Hi all,
Over the bank holiday weekend I've been installing some IKEA lighting (their "Format" range) on top of some display cabinets. These lights come with their own cabling system so you can daisy-chain a few together, but as usual I have a few questions to make sure the way I've done this is OK.
1. The lighting was going to be plugged into a socket on the wall against which the cabinets are placed, however with the plug in the socket the cabinet was pushed out too much. To solve this, I replaced the socket with an FCU. I then chopped the plug from the lighting cable and wired this into the FCU and installed a 3A fuse. My question here is that the lighting cable was only 2-core (blue and brown) and didn't have an earth, so I didn't have an earth cable to wire into the earthing connector in the FCU - is this OK ?!
2. The lighting cable just wasn't long enough, but it's not easy to extend since it has a custom connector at the end not in the FCU which plugs into the light on top of the cabinet, and it also has an in-line switch between the connector and the FCU to turn the lights on and off. To solve this I chopped the cable after the switch (i.e. between the switch and the custom connector) and crimped in an extra piece of cable using 4 back-to-back red crimps. My question here is are crimp connections OK for a 3A lighting circuit or am I running the risk of a house fire ?!
3. I think I'll also have to extend the "daisy chain" cable used to connect from the first light to the second in the same "crimping" manner as above - is it OK to have so many crimps in the circuit ?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cheers,
Chris
Over the bank holiday weekend I've been installing some IKEA lighting (their "Format" range) on top of some display cabinets. These lights come with their own cabling system so you can daisy-chain a few together, but as usual I have a few questions to make sure the way I've done this is OK.
1. The lighting was going to be plugged into a socket on the wall against which the cabinets are placed, however with the plug in the socket the cabinet was pushed out too much. To solve this, I replaced the socket with an FCU. I then chopped the plug from the lighting cable and wired this into the FCU and installed a 3A fuse. My question here is that the lighting cable was only 2-core (blue and brown) and didn't have an earth, so I didn't have an earth cable to wire into the earthing connector in the FCU - is this OK ?!
2. The lighting cable just wasn't long enough, but it's not easy to extend since it has a custom connector at the end not in the FCU which plugs into the light on top of the cabinet, and it also has an in-line switch between the connector and the FCU to turn the lights on and off. To solve this I chopped the cable after the switch (i.e. between the switch and the custom connector) and crimped in an extra piece of cable using 4 back-to-back red crimps. My question here is are crimp connections OK for a 3A lighting circuit or am I running the risk of a house fire ?!
3. I think I'll also have to extend the "daisy chain" cable used to connect from the first light to the second in the same "crimping" manner as above - is it OK to have so many crimps in the circuit ?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cheers,
Chris