Residential LED stasirway lighting

[mde00435]

Hello,

I want to install some lighting up the stairs in the house and I know with all other wiring it's necessaryto adhere to the prescribes zones for runnig wires, but since the LED wirng is going to be 12v and is classed as ELV I wanted to know the following:

- Can I leave the transformer for the lights under the stairs and run the 240 lighting wires to the transformer under the flooring from the ground floor lighting ring?
- Can the wiring be run up the stairs and hidden, for instance behind the skirting, under the carpet etc
- In the likely evcent that the answer to my above question is 'no'... Whats the best way to run wiring for stairway lighting?

I made the decision to install the lights after having plasterboarded my walls. but I am guessing that if I do indeed need to adhere to the zones thenm I would need to run the wires to the floor and the ncome back up again to where each light is located on the next step up.

Many thanks,

 

[truffle pig]

Hi, are you in the uk? (different countries have different regs).
If in the uk, the 230v cable would need to be in a "safe zone" (let me know if you are unaware of where these are) and if less than 50mm from the surface would need to be protected bye a 30ma RCD. the 12v (ELV) lights can be hidden, but be conscious of anything that could potentially cause the cable to overheat or get damaged - 12v isn't enough to give you a shock but under the right (or wrong!!) circumstances could still be a potential fire source. Installing any electrical equipment under the stairs (your main escape route in the event of a fire) should always be preceded by a risk assessment

 

[Castello_V]

The mains feed to it still needs to follow the usual wiring regs, so don't treat that bit like ELV. Once you're on the 12v side you've got more freedom, running behind skirting or under carpet is fine as long as the cable's protected from damage and not getting crushed.

 

[mde00435]

Hello,

Thanks very much for you replies.
Truffle Pig to answer you questions:

• Yes, I am in the UK and I do understand the zones thanks.
• I was planning on wiring it into the downstairs lighting circuit (the switch can be seen from the 3 from last photo, mounted to the RHS of the front door). My consumer unit does have an RCD but I can't tell what it's connected in to. See first photo.

I understand what you're both saying and that's what i understood as well however once I read more into it, it got more and more ambiguous.

My plan is as follows:
1. Run a switching live from the downstairs hallway light switch under the floorboards to a 12v transformer that will be located under the stairs in a cupboard. The light switch has a permanent live running into it already.
2. Run the 12v wire straight up behind the existing skirting board to the first light fitting that will have been drilled into the skirting. The 12v wire will then remain behind the skirting board and loop into each light moving up the stair case.
3. The skirting board, for whatever reason is currently mounted with a gap behind it. The top edge has been covered by some quadrant. I was thinking if I removed this I would be able to slip the wire down in the gap and then re-cover the top with some new quadrant.

I've attached some photos of the hallway to help you visualise what i'm looking at, apologies that they have come out so large!

My other solution would be to run an LED strip up the stairs on the opposite side under the edge of the baserail capping. This way I would only have 1 short wire at the bottom of the stairs to run into the transformer. This is our less preferred option as I would likely need to modify the capping as the stairs run too close to fit the strip all the way up (see final photo).

Many thanks for your help.