Need advice from certified electrician please!

[Paulr]

Ok guys and gals - I managed to get my grubby little paws on some 12V energy saver bulbs http://www.radiant.co.za/info_nw.asp?ID=700&CatID=705&SubID=704&Page=10

They have the standard screw type fitting (E27 / Edison) that normal household bulbs use.

My question is regarding the legality of the following idea:

I want to put these globes into my normal houselights' fitting and convert the whole lighting system in the house to 12V. Batteries I have, I've designed a charger circuit that can charge the batteries and run the lights, and I change the wiring without killing myself or burning the house down (lights, light switches etc.) !

Is it legal for a house to run a 12V lighting system? What kind of protection is needed to ensure that it's safe even if a short circuit occurs? (So it's a- legal and b- insurance friendly)

I'm busy modifying stand alone lamps (like our bedside lamps) with these already, but that's ok from a legal point of view as they are plug in units. I need to know what the laws are regarding something that's permanently wired up.

Thanks already!

 

[Frankie]

It's a very long time since I passed my wiremans license and I'm no longer doing that type of work, but I'd say a) it would be legal, and b) you'd still need the installation certified by a licensed electrical contractor, which should suffice for the insurance.

You'd need circuit breakers suited for your installation in addition to the use of the correct gage wire. The wire will inevitable be much heavier and costlier than that for a 240 Vac circuit.

BTW. If you're charging these batteries from the 240 Vac mains, then you'd be better off using the equivalent 240 Vac lamps, but will not have them available during load shedding. There's a considerable efficiency loss between charging the batteries and using the power for the lamps.

 

[BiteMe]

You'd need circuit breakers suited for your installation in addition to the use of the correct gage wire. The wire will inevitable be much heavier and costlier than that for a 240 Vac circuit.

take heed of this info....you will need to UPGRADE all the wiring in the house to much thicker cables.
simple sum
240v, 60watt bulb=0.25amps
12v, 60 watt= 5amps, massive difference

as the energy saver bulbs are 11watt, the sum is almost perfect...0.91amps...still 4 times more that the 60watt 240v example...

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Instead of wiring ALL the fittings over to 12v, why not just place a few 12v light sockets at strategic places?

Or do you want to go over to 12v 24x7?

 

[Paulr]

Thanks for the answers guys.

@ Frankie - Yes - I'd have it certified by an appropriate person after it's done - I was just worried he or she comes here and tells me to rip it all out because you can't run a house's lights on 12V.

@ Frankie and BiteMe - I'm quite lucky as the house I have is fairly old and still have nice and thick wires in it! Taking my lounge for example, with 2 of the energy savers running there will draw, say, 2A. The wiring that's running to there will be sufficient (at least 2.5mm core wires - I need to do an exact measurement as it might be thicker).

@ Libs - I'm still playing with figures in my head to see what the best will be. The whole object of this is to have lights in the house during power cuts (loadshedding or whatever you want to call it). The loooonnnggg term plans are to move that part off the grid as much as possible, charging the batteries with solar etc. But at the moment I simply cannot afford that.

The whole idea for this is simply to have some resemblance of normal living during loadshedding. Having a dark, quiet house at those times is starting to freak me out. Having lights will at least help a little bit....

 

[JSnow]

Why not try an inverter solution like the ones at altpower[dot]co[dot]za?

Then you do not have to rewire a damn thing unless you really want to.

 

[Paulr]

That is an option, yeah, but I'd prefer not going to 220V from 12V if I don't have to.

Inverters are a) expensive and b) have losses - so a fair amount of the battery power would be wasted in them. With the 12V lights, you are using the "raw" power.

With most mains powered appliances you don't have an option though - they are too complicated to convert (if even at all possible) but with these 12V globes.....

Ta for the input anyway!