Cable Lights Part 1

Professional Cable Light

Introduction and Background

I had a lot of fun with this project. My inspiration came from a style of track lights that I saw when I was in Switzerland. Called cable lights, two cables are strung parallel and the lights either clip on or hang between the two cables. The power for the lights flows through the two cables. I like such visible function in a design. I really think these kinds of lights are very modern and attractive.

Now these start out at about $500 for a commercially available 3-light set, which is a little bit higher than my college kid budget will allow. So I decided I would use my talents to fashion my own set. I also wanted to do some things I hadn't seen in the commercial sets, one being I wanted to use LED's instead of incandescent bulbs. So I went searching for LED light bulbs at local retailers. I ended up finding some very inexpensive ones at my local Walmart. While I am not much of a fan of Walmart, I suspended some of my regular disposition for this project.

LED Bulb Choice

Lights of America LED Accent

What I ended up deciding on were 20-LED (per bulb) accent lights with a GU10 base. (pictured right) They are made by Lights of America, cost about $6 each and run off of common household 120 Volt power. They weren't ideal because of the high voltage they run on, but I will address that better in my second cable light project. I will however say that I originally tried a few of these and paired them with a couple bulbs from GE of the same style, but that the Lights of America brand bulbs were significantly brighter (and half the cost).

So here is the basic plan at this point. I decided that the directional and bright lighting would be great for over my sofa in the living room area of my apartment. I found some bare copper wire at my local hardware store next to all the picture hanging accessories. The lights would be switched on and off with a remote control left over from a new ceiling fan. I had found the GU10 base ideal for soldering on leads from which i would hang the lights. Remember, no light fixtures for this one. I like it bare, industrial looking, thought provoking and somewhat minimalistic.

I also reluctantly decided that I would have to run the bare cables that conduct the power for the light at the lamps required 120VAC. Not ideal, and not recommended, but like I said before, I left that issue to be solved in my next cable lighting project. This is especially not recommended for any place with children! But this added another benefit of my chosen site of installation, being over a sofa that is against a wall, one is unlikely to reach up or otherwise accidentally touch the conducting wires. A side note is that I have tried touching the cables to see how bad of a jolt they deliver and it wasn't very strong for me.

Don't do this with 120 volt power, use a 12 volt system like my second set.

GFCI, Fuse, and other Precautions

GFCI

I also took other safety precautions. I am not really reckless, although having live 120 volt wires in my living room makes me feel tough, especially since I seem to have built up a decent resistance to electrical shock (pun intended). I elected to protect the entire circuit with a GFCI.

GFCI's Commonly found in bathrooms, and identified by their being outlets with a test and reset buttons, GFCI detects when the power returning from a circuit is less than the power being drawn from the outlet. This condition is called a Ground Fault and could indicate that power is flowing through another object that it is not meant to (say for example, a person). On this condition, it cuts the power to the circuit. I also built a 1/2 amp BUS fuse into the cable light wiring that would blow before the GFCI in the event of a short circuit.

Changes I've made since original install

The remote control I used had two circuits, one to control lights and one made to control a fan. I decided to hook up the second channel to the existing light fixture in the room. The fact that I had a remote for this light made it easier to switch on, since the original switch is located in an inconvenient position.

I had to also hook up a relay to control the lights connected to the "Light" circuit on the controller. This is because the controller only has one relay, which it uses on the fan circuit. It was using some other method to control the light circuit, as such, it was only compatible with incandescent lights that aren't so sensitive to varying voltage and that draw a lot of current. I added the relay when I changed the light fixture to a 4 light LED spot. Without the added relay, the lights would just flash on and off as the controller tried to figure out what was going on.

Conclusions

The final result: it works great, was inexpensive and fun to build, and has impressed several of my friends. These save A LOT of power to compared to traditional lights. Each bulb uses less than 1 Watt of power and is rated for 30 thousand hours bulb life. I like to sit under these when I read my newspaper or do homework. The are also so directional that one can sit on the couch with full lighting but leave the TV on coffee table out of the glare while watching TV. Plus I am sure the neighbors have noticed the cool white (brighter looking light temperature) luminescence from my patio door.