kitchen under wall unit SELV lights - part P??

[Jim K]

Unless fitting a "kit" of lights & tranny it appears Part P applies to SELV under wall cupboard lighting in a kitchen?

If so, what are the rules & regs on how to do it "safely"?

The only difference between a kit and a homebrew version (of seperate lights and tranny) appears to be the spec of the wiring linking it all up and the means of connecting the wiring together?

My homebrew would be - SELV side wired in 1.0mm2 heat resistant 3 core flex (with unused earth trimmed back) clipped to underside of units as necessary, choc box connectors as required fixed to underside of units also, taken back to SELV side of tranny; LV (240) side of tranny wired to existing under unit supply (from outgoing tube light).

Comments anyone?

Cheers Jim K

[meow2222]

Its a first, someone cares.

NT

[John Rumm]

It applies to any SELV installation of lights that is not assembled from a kit IIRC.

1mm^2 T&E is probably easier than flex. If you use one lamp per cable then you will have ample capacity and minimal voltage drop (you have not said what technology lights).

Connections need to be enclosed in an enclosure of some form. Each lamp run in star configuration to a junction box and then a connection to the xformer from there usually works.

[Jim K]

oops! - old plain old 12v 20w halogens (surface mounted)

was pondering whether I could daisy chain in pairs - to cut down on the ELV wiring runs?

I already have a reel of 1mm2 3 core flex so will use that ;>)

Choc boxes ok?

Yup makes sense

Cheers Jim K

[Andrew Gabriel]

The kits seem to include LV connectors which are designed to burn out within 2 years (or as little as 2 months in the case of Ikea). Several times, I've ended up cutting off the connectors and using crimps or some other long term high current capable connection.

I would not use halogens for under-cupboard lighting nowadays.

Also bear in mind that heat from under-cupboard lighting, particularly inefficient filament lights, may prevent you keeping things like bread in the cupboards as it will very quickly go moldy at slightly elevated temperatures.

[meow2222]

Yes. You could run the flex in a ring to much improve voltage drop. Each 20w light uses 1.66A

NT

[John Rumm]

with 20w two per run would be fine...

Yup.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I suggest you crimp bootlace ferrules onto the flex, or use choc boxes with leaf protection springs, to make a good connection to all the strands. When making the connections, imagine it's for a mains appliance of 20 times the power rating.