Industrial light fixture wiring

[Obidose]

I am trying to create a custom light/chandelier to hang above a kitchen island.
The roof above this island is irregular (see image 1) and I have 2 points to connect to (the larger one actually has a double cable). I don't necessarily need to use all the points, I can just use one then disconnect and bury/remove the other wires.

I have a rectangle of steel pipe 100cm x 50cm ready (screws together in pieces)

I want to suspend this rectangle from the ceiling by some strong wire / chain and have a number of filament bulbs hang from the frame. A bit like image 2 as an example.

Ideally I would like a single wire coming from the ceiling into the frame. I was planning to run a ring of mains wire inside the frame. At each point I want a light then I would drill into to top of the pipe and T splice off the live and neutral rings to connect a lamp. This should result in a number of lamps wired in parallel. I will of course also earth the pipe at several points.

Unfortunately the pipe does not have a large diameter and so I am unlikely to be able to fit a connector block inside to splice with. Therefore I am not sure the best way to go about wiring this safely.

I could manually splice with twisting/soldering/shrink insulation/tape but this seems a little messy and I wonder if it would be considered unsafe especially with mains wire. Although there would be some inherent safety as all wiring is contained within a fully earthed metal pipe.

I can find nice T-splice connectors but they only seem to be available for 12v wiring. I could fit a transformer inside the ceiling and run a 12v DC ring inside the frame instead. The 12v lamps available are more expensive, have a much smaller range and are bound to be less bright though.

The final option I suppose would be to do all the wiring in a junction box in the ceiling and run a wire for each lamp down from there (similar to image 2) I think this may look a little unbalanced though.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to the best way to proceed with this?


Image 1

Image 2

 

[Spoon]

The final option I suppose would be to do all the wiring in a junction box in the ceiling and run a wire for each lamp down from there (similar to image 2) I think this may look a little unbalanced though.

How would it look 'unbalanced', all the wired are hidden?

 

[Spoon]

What cables are you thinking of using for the lights?

 

[Obidose]

How would it look 'unbalanced', all the wired are hidden?

The wires coming from the ceiling to the frame would not be hidden. The would all either come down from one side (which would look very unbalanced) or a few from each side which would look a little unbalanced due to the irregular shape of the ceiling.

What cables are you thinking of using for the lights?

I was going to use a black braided flex cable of some description for all cable on display, I haven't picked one out as yet. Inside the frame could either use the same or a standard flex.

 

[Spoon]

I didn't see the picture clearly.
Why not just wire them all going into one of the legs of the frame. Your junction box will be in the ceiling anyhow...

 

[Obidose]

The frame is just a closed rectangle of pipe. It will be suspended by some wire from the ceiling. The electrical wire will have to run alongside the suspending wire. One wire would look alright, 6 perhaps a bit busy.

 

[Spoon]

put 3 on each

 

[shaun1]

Could you get a larger pipe?

Solder and heatshrink would be acceptable but it needs to be done properly to a good standard. You would also need to carry out an earth bond test on the pipe, and also an insulation resistance test between Line, Neutral and earth.

Be aware that the figure 8 cable needs to have insulation and an outer sheath (the older stuff only had a single layer which is no longer acceptable.

Make sure you protect the cable where it enters the pipe.

 

[telectrix]

do away with the electric lights. hang a Tilley lamp on the pipe. buy some lamp oil.