Safe Zone Above LED Tape Light

Hi,

In the regs it states:

522.6.6
(v) be installed in a zone within 150 mm from the top of the wall or partition or within 150 mm of an angle formed by two adjoining walls or partitions. Where the cable is connected to a point, accessory or switchgear on any surface of the wall or partition, the cable may be installed in a zone either horizontally or vertically, to the point, accessory or switchgear.

If I then install a recessed 12V (SELV) LED tape, horizontally, 200mm above skirting level for the length of the wall, is the entire wall then theoretically a safe zone?

It's really just a theory question, I have installed the light, but the cable routes have been run in zones determined by switches and sockets on the opposite side of the wall.

Cheers,

Not sure if I have understood the question but if you mean could you run power to that light strip at any point on the wall, then I believe the answer is yes as long as it is in a horizontal or vertical line and if outside the 150mm zones it is obvious where the supply is picked up by the leds eg a plug, switch or fcu point.

If you mean once you have laid the light strip you can then run power cables at any point on that wall going off to another accessory on a different wall then I would say no.

I think OP is considering the strip as a whole to be the accessory, so does all of the area above it become a safe zone (as it would with say a CU)?

In my laymans view I would say no for 2 reasons

1. It's 12v across the wall, do safe zones exist for 12v?

2. If this were say 2 sockets with a cable horizontally between them the area above the cable isn't turned into a safe zone simply because there is a cable running under it. I would assume the strip itself is more like a cable in this sense.

I would also assume that in the case of the strip light, the point at which it is connected to 240v would be the point at which the safe zones exist because that's where the 240v cable could run upto from those directions.

Yes, sorry, rjm2k has it correct. If you have a light such as this:

http://krishled.com/images/led-strip-4.jpg

Is the whole thing classed as an accessory and therefore the safe zones in the width of the light?


rjm2k,

1) I thought safe zones are for all cables both power and even signal?

2) The difference in this instance though is that there are lights along the 'cable' (see the link above).

I agree the safe zone probably doesn't extend over the whole light, but I can't see the justification for it.