Portable lighting

[Hoolicoon]

Hi,
I am a glass dealer selling such at fairs around the country. In order to better display my goods I would like to devise a simple lighting rig to uplight my goods using light bases.
I have purchased a number of 220v/240v downlighters, which I intend to fit with GU10 LED lamps instead of the normal halogen and then use "upside down" as uplighters.
So far so good as far as concept is concerned, my difficulty is: how do I wire, say, 5 of these lights together in order that they can simply plug into a nearby mains connection.
I think I know how to wire the lights in parallel, but I do not know how to connect to the mains supply, or whether a switch is required between the lights and the plug connection, or whether the wiring has to complete a circle!
Hope this makes some sense, in diagrammatic form, therefore, how do I wire this up:

O O O O O
.
. Lights
.
.
.
.
O
Mains socket

 

[davy_owen_88]

Go with Bernards advice, it's safer.

 

[bernardgreen]

Hi,
I am a glass dealer selling such at fairs around the country. In order to better display my goods I would like to devise a simple lighting rig to uplight my goods using light bases.

First advice I would give is to use 12 volt lights at the display cabinets, especially if you are setting up in marquees on grass with "temporary" mains supplies provided at the ends of extension leads. Keeps the mains which may be of dubious "quality" away from both your staff and the public. Been there, got the Tee shirt, the other chap got the shock.

Have a good quality mains to 12 volt isolating transformer and rectifier to give you 12 volt DC for the LED lights. Have that as the only place where mains is used on your pitch and the hazards are reduced signifcantly. Only the mains lead to to the transfomer and the box the transformer is in present a risk of electrical shock hazard.

By using 12 volt DC LEDs you can also run the display from a car ( or better still, a leisure ) battery where there is no mains supply.

 

[plugwash]

i will add where do use mains keep it class 2 (double insulated, no earth required) that way you avoid the risks associated with dodgy earths.

 

[bernardgreen]

i will add where do use mains keep it class 2 (double insulated, no earth required) that way you avoid the risks associated with dodgy earths.

I would still consider an ground rod earth on one side of the 12 volt supply from a class 2 transformer just as a back up should the transformer become leaky across the insulation due to damp, old age or damage.

There is also the possibility of a floating neutral and/or earth on the supply side where temporary supplies are involved.

But then I am paranoid about lengths of home made extension cabling feeding power to marquees and stalls in car parks and on village greens.

 

[Hoolicoon]

Thanks for the info. The locations I work in are all internal, either country houses, schools, halls and the like.
Does this alter your views at all? I am trying to keep things as simple as possible while at the same time avoiding killing anyone.
I will have overhead lights working from the mains and supplied by the fair organisers, so I was hoping for just a simple system working from the mains supply which is a part of the stand fit anyway.
If I were to go for a transformer, any ideas about a specific model?
Many thanks for your input.

 

[breezer]

why not have 12v led lights run from an alarm battery, they will lasst for hours / days

 

[Hoolicoon]

Trouble is, I've already bought the GU10 LEDs (on Ebay - could resist it!), and having also bought the downlighters I've probably committed myself irrevocably to a particular solution.
Is it possible to take a standard, say, 3amp plug, run that cable to, say a junction box, then connect the lights in parallel to the junction box?
Would that be sufficiently safe, or would it all blow up as soon as I plugged it in - which would be embarrassing at a big antiques fair to say the least.
As you can probably tell, I failed physics O level (in fact I wasn't allowed to take it).
Grateful for your help and views.

 

[RF Lighting]

What about putting a seperate plugtop on each fitting, and plug them into a six gang adaptor?

 

[breezer]

put them back on ebay?

 

[Hoolicoon]

My original intention was to have the lights with the minimum of plugs - I already use eight uplighters, each with a plug, in other parts of my set up, so the idea is only to add one or two more plugs at the most. Looks like it might have to be that way after all.