Lights in a dolls house?

[Rauer]

Right,
the misses bought our 3 year old a dolls house for Christmas , after I had spent an hour building the thing with cursing from cheap bolts that it had with it she started putting things in it and came out with " it's very dark inside it can you put any lights in it!" so I thought about some flat surface mounted under cupboard sort of lights , but then she found some specifically for dolls houses( great!!!) when she showed them to me it says they are suitable for the copper tape method, anyone know of this? Personally the under cupboard lights and a tranny on the outside on a plugtop is sounding good to me lol

 

[Specialist]

It's a thin Self adhesive copper tape that's used instead of wiring, if you Google Dolls House Electrics you should find all the info you need including suppliers.

 

[Rauer]

Cheers mate hadn't thought of that! But seriously is that safe? I dunno if I would trust it, a ) with a 3year old poking around and b) being attached to mdf!!!

 

[Specialist]

Never seen it attached to MDF to be honest mate but it's perfectly safe when fitted to Plywood. Just a suggestion if it's for the little 1 & you don't need fancy fittings: What about useing some Small LED's fitted through the back panel to light each room. All wiring would be concealed behind the house & you could use a standard transformer.

 

[Rauer]

To be honest mate that's why I was thinking some small thin surface mount led undercut board lights with the tranny screwd to the back of it on a plug to an adaptable box and a bit of yt1 on the inside ( at the ceiling height) to feed a switch on the outside of it so she can switch it on herself, I understand the safety aspects of a 3year old and electrics but she's really good to the extent that we have no cupboard locks and I insisted that we didn't use socket plug covers as I think there more dangerous!

 

[Short Circuit]

my mother used to do make these a lot and i had to do the wiring. As Specialist says, its self adhesive tape with two copper cores running through it. You simply run it where you want the lights, then used tiny little pins to fasten the wires from the lights to it. You can use a transformer with a dimmer switch on for effect, and yes, completely safe! Mind, if its a kids dolls house, rather than a collectors, it think the leds with a driver is the better idea - some of the ligths my mother was using were around £100 each for chandelier type things so it sharp adds up, and be prepared to bash your thumb to bits trying to hammer the pins in! I ended up using tweezers! Its easier to rewire a proper house then one of the ones my mother was doing - bloody wall lights everywhere!

 

[Rauer]

Led's it is then!!!!

 

[Specialist]

What sort of switch are you going to use ? i've got some small round surface mount switches made for Dolls houses if 1 of those is any good to you. The LED strip sounds like just the job, when you said about cabinet lights i had Visions of those round undercabinet lights for some reason lol.

 

[Short Circuit]

haha, certainly much easier - and more 'child friendly'!

 

[Specialist]

my mother used to do make these a lot and i had to do the wiring. As Specialist says, its self adhesive tape with two copper cores running through it. You simply run it where you want the lights, then used tiny little pins to fasten the wires from the lights to it. You can use a transformer with a dimmer switch on for effect, and yes, completely safe! Mind, if its a kids dolls house, rather than a collectors, it think the leds with a driver is the better idea - some of the ligths my mother was using were around £100 each for chandelier type things so it sharp adds up, and be prepared to bash your thumb to bits trying to hammer the pins in! I ended up using tweezers! Its easier to rewire a proper house then one of the ones my mother was doing - bloody wall lights everywhere!

Yep: They can be a pain in the A** my missus is into dolls houses & some of the fittings are crazy prices.

 

[Rauer]

I was just going to use a surface architrave switch , are those switches suitable for 240?

 

[Specialist]

240 ? No mate they're for Dolls Houses, you normally switch the 12 v side & use a Plug in TX.

 

[Engineer54]

I was just going to use a surface architrave switch , are those switches suitable for 240?

Were you honestly going to wire a Dolls House with 240 Volt?? Nahhhh!!! lol!!!:6:

 

[Rauer]

Well all there was gonna be was a 240 flex in mini trunking to a back entry architrave switch and the lights would be either 12 or 24 fed from the driver , why what's up with that?

 

[Specialist]

To Be honest I would'nt put 240v anywhere near a Childs Dolls house, a house made for an Adult collector maybe.