Home made light fixtures / lamps

[Premiershipman]

Just wondering if there are any restriction in relation to making your own lamps & light fittings ?

You see a number of good ideas on instructables or pinterest in US but wondered if the UK are more health and safety conscious regarding home made lights.

Or is it only if you are selling them ?

I.E. to pass safety testing etc...

 

[cumbriasteve]

I can't see any issues on making any type of portable lights for personal use, your safety and the safety of any visitors will be your responsibility.

As you mention if selling then it's a whole new world of compliance, also I suspect if they are direct wired into the housing circuit they and the wiring would fall into regulatory requirements.

Not forgetting as well any failure causing damage could be void on the house insurance for homemade electrics.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Surely if it's pat tested (if on a plug, mind there's nothing stopping you putting a plug on a ceiling or wall fitting to test it) and the actual bulb holder is an off the shelf jobbie the only issues are going to be design things like sharp edges if the cable goes through say a bit of box section.

Dan

 

[Wendelspanswick]

We used to make light fittings for a company in Edinburgh who supplied hotels, bars and restaurants. Each light was tested for continuity/resistance/polarity, and then an insulation test.
Basically with a low Ohm meter a check was made that the live conductor went to the centre pin of the Edison Screw bulb holder, the neutral to the screw ring of the bulb holder and the structure of the light fittings was connected to the CPC, all with a very low resistance.
The insulation test checked whether the insulation was up to standard, a 'Megger' was used to squirt 500V DC into the conductors.
Occasionally a light fitting would pass the continuity test but fail the insulation test, normally where one of the tubes had not been deburred properly and had scraped the insulation off one off the conductors.
Some of these fittings would have over 60 bulbs in and fault finding was a real pain.

 

[Premiershipman]

I have a merger tester so could easily perform an insulation resistance test on it.

You just wonder if its all worth the hassle though !

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I have a merger tester so could easily perform an insulation resistance test on it.

You just wonder if its all worth the hassle though !

Have you see the price of light fittings!
This is the company we used to supply:
http://www.rs-robertson.co.uk/product-intro-page/products/?paged=0&filtertype=chandeliers

 

[Westfield-builder]

Is a Merger tester the one that measures how close together the conductor will be before they Merge into one ?

 

[the snooper]

Surely if it's pat tested (if on a plug, mind there's nothing stopping you putting a plug on a ceiling or wall fitting to test it) and the actual bulb holder is an off the shelf jobbie the only issues are going to be design things like sharp edges if the cable goes through say a bit of box section.

Dan

only needs pat testing if for use in business or similar

 

[Wedg1e]

Looking at some of the tat sold by Bodgit & Quick et al, the presence of a CE sticker and fancy packaging is no guarantee that their light fittings are magically better than something you could create yourself.
As said, fit a commercial socket for whatever lamp you want to use and the hard part is done for you

 

[rtbcomp]

.............You just wonder if its all worth the hassle though !

It's hardly hassle. If you're making a few have a socket you can connect to the megger and another connected to a battery and use an L.E.D. to check the polarity & continuity.

 

[Premiershipman]

Is a Merger tester the one that measures how close together the conductor will be before they Merge into one ?

Damn IPad auto correct......!