end of larger wire is done all the time. The reason why it wasn't working is not because the change in wire size. I suspect you had a bad connection. If you accidentally had a short at the splice, lights beyond the junction would not operate, but those lights before the splice would (maybe dimmer depending on how far the splice is from the fixtures).

Also, you could have had a cable that had a short in it.