Hello again all...

You know youll be sick of me soon...

Right then, kitchen is moving along now, all ordered, new fusebox ordered etc etc so ive moved onto my next item on the "to sort" list...

The better half has decided she wants those LED lights in the kitchen unit kickboards, and some LED downlighters under the cupboards to light up the worktops... and she wants em externally switched seperate to the room lighting.

She has brought a box of kickboard lights to show me, but im confused how they could be wired in, and i think they might have to be returned for a different style, which is fine if need be... we have the reciept!

The ones she has brought have a mains plug with a built in transformer, with has a lead going to a 10 gang junction box. The led lights just plug into this junction box and bingo it works.

But as i need 2 sets of these (one for each side of the room) and then the under cupboard lights as well, i dont think you could control 4 ring main sockets from a single light switch style unit?

I dont know how the under cupboard lights wire in as yet as we havent brought any??

I was expecting it to work like in my parents house when they had wall lights fitted, the electrician arrived, added a switch and ran some cable into the walls from the lighting circuit and left it sticking of the wall. So once the wall was plastered etc the wall lights just connected to that via junction boxes.... but all the kitchen lights seem to be mains powered and plug in?

Can you use a single switch to control only 4 sockets on a ring main with other sockets???

Morning , Right the thing with LED lighting is they need a special driver/transformer, most professional kits come with the driver with a lead but 99.9% of DIY ones come with a 13a plug in trdriver/transformer, there is no problem in using these as all you need to do is wire them as a normal lighting circuit would be. For example for the ones below the wall units put a 13a unswitched socket marked up as cupboard lighting above the units and plug in there. For the low level ones use the same principal and either put it in the kickspace behind the plinth or inside a cupboard. The 230v side is exactly the same as a normal lighting circuit would be, but just switching the 13a driver sockets. You can also obtain the power for them by using a switched fused spur on the ring main mounted above worktop and then switching the same sockets , entireley up to you .

any more questions feel free to ask

Nick

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If it isnt broke dont bloody touch it until it bloody well is and if it is broke then make drawing of the connections before you remove the broken one and replace with a new one LoL

I got lost in there completely...

So your saying, i think.... get 4 normal 13a sockets wired in from the lighting circuit, 2 above the units, and 2 below, all marked as "cupboard lighting" and switched via a normal light switch fitted somewhere.

If so thats simple enough i guess... (not that im doing it, just planning it all)

Yes basically that what i am saying, sorry if i confused you. The sockets even though are 13A will only be used for the very low current required by the plug in transformer so will never be overloaded. If someone is ever stupid enough to plug something into it other than cupboard lights it will just trip the breaker so no harm done. as i said the professional kits normally have a driver with just a lead coming out of it which could be connected to the lighting circuit via a Junction box but the DIY ones are just plug in

please come back if i have confused you even more



Nick

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If it isnt broke dont bloody touch it until it bloody well is and if it is broke then make drawing of the connections before you remove the broken one and replace with a new one LoL

No thats fine, ive got it... just didnt know if the legal beagles who write all the do's and dont's would allow a socket to be wired on the lighting circuit... if they will thats fab.

Do you know of any sources for these proper LED lights...