pub/resturant dimming advice

[Robertbaker63]

Hi

I'm Rewiring a pub/resturant complex and the owner would like to have dimmable led lighting thoughout inside

it'll be a mixture of the jcc led 7's tiltable and tracklighting with pendants with either an 8w or 11w dimmable led bulb in hovering over the tables

the'll be around 140 lights in total and all lights will be switched from behind the bar

there will also be ground uplights outside, i have pulled out a 1.5mm 2 core armoured to supply some walk over uplights leading up to the entrance ( about a 25m run) how many can i safely put on this if i use an led uplight on a 6 or 10 amp rcbo?

there will be car park lights and driveway lights, i have run a 2.5mm armoured for these, how many can i safely put on without tripping an rcbo, the first light is a run of 30m aromoured, if i were to carry on all the way to the entrance it would be an 80m run to the last light


how many should i allow on each dimmer, i'm presuming about 6-8?

should i go for one bank of 24 grid dimmers or should i go for 6 banks of 4?


many thanks, sorry about my inexperiance with led lighting, whenever i've installed in a domestic install i've stuck to 10 jcc led on a circuit max

 

[Guest111]

when you ran your armoureds did you take volt drop into account?

 

[Robertbaker63]

when you ran your armoureds did you take volt drop into account?

small fib, i didn't run the armoured out, they supply the existing outside lighting and i'd like to reuse them if i can. if they are not suitable for the amount of lights the owner wants to install then i'll have to run more/larger.

there are no plans, just someone trying to reift a country pub on a budget

 

[telectrix]

you should be able to fit a lot more than 6-8 LEDs on 1 dimmer. find out the max. loading on a suitable dimmer and calculate from that. if, say the max. is 300watt, then you can put 30 8watt LEDs on 1 dimmer without overloading it. 24 dimmers is stupid.

 

[Robertbaker63]

i don't really want to put 30 lights on one dimmer as i'd like to give more control to the pub manager to create various moods, i was looking to dim each track individually and the way it works out is that there is never more than 6 tables under a length of track. i asked the wholesaler rep who came out and he was the one who told me 6 11w led bulbs or 8 8w led bulbs is what he'd reccomend for each dimmer which i thought was a bit conservative
i'm going for jcc for most things but i have alot of led colour strips in various locations, could anyone reccomend me a good reliable make ?

thanks rob

 

[Robertbaker63]

i also thought that jcc state no more than 15 of their led 7s on a normal circuit as it will trip a breaker on start up?

 

[Fin170]

i also thought that jcc state no more than 15 of their led 7s on a normal circuit as it will trip a breaker on start up?

Cant say I've ever read that anywhere, or herd of LEDs running high start up currents...

Does not sound like you would need RCD protection on armoured cable to outside lights (in a commercial premisses as well) either

 

[telectrix]

yep, sod the |RCD on the SWA> just a possible source of tripping.

 

[High Tower]

Forget grid dimmers, consider a integrated dimmer pack, more reliable and better controls, and will dim up to 10a per channel instead of 400w!!

Also most grid pots will not dim LED's !! But dimmer packs will, I'll come back and post a link.

 

[Robertbaker63]

thanks high tower

 

[Robertbaker63]

i was going to use a control gear boards with rcbos for each circuit as their rcbos are only about a tenner each from denmans rather than a hager or merlin gerin board where the rcbos are 25-30 pounds each

i haven't used one but i think control gear do a 12 way 3 phase board which i could convert to single phase, i have 200 amp 2 phase coming into the building, the kitchen and games rooms are having seperate submains. the kitchen hasn't been specced yet but im hoping its mainly gas appliances

 

[High Tower]

Control gear stuff is dire mate!!!!!

 

[Robertbaker63]

why would you say that?

i haven't had any problems in a domestic situation, fitted hundreds of the new boards, 90 quid for a 14 way board with 8 rcbos from denmans and loads of space to do a neat job, good quality plastic, breakers line up quite well on the din rail. never had an rcbo faulty?

 

[Fin170]

yep, sod the |RCD on the SWA> just a possible source of tripping.

Well my first thought was unnecessary use of £20 :lol:



I've used control gear a few times, it's immediately obvious they're not brilliant but not Proteus levels of crap, I'd take them over wylex at least.

 

[Robertbaker63]

yeah i'd say control gear aren't as a good as hager etc but on a budget they beat everything else

 

[Robert Turnbull]

Rako do good dimming solutions that can be set to 4 presets.

And as many dimming circuits as your wallet allows.

Dimming packs are wireless so you save in time and cable.

 

[OWLelectrical]

used to be purely wiring pubs and clubs at one point. use a dimmer pack once they are set up they're so easy to use

 

[Fin170]

yeah i'd say control gear aren't as a good as hager etc but on a budget they beat everything else

Just pop into wilts and grab a load of samples, Bideford does better coffee than Barnstaple

 

[OWLelectrical]

tiger packs we use brilliant to use once set up

 

[High Tower]

Yea it's a tiger pack
I'm suggesting I'll post the link when I get home