Putting lights in a loft

I have an extension lead up into my loft, powering a tube heater (120 W), 2 mini dehumidifiers (28 W each), and a low energy light (20W).

The light is clip on and I have to move it about to see in different parts of the loft. I'd like to have 3 lights wired to a single plug - don't want to mess about with mains wiring, nor get an electrician as I've just been charged £76 to have a double socket fitted in my kitchen (on a separate fuse to the rest).

Does it become illegal to run stuff off a plug as soon as I screw something to a piece of wood? I'm in Scotland if that makes any difference (sometimes regs are stricter here, e.g. on what windows you can fit).

What I'd like to do is have lights screwed on to beams rather than clipped on as they eventually get knocked down and break.

I also need to know the circuit wiring. Quite happy to switch on all three bulbs at one go, but would prefer to have them wired such that if one bulb blows the circuit doesn't die.

Peter

£76 for a double socket on a new seperate radial sounds quite reasonable to me. Even up noorth. Stop winging. You're asking electricians for advice, whilst simultaeneously slagging off their fair prices!

A few hours at £25 per hour = £75 + £1 for parts - £76. see what I mean, reasonable. Of course the parts dont cost £1, but £25 per hour is reasonable.

£25 / hour might seem steep to the average joe on the street, but consider the overheads a spark has to pay. He probably only has £5 per hour profit (his income) margin.

And yes, you can connect 3 lights to a junction box and then to a 3 pin plug.

Dont see the point though, when adding new points to a circuit is not notifiable (and therefore i suspect similar rules (dont) apply in Scotland) if you get my drift.

Yes, I'm aware that the hourly rate I was charged was not excessive for a qualified tradesman (though I had understood him to quote me a lower price for the job beforehand). Certain car dealerships in Inverness charge between £50 and £60 an hour! I didn't mean to give offence.

Merely that if it costs that much I'd rather attempt something as minor as rigging up some lights in the loft myself.

I did think, from one of the sites I looked at, that I might be allowed to extend a lighting circuit, but I wouldn't know where to start and you've no idea how scary that kind of thing seems to the non-electrician, whereas things with plugs don't seem half as scary - you know where they start and end and there's a fuse in the plug. It's just that I wanted to get the wiring right - will the diagram shown at this page on the DIYnot wiki do the trick?
//wiki.diynot.com/electrics:lighting:parallel

My kitchen fluorescent tube used to flicker even when switched off, and I was told when I got it fixed that it had been wired the wrong way round (before I bought the house), so I'm cautious of wiring something up wrongly.

You could fit 3 lamp sockets to timber in the loft, wire them all in parallel & have them on 1 plug. There are lamp holders designed to be fixed at an angle. Just make certain that the wiring is secure not flapping about. Its on a plug so I would assume is classed as temporary. Do a little bit of searching I think you should find the circuits if you are not sure.

Its about levels of competency, are you?

Mate, the drawing is exactly how you do it. I too live in Scotland and I have done the same as you want to do. I suggest you fit the bulbs in what are known as batten holders (if you want to fix the bulbs' positions gainst the rafters) or you can simply wire pendant lamp holders and use the cable clips to secure the cable above the bulb holders setting the height you want the bulb to hang at. Use a 3 Amp fuse in the plug. I would also use another extension cable to take the power up into the loft with a double socket so that you can power the lights at the same time as your other loads.

Well, the lights are up now, working, and hopefully safe.

In the process:
1) I managed to electrocute myself. Put it this way, a current ran across the tip of my thumb - sheer carelessness, I'd had the thing plugged in to test it before it was completely fixed in place, and forgot to unplug it
2) electricians among you will be amused to know, I wired in the neutral wires (as well as the live wires) into a light switch, which meant the fuse blew as soon as I turned it off.

I now understand how a light switch works (I may have known at some time in the past too).

Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
Hilaire Belloc

Not sure I've conclusively learned the above lesson, but I do think about it!

Peter

peterinscotland said:

Merely that if it costs that much I'd rather attempt something as minor as rigging up some lights in the loft myself.

Click to expand...

peterinscotland said:

Well, the lights are up now, working, and hopefully safe.

In the process:
1) I managed to electrocute myself. Put it this way, a current ran across the tip of my thumb - sheer carelessness, I'd had the thing plugged in to test it before it was completely fixed in place, and forgot to unplug it
2) electricians among you will be amused to know, I wired in the neutral wires (as well as the live wires) into a light switch, which meant the fuse blew as soon as I turned it off.

Click to expand...

The Rate for an electrician might at first seem high but you pay for the knowledge that the job has been done safely, that the right materials have been used, that the job is guaranteed and most importantly piece of mind.
What you feel is a "good job" may actually be a death trap or fire hazard!
Yes there are rogue "electricians" out there but this is where word of mouth plays a part.

tim west said:

but this is where word of mouth plays a part.

Click to expand...

but most people trust thier electricians, so as long as an electricians work is neatly done word of mouth won't tell you if it is safe or not.

the NICIEC and friends do enforce a minimum standard of ability but with only the boss needing to be a member and no random checking (at least last time i checked electricians could choose which of thier jobs they wanted inspected) it won't stop many cowboys.

frankly the ammount of **** i spot on installations in public places (for example at uni i saw use of terminal block in a patress box to join cables but no lid on the patress box and worse i have seen more wiring work done very close to it on what is presumablly the same cuircuit but still no lid on the patress box) really does make me wonder if using electricians really is safer than reading up and doing it yourself.