Low voltage wiring/lighting under these circumstances?
#1
11-16-16, 08:36 PM
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 14
Received 0 Votes
on
0 Posts
Low voltage wiring/lighting under these circumstances?
I am working on a home cinema room, and have been doing pretty much everything on my own.
I have soffits surrounding the room, and a closet in one corner where all of the low voltage and speaker wiring will run.
I live in a state where no permit is required for low voltage, so I didn't really give this much thought when I was purchasing everything to do this, but now I am having second thoughts, and want to make sure what I have done is not some sort of code violation or something.
The soffits I have built are framed in 2x4's, with sheetrock on the bottom, and removable wood panels covered in fabric all along the face. There is fiberglass insulation inside of the soffits to help reduce echoing inside, and I have constructed foam boxes that separate the insulation from the lighting fixtures by roughly 3 inches. I'm not really sure if this particular build for soffits would be classified as "in-wall", but I want to be certain.
I am using a 12V system for my lighting. I have a 350W power supply in the closet, which powers a 24 channel DMX dimmer, with 3A per channel. From the dimmer, I have a few 20awg, 2 line red and black wires fed straight through the closet wall, and into the soffits, which are fed throughout the soffits to each lighting fixture inside of the boxes. The fixtures are cheap LED downlight fixtures with LED drivers attached. The wires are wired to the drivers inside of the foam boxes.
Additionally, I have several 20awg, 4 line "rgb+" wires coming from the dimmer, also fed through a hole in the wall, into the soffits, and around the room to feed a series of RGB LED strip lights for accent lighting down the columns, and across the riser.
My questions I guess are, is this setup problematic? If so, what would I need to do in order to make it non-problematic?
Thanks!
I have soffits surrounding the room, and a closet in one corner where all of the low voltage and speaker wiring will run.
I live in a state where no permit is required for low voltage, so I didn't really give this much thought when I was purchasing everything to do this, but now I am having second thoughts, and want to make sure what I have done is not some sort of code violation or something.
The soffits I have built are framed in 2x4's, with sheetrock on the bottom, and removable wood panels covered in fabric all along the face. There is fiberglass insulation inside of the soffits to help reduce echoing inside, and I have constructed foam boxes that separate the insulation from the lighting fixtures by roughly 3 inches. I'm not really sure if this particular build for soffits would be classified as "in-wall", but I want to be certain.
I am using a 12V system for my lighting. I have a 350W power supply in the closet, which powers a 24 channel DMX dimmer, with 3A per channel. From the dimmer, I have a few 20awg, 2 line red and black wires fed straight through the closet wall, and into the soffits, which are fed throughout the soffits to each lighting fixture inside of the boxes. The fixtures are cheap LED downlight fixtures with LED drivers attached. The wires are wired to the drivers inside of the foam boxes.
Additionally, I have several 20awg, 4 line "rgb+" wires coming from the dimmer, also fed through a hole in the wall, into the soffits, and around the room to feed a series of RGB LED strip lights for accent lighting down the columns, and across the riser.
My questions I guess are, is this setup problematic? If so, what would I need to do in order to make it non-problematic?
Thanks!
#3
11-16-16, 09:06 PM
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 14
Received 0 Votes
on
0 Posts
Hmm. Not sure about that, but I doubt it.
This is what I am using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q1N1NVK/
This is the power supply I have connected to it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007K2H0GI/
This is what I am using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q1N1NVK/
This is the power supply I have connected to it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007K2H0GI/
#4
11-16-16, 09:27 PM
Group Moderator
Personally I'd put a fuse in each line feeding your LED lights.
I don't really see a problem with your install. Normally you'd use wire that was rated for in wall use like thermostat cable or multi conductor cable with a CL2 or CL3 rating.
I don't really see a problem with your install. Normally you'd use wire that was rated for in wall use like thermostat cable or multi conductor cable with a CL2 or CL3 rating.
#5
11-16-16, 09:39 PM
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 14
Received 0 Votes
on
0 Posts
I can do that I suppose. Not really sure what I am looking for though. Is there some sort of fuse panel I can wire these through or something that you might recommend?
I may go ahead and re-wire with thermostat cable unless what I have really isn't a problem. It would certainly be a chore to re-wire the entire room at this point. :/
I may go ahead and re-wire with thermostat cable unless what I have really isn't a problem. It would certainly be a chore to re-wire the entire room at this point. :/
#6
11-16-16, 09:44 PM
Group Moderator
You can use standard AGC glass fuses. I'd fuse them at no more than 3A.
google/search=agc+fuse+panels&source
google/search=agc+fuse+panels&source
#7
11-17-16, 06:27 AM
You may need heavier wires particularly for the lights at the far corner from the dimmer snd power supply. Otherwise you get significant voltage drop at 12 volts which will show up as putting the dimmer at maximum and not getting maximum light.
How many watts does each light draw?
You may need 14 gauge wire or even 12 gauge. For this you can use ordinary THHN conductors which for low voltage do not need to be in a conduit. You could also use Romex but it gets tricky because there is a third conductor (the ground) that goes to waste.
Fourteen gauge wire will allow you to have 25 watts (2 amps at 12 volts) at a distance of 50'
How many watts does each light draw?
You may need 14 gauge wire or even 12 gauge. For this you can use ordinary THHN conductors which for low voltage do not need to be in a conduit. You could also use Romex but it gets tricky because there is a third conductor (the ground) that goes to waste.
Fourteen gauge wire will allow you to have 25 watts (2 amps at 12 volts) at a distance of 50'
#8
11-17-16, 08:49 AM
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 14
Received 0 Votes
on
0 Posts
The longest run I have now is roughly 30ft with 2 9W LED downlights along the end of the line. Those are the back wall lights (The closet/dimmer is in the front of the room). Those are both connected to one 3A channel on the dimmer.
The side walls have 2 9W LED's each, and each side is wired to it's own channel (2 LED's on each 3A channel). One side is about a 25ft run, the other is maybe 10ft.
The front wall lights have the heaviest load, but shortest run. A roughly 8ft run, there are 4 9W LED's connected to a single 3A channel.
I also have 2 runs of RGB led strips, each color being connected to its own 3A channel, and each have less than 2 strips connected to them with less than 25ft of wire before connecting to the strips.
So far, I have not noticed any issues with getting maximum light. I should also note that generally, the brightest I run them is 50% brightness, cause these things are bright as daylight. haha
The side walls have 2 9W LED's each, and each side is wired to it's own channel (2 LED's on each 3A channel). One side is about a 25ft run, the other is maybe 10ft.
The front wall lights have the heaviest load, but shortest run. A roughly 8ft run, there are 4 9W LED's connected to a single 3A channel.
I also have 2 runs of RGB led strips, each color being connected to its own 3A channel, and each have less than 2 strips connected to them with less than 25ft of wire before connecting to the strips.
So far, I have not noticed any issues with getting maximum light. I should also note that generally, the brightest I run them is 50% brightness, cause these things are bright as daylight. haha
