residential Led lighting wire size

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zodiack

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Good Morning

We are doing a residential home. The Architect has designed Led lights through out the house. The fixtures do not have the Led drivers built into fixtures, He was putting drivers in a cabinet adjacent the led fixtures. We suggested a remote driver location in the ultilty room. The distances are approx 50 feet. We would run from switch 14/2 switch leg to drivers and load side of drivers run 18/2 to power fixtures
Thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
 
50' is a long way to go with 18 gauge wire but it depends on the wattage of the led's. I would install the driver in the cabinet close to the fixtures especially if someone else maintains them in the future
 
In one instance they were locating drivers in the base of a vanity in bathroom. So i sugguested remote locations. I was considering 16/2 stranded speaker wire. i have a call into southwire. to see if it is rated
 
Remote driver type fixtures should come with a chart to tell you how far you can run the cables with different conductor sizes.
 
Another thing you need to consider is whether this can be CL2 wiring or must be a wiring method from Chapter 3. What does it say on the drivers? If it says Class 2 then you would be OK with speaker or other CL2 listed wire. But if it says nothing or Class 1 then you have to use NM along with all the requirements just like power wiring.

-Hal
 
How 'bout 12-gauge garden-wiring zip cord? Also available in red/black instead of all black. Used by the amateur radio and model railroad folks as well, along with PowerPole connectors.
 
PaulMmn said:
How 'bout 12-gauge garden-wiring zip cord? Also available in red/black instead of all black. Used by the amateur radio and model railroad folks as well, along with PowerPole connectors.
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What's the listing on it? Used to be it was unlisted because it was used buried outside of the building. Then it was noted that installers of LV landscape lighting often ran the wiring up out of the ground, through the outside wall into the basement or garage where they installed the transformer and controllers. Running unlisted wire in a building was a violation so the wire manufacturers began getting it listed. So you have to be careful to make sure that there is a listing printed on the jacket because there may still be some unlisted stuff around. And if it is listed, it's only CL2 as far as I know.

-Hal
 
It would have to be in wall rated cable, so regular old speaker wire would not be compliant. I'm doing led cabinet lighting right now, and I have remote drivers on top of the cabinets. The customer wants lighting top and bottom, so I'm prewiring in the wall.
 
Monoprice sells CL2 in-wall rated 2-conductor and 4-conductor cable in 18 - 12ga that would work if the drivers are listed as CL2.

Monoprice Speaker Wire, CL2 Rated, 2-Conductor, 12AWG, 100ft, White - Monoprice.com

Get the most out of your home audio system with high quality, pure bare copper speaker wire from Monoprice™!Pure Bare Copper is a superior conductor to the copper clad aluminum (CCA) conductors
www.monoprice.com


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