Zone Wiring for Lights

Buford T Justice

Hi

Someone (I think 2011 or Mcebee) mentioned before about wiring lights in a room on zones. I've been thinking about this, as normally if I was fitting recessed downlights I would just do them all in parallel.

Say you have 12 low voltage downlights, split accross 3 zones all running from the same switch. Is it just a case of having the three switch lives running down to the switch to power the separate zones, or is there another way it should be done?

M cebee

hey that was me


the old method of calculating lighting load was based on 100 watt bulbs

if you're were using led or cfl the lighting load might be small

so the no. of lighting circuits could be dictated by the area/no. of rooms rather than the 'lighting load '


you're talking about something else

Buford T Justice

Ta


I think it was mentioned in relation to the aspect of zones going faulty and not leaving the whole room in darkness.

That said, 12 * 50W downlighters would draw about 2.5 amps, so would be safe enough in a single switch. Off hand, what is the max load on a single switch??

When you say the number of circuits being dictated by the load, I take it that you are talking about the number of lighting circuits needed as opposed to zones in a room?

M cebee

by zoning i meant calculating the number of circuits required according to the number of rooms /floor area of the installation rather than the load

when using led/cfl

Buford T Justice

I'm with you now. I thought you were talking about zoning areas in an individual room.

Thanks