Wall lights from socket circuit

Yes, the kitchen is finished, everything is decorated. Gleaming. Nice

So, it's obviously time to retro-fit the wall lights we should have thought of in the first place... Channelling - lovely!

Question. Both light locations are more or less above plug sockets. Feeds for these sockets come from above. Can the wall lights be wired into the same circuit (with integral pull switches) as the plug sockets?

Ta

David

Reply to
David
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No, as the fusing would be of an unsuitable rating.

Reply to
MrCheerful

Yes, if you run them from a fused spur unit (FSU).

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I'd tend to use some kind of fused system or it could just short out somewhere and overstress the wiring before the thing blew or kill somebody. There used to be some wonderful round wall lights in days of yore with a fuseholder inside, made for this very purpose. I bet nobody does them nowadays.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Via an FCU, yes.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Shouldn't be messy and needn?t be mains.

A multimaster/angle grinder could cut a narrow enough slot for some thin low voltage 'bell wire' cable which should be sufficient for LED lamps at 12V?

Could have interesting LED options including remote control, changing colour, chase sequences, sound to light, disco!

Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

But where are you going to hide the power supply? A wall wart with the cable going into the plaster is going to look like a Wodney special.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Needs to be easily disconnectable.

Thread the wires and all to something tastily industrial, say a huge naked knife blade switch authentic from the era of Frankenstein, and

*tell* the cat to stay away from it.
Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

You can get a converta plate to make a normal light switch look like something from Franenstein's lab:

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Reply to
MrCheerful

Hmmm.... Weirdly tempting to do something like that.

Cheap stylish cooker switch for a fiver, anyone?

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Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice

Head torch anyone??

David

Reply to
David

Pleas don't give me ideas. ;-)

For the OP, I'd remove the pull switches. And fit a switched FCU below the fitting. Get some decent ones - polished or matt chrome seems to be in these days. Or make one up using grid switch parts - a dimmer and a fuse unit.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

won't work with uk switches. You could use real knife switches plus a relay.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Just put a bit of carrier bag over it - that's what I do with all the live wires poking out of my wall

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

At 5p each? What's wrong with free recycling bags?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

That's actually what I do use.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

It seemed to me that David was hoping to mount each light fitting directly over each socket drop and avoid the need to chase lighting cable channels in the plaster to the wall light fittings. That being the case, adding the necessary FSU would rather spoil the effect (unless each luminaire is large enough to hide them).

Personally, since wall chases seem unlikely to be avoidable, I'd bite the bullet and run lighting drops from the ceiling rose to each wall luminaire rather than add an FSU or two and *still* be obliged to chase out channels. That way, you save on the cost of FSU(s) and avoid the need to remember having to pull a ring main fuse at the CU to work on those wall luminaires instead of pulling a lighting circuit fuse.

It's enough of an annoyance having a 13A socket fed by a 3A fused FSU connected to a lighting circuit in the attic to provide power for a 4 way TV aerial distribution amplifier. The last few times when I've had to pull the 6A fuse from the Wylex CU in the basement in order to work on the basement, 1st and 2nd floor lighting circuit, I've forgotten about the loss of signal to the various STBs and TV sets resulting in loss of scheduled recordings or cries of annoyance from the XYL or our youngest sprog.

I think it was *only* the most recent time when I had to work on this lighting circuit that I'd managed to remember to dig out the 25m mains extension lead *beforehand* and feed said distribution amp from the top landing mains socket.

At the time I was looking to provide mains power in the attic, I didn't realise quite how often I'd find myself obliged to pull that lighting fuse and now regret "Taking the easy way out" when, with just a little bit more effort, I could have done the job properly and wired the socket as a spur off the top floor ring main.

It's always best to avoid such 'non-standard' power feeding arrangements where reasonably possible (lights fed from ring mains and 13A sockets fed off lighting circuits). It's always best to avoid the need to label the kitchen ring main fuse as "Kitchen ring/wall lights" or the "Basmt, 1st &

2nd flr" fuse as "Basmt/1st/2nd flr & attic skt" if you can since the squeezed down writing can become an illegible mess unless you attach a ruddy great big label to the CU to provide a more comprehensive manifest of what each circuit is serving.

The aim here with domestic CU wiring and labelling is to stick to the KISS principle which in this case, stands for "Keep It Standard, Stupid!" rather than the more common, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!". :-)

Reply to
Johnny B Good

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