Fitting recessed LED lights in bathroom ceiling ?? Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[Kris]

Howdi all.

My 1st post and could do with a bit of information and a solution.

B&Q do a recessed blue led pack of lights which you can install indoors or
outdoors using wallwart/ transformer that needs to plug into a mains
socket

Similar to these but indoor/outdoor ones if you Google "lightingsite.co.uk" and search for LED Decking Light Kits Pack of 10

What i want to do is intall these in my bathroom ceiling to make it more
relaxing (I enjoy a bath after grafting all day) but they have to be plugged
into a mains socket.
They come with 5m of cable on each light which all connect to a junction
box which then goes to the wallwart/transforner

Thing is i dont have any mains sockets in the loft space, plus i dont fancy jumping up
into the loft to switch the lights on and off everytime.

I want to put them on a seperate switch next to my main bathroom light
switch so that i can have either one [b]on[/b] or [b]both together[/b].

Is there a way i can do this ??? I know you cant wire them directly to the
mains but there must be another way of doing it as i have seen them in
a few bathrooms and on seperate on/off switches.

Could i do something like this ???
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a7/kristoff26/bathroomlighting.jpg[/IMG]

Ive had a few replys on another forum to this topic and some have said to
swap the supplied power supply for a non-wallwart one and connecting that to an FCU on the lighting circuit.

Another said take a LNE supply from the light circuit and take that to a fused spur box, fuse at 1A. Then have a single socket of from the fused spur and for switching live, a cable needs to interrupt the live between the fused spur and the socket and run down to the switch location- outside the bathroom!

I appreciated there help but would like a few more opinions.

I can take a few pics tonight if you need more info??

Also i know all work complies with part P as its a special room so will get
all my work inspected by a qualified electrician.

Any help would be much appreciated

Kris

[ericmark]

Hi Kris don’t want to be wet blanket but bathrooms are special locations under Part P and it costs so much in County Council Building Control charges it is not worth doing DIY in a bathroom for small jobs.
Looking at 559.6.1.1 using a socket outlet to BS1363 is permitted. I can’t find any rule which expressly says a 13 amp socket should not be used on lighting circuits and if I wanted to fit lights supplied by a transformer built into a 13 amp plug I would fit a 13 amp socket powered from the lights. Most likely with a label on transformer saying do not remove.
If at a latter date some one did try using the socket for non lighting use there could be a problem in opening the lighting overload device and plunging the whole area in darkness but in the loft space I would assume this would be unlikely.
I did expect to find a regulation saying you should not use a 13 amp socket on a lighting circuit but I have failed. Maybe some one else will find one. What worries me is to tell you it’s OK to use a socket then the building inspector to fail it on something I have missed so I would check with inspector first.
Eric

[sparx]

Hi,
I wanted to do something similar in our conservatory where we have a hot tub installed in one corner, not a bathroom as such but similar situation.
The lights of course are low voltage so installing them in a bathroom is not a problem and I did as suggested ie ran a 13A socket outside the room. I then used a plug-through remote control 'zapper' device to control them as sold by B&Q, Maplins etc.
Usually they come in sets of three receivers and one hand controller so come the 'festive season' the others could be used to control hard to reach lighting sets eg, the tree lights,
regards SPARX

[thelastrealspark]

Install a fused spur or MCB (minature Circuit Breaker) as a master switch into your lighting circuit and then wire the socket to it, then plug your transformen into the socket. Cleary and permanent label the spur and socket that the fuse size MCB has not to exceed 3A (or 5A).

Although there is no danger of overloading the lighting circuit with say a heater, it is both a means of stopping that additional circuit tripping all your lights and for convieniently isolating the circuit for maintenance. It is also good practice for such a sub-circuit.

A similar method can be adopted with ring main circuits where you can spur off into a fused spur and fuse it down to 3A or 5A depending on the intended load.