Best practice for wiring an LED driver to the lighting circuit

[AndyHunt]

Before I begin, I put my hands up and admit I'm neither a sparks by occupation, nor a qualified domestic installer, nor Part P qualified. I do have a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and I spent many years doing temporary lighting installations for theatrical shows, concerts etc - so I am fairly competent and not entirely deserving of being branded as "just DIY".

I'm currently having my own house renovated and I've engaged a "proper" electrician to undertake all the Part P notifiable work, so don't worry, I'm not cutting corners etc, I just want to compass views on "best practice" for my own interest.

So - I have a standard domestic lighting circuit, on a newly installed fully compliant board, and I'm having a small IP66 LED light put into the shower area as a feature. It's an Aurora product in case anybody's familiar. Aurora have provided an LED driver which has 230v input flyleads and low voltage output flyleads. The intention is to mount the driver (which is only 35x25x20mm) on the vertical wall behind a fitted wardrobe in the adjacent room, with a removable inspection panel in the back of the wardrobe (the in-line extract fan is there too). Currently, there's a run of flex going from the LED location to this wall location, and the twin & earth feed from the light switch also runs there.

The question is - what's considered best practice for actually wiring up the LED driver? To be honest I don't know what the overload protection of the LED driver is like - perhaps it's adequate - but a circuit with a 6A breaker seems like a lot to me for a tiny LED. Perhaps this needs addressing, perhaps not.

A few options occur to me:
1. Terminate the T&E in an unswitched fused spur plate with a 1a fuse, mount the driver on the wall next to that plate and choc block / WAGO the low voltage side next to it;
2. Put the whole LED driver inside a surface box, choc block / WAGO the 230v and low voltage sides inside the box, put a blank plate on the box and bring the low voltage flex out the side - maybe with some cable ties in the box for strain relief;
3. Wall mount a standard junction box for the 230v side, wall mount the LED driver, and wall mount a choc block for the low voltage side....

... None of which are "wrong" in my view (although some may argue, or I may have overlooked a regulation in which case I apologise and please enlighten me) - the question is which one (or any other) is "best"?

I'd appreciate any constructive feedback.

Many thanks.

 

[Boatelec]

Hi Andy.

Speak to your Spark as it were but-

1. Breaker in CCSU is to protect the cable not the appliance so 6A fine.
2. Join mains with a 17th edition 2011 junction box basically one with cable grips.
3. I would probably crimp 12v but could us screw connector or another junction box.
4. If the LED is in zones 0 or 1 (have a look at diagrams on the net) the transformer supplying the LED must be "SELV" separated extra low voltage (basically earthed centre screen). Just make sure it does satisfy this requirement as anybody inspecting the installation will certainly look at this.
I hope this helps.
Howard

 

[AndyHunt]

Thanks Howard, much appreciated.

The LED driver is SELV, yes, but I admit I didn't know what that meant until your post. I did know the cable grips requirement, hence my emphasis on strain relief in some form in all my possible methods. And I understand the point about the CCSU breaker protecting the cable not the appliance, but that being the case, with this scenario what's protecting the appliance? Do I assume the LED driver has sufficient protection built in?

 

[thelondonway]

Buy haler h2's
all in one unit

 

[Boatelec]

Andy
Yes providing the transformer comes up to european/british standard and there is no express requirement for it to be protected in a particular way you can assume that it has any required protection built in. In essence it is the same as the transformer for a 12v downlighter which are usually connected directly into a 6A lighting circuit.
Howard