Tuesday 21 October 2014

Lighting and how-to.... maybe

I have finally stopped pestering Evan Designs about my lighting and written up my notes in detail so I don't forget any time I come to light a very large project.

The basic method for putting lights in and attaching them to 3V coin batteries is straight forward enough thanks to the kits you can buy - the only challenge there is how to hide the wires and maybe the battery and switch.

I wanted a much bigger plan for 42 bulbs (approx).  Basically if the total is under 50 I can take them to a 1 amp adapter and then on to the mains supply.  The adapter can be left plugged in it does not draw power if the switch is off.

I have made myself notes on how to do it.  

The ingredients needed are:


  • Lights bulbs in chip and two smaller sizes for whatever I want to light in the house.
  • Flickering fire kits for the fireplaces.
  • Red Hook-up wire
  • Black Hook-up wire (you could just use one roll but you need to be sure you remember what is what, so for the sake of another $3 you may as well make your life easy and have one of each)
  • Power Jack
  • 1 amp switched adapter. (You can put the switch(es) in various places on the circuit and have multiple ones if you want, depending on what you want it to do - for me it is all on or all off)
Think long and hard about what bulbs you want where, how best to get the wires to their ultimate destination and power source, draw a plan, make notes - maybe not as fancy as this - back of a napkin will do!

If you want a copy of this - email me and I will send you a PDF link


click to enlarge

Big thanks to Evan designs and Heather and Paula and a couple of other people who didn't know they were helping me....  so much faster than trying to get there on your own.


2 comments:

  1. It's worth pointing out that LEDs run on much lower power than the old style filament bulbs. LEDs are normally a maximum on 20mA (filament bulbs are typically 50mA) so you can run far more LEDs off a transformer than you can of standard filament bulbs. Like you say, 50 LEDs off a 1amp transformer whereas it would only be 20 standard filament bulbs.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jennifer, I have put this in a post so people don't miss it. Are you Jennifer of Small Scale Lighting - let me know if you are and I will add the credits.

      Marilyn

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