Hi all,
Got an antique light fitting that for some reason she wants putting up (can't say I love it haha) however it didn't come with any electrical fittings, so I'm trying to create a compliant solution. We want to use a brass lampholder with gold flex just going straight down from the brass base, basically what's already in the picture just brass and gold flex so it looks nicer. A few questions you'll probably want answers to already:
1. I will be earthing the brass base, with a brass m4 machine screw and nut and ring crimp since the connections sit inside it (wago connectors-there is space) so that bit should be safe. (1 cable at fitting not loop in)
2. The gold flex must be 3 core since the brass lampholder (one designed for pendants with strain relief) requires earthing.
3. Strain relief- haven't got a perfect solution for this for the cable coming out of the brass base, plan is to use a ziptie or two tight round the flex sheath which does stop it getting pulled out of the base, I'm aware this probably isn't really ideal but there's very little weight on the flex, only the lamp and lampholder, and the lamp ends up almost touching the glass shade anyway, so can't really see it being a problem.
But my question is firstly does my plan sound reasonable? Obviously this will be homemade and not type tested but I'm not selling it so shouldn't be too big an issue.
Secondly, can I use 0.5mm^2 gold flex for the lampholder mainly since TLC (where I'm ordering everything for this) don't sell 0.75mm and a smaller diameter looks nicer? I'm aware that pendants generally use 0.75mm^2 and have heard somewhere that 0.75mm^2 is the minimum allowed size flex on a 6A lighting circuit but not sure of the source or validity of that info. Also have seen many lights that appear to have 0.5mm^2 or smaller flex used?
Thanks for any advice on this!
Got an antique light fitting that for some reason she wants putting up (can't say I love it haha) however it didn't come with any electrical fittings, so I'm trying to create a compliant solution. We want to use a brass lampholder with gold flex just going straight down from the brass base, basically what's already in the picture just brass and gold flex so it looks nicer. A few questions you'll probably want answers to already:
1. I will be earthing the brass base, with a brass m4 machine screw and nut and ring crimp since the connections sit inside it (wago connectors-there is space) so that bit should be safe. (1 cable at fitting not loop in)
2. The gold flex must be 3 core since the brass lampholder (one designed for pendants with strain relief) requires earthing.
3. Strain relief- haven't got a perfect solution for this for the cable coming out of the brass base, plan is to use a ziptie or two tight round the flex sheath which does stop it getting pulled out of the base, I'm aware this probably isn't really ideal but there's very little weight on the flex, only the lamp and lampholder, and the lamp ends up almost touching the glass shade anyway, so can't really see it being a problem.
But my question is firstly does my plan sound reasonable? Obviously this will be homemade and not type tested but I'm not selling it so shouldn't be too big an issue.
Secondly, can I use 0.5mm^2 gold flex for the lampholder mainly since TLC (where I'm ordering everything for this) don't sell 0.75mm and a smaller diameter looks nicer? I'm aware that pendants generally use 0.75mm^2 and have heard somewhere that 0.75mm^2 is the minimum allowed size flex on a 6A lighting circuit but not sure of the source or validity of that info. Also have seen many lights that appear to have 0.5mm^2 or smaller flex used?
Thanks for any advice on this!