Why aren't there more lighting wiring solutions?

[Seb101]

I've been redoing a lot of lights recently and it amazes me how old-fashioned the accessories seem to be. Your average lighting circuit for a room is basically always the same, you're going to need a number of live, switched live, neutral and earth feeds. Options for wiring this seem to be limited to using connector bricks in a choc-box, those awful round brown 'junction' boxes or some slightly modern push-connectors - but in all cases you're either trying to ram loads of wires into a single screw terminal or end up with a big mess of wires and connectors which because of positioning all need to be cut and stripped to different lengths just to fit.

It would seem to make sense for some mini 'bus bar' connection products with 4 bars (live, switched live, neutral, earth) then like 8 screw terminals on each bus bar (more on the earth perhaps). That way you could cut and strip all the cables the same length, through a common entry point, and not have to worry about how many wires you're trying to fit in each terminal.

Does anything like this exist?

 

[omega015]

Doesn't a typical ceiling rose have exactly what your describing? As for lighting that uses crappy blocks/terminals, just use wago connectors as they are more than suitable for most lighting setups.

 

[bernardgreen]

The average ceiling rose has just what you have asked for

http://www.ceilingrosewiring.co.uk/ceiling-rose-wiring-older-cable-colours/

 

[Seb101]

I was envisaging something like this

 

[JohnD]

average lighting circuit for a room

Is not what you've drawn.

 

[Simon35]

I've been redoing a lot of lights recently and it amazes me how old-fashioned the accessories seem to be. Your average lighting circuit for a room is basically always the same, you're going to need a number of live, switched live, neutral and earth feeds. Options for wiring this seem to be limited to using connector bricks in a choc-box, those awful round brown 'junction' boxes or some slightly modern push-connectors - but in all cases you're either trying to ram loads of wires into a single screw terminal or end up with a big mess of wires and connectors which because of positioning all need to be cut and stripped to different lengths just to fit.

It would seem to make sense for some mini 'bus bar' connection products with 4 bars (live, switched live, neutral, earth) then like 8 screw terminals on each bus bar (more on the earth perhaps). That way you could cut and strip all the cables the same length, through a common entry point, and not have to worry about how many wires you're trying to fit in each terminal.

Does anything like this exist?

It's called a junction box. I can't think why you would need one for a lighting circuit. You just go from switch to switch or light to light, only a few cores at each point.

 

[rsgaz]

If it's going in the loft, where you shouldn't be using a ceiling rose as a junction box, then you want an Ashley J501...

...then the CPCs each get their own terminal to go in also.

 

[Seb101]

Is not what you've drawn.

Haha, maybe I've just been doing complicated rooms recently, but it's fairly typical in a modern bathroom... you've got the extractor, the down-lighters, the heated/lit mirror, LED lighting in the shower (yep!)

 

[Seb101]

If it's going in the loft, where you shouldn't be using a ceiling rose as a junction box, then you want an Ashley J501...

...then the CPCs each get their own terminal to go in also.

Nice! thanks.

 

[JohnW2]

Haha, maybe I've just been doing complicated rooms recently, but it's fairly typical in a modern bathroom... you've got the extractor, the down-lighters, the heated/lit mirror, LED lighting in the shower (yep!)

I suppose there is "typical" and "typical"

However, even what you describe would usually be very simple to do (probably with less cable) without junction boxes, and without an excessive number of cores at any one point.

Kind Regards, John

 

[omega015]

Also depending on the extractor fan this might require its own fuse, isolation switch, perm live feed etc... each job will require its own setup but usually looping from 1 light fitting to the next is the way most people go about it. And don't forget about "maintenance free" connections for certain "inaccessible" places.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

you've got the extractor, the down-lighters, the heated/lit mirror, LED lighting in the shower

All on one switch?

What a terrible design.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

[EDIT]Suggestion cancelled[/EDIT]

I don't think anybody should buy electrical products from a company whose level of expertise is such that they think this is a schematic showing how their product is wired:

 

[John D v2.0]

I was envisaging something like this
View attachment 112123

I'd like the same! Please let me know when you find one. I tried to do this with a double gang blanked surface mount box with a strip of terminal block inside, it didn't go well. I'm only wiring everything to one place so I can connect to an arduino or something in future.

 

[JohnW2]

I'd like the same! Please let me know when you find one. I tried to do this with a double gang blanked surface mount box with a strip of terminal block inside, it didn't go well. I'm only wiring everything to one place so I can connect to an arduino or something in future.

For that sort of application you would normally need far more 'blocks' of interconnected terminals than the four which the OP was suggesting, because you would usually have multiple switched-lives to deal with. When I've done things like that, I've usually used multiple pieces of ('commoned') terminal strip in a suitable enclosure. I suppose one could also use Wagos, but one could easily end up with spaghetti! Probably the neatest approach is to use DIN-rail-mounted connectors, but that could end up pretty bulky (and fairly expensive).

Kind Regards, John