Lighting (wiring) question

[fufna]

Right... one for the Electricians among us!

Seeing as I (at last) have a little more spare time on my hands I'm resuming my external cinema build.

The structure is now stripped back to it's bare walls and ready for re-plasterboarding again! :suicide:

Before I do this, I'm wiring all the electrics up
I've done quite a bit of this before but need to clarify a couple of things

I have a dedicated 30 amp spur off of my consumer unit just for the cinema... will this be sufficient to power the whole lot including 2 separate 120w (total each) lighting rings?

As for the lighting... I'm using a single switch (designed to be used as one half of a two way system) to switch the two rings.
The switch has wiring for the "signal" connection when used in two way mode.... am I right in thinking that I can use the switch for two separate rings and just ignore the "signal" connections on each dimmer module?

(it's one of the Varilight remote dimmers if anyone cares!)

Hope someone can clarify these points for me!

TIA

[Brian110507]

First a 30 amp dedicated spur should be sufficient to feed your whole system BUT if you intend to connect lights to it as well you MUST use a fused spur box fused at only 5 amps or less to feed the lights this is to protect the smaller wiring used in lighting circuits as a total of 240 watts is only around one amp.
I'm somewhat confused about your switch, a standard two way switch has only 3 terminals, a 'common' and two others usually marked L1 and L2 or 'one way' and 'two way'. When the switch is operated it changes the connection from 'common to L1' to 'common to L2' and vice-versa. how can you use that to control two lighting circuits, surely you need two switches.

[fufna]

Hi mate.. thanks for the reply.. I should have said it's a two gang switch.

[Brian110507]

Right that makes a bit more sense, but I still don't understand your reference to a "signal" connection, but if you mean can you use a two way switch as a one way then the answer is yes, just use the 'common' and one of the other terminals L1 or L2, the only difference between the two will be whether the 'dolly' is up or down for ON if it's wrong just use the other terminal.

[fufna]

lol. it is a 2 gang 2 way (with slave)
The signal connection is for when used with a slave unit.

as for the "dolly" It's a remote (non rocker) switch... will this affect the way I wire it?
(I've decided to go the junction-box route for wiring the lighting rings?

[fufna]

Hurrah!.. success!

[Brian110507]

I assume you've cracked it then

[fufna]

Yeah, thanks for the input mate... I just wired a separate junction box ring into each transformer on the back of the switch.

Any one know if Futronix or Lutron switches can be done in this way too?

Might be nice to have VERY flexible lighting scenes ;-)

[pwafer]

I think you'll find that scene setting systems will cater for a vast array of wiring configurations.

Is there any specific effect you are after ?

Regards

Paul

[fufna]

I've done it myself

(and WAY below the cost of a Rako system)