LED home lighting question

I'm thinking of putting in some low voltage led lights in the house. If I pull some of my lighting wires from my breaker panel and reroute them to a low voltage panel, here's the question , will regular 12 or 14 gauge home wiring ,( Romex ) , be to large of a wire. Will the larger wire cause to much pull or cause any kind of voltage drop for 12 volt systems.
Hope that makes sense.

 

You will need the heavier 12 and 14 gauge wire to reduce voltage drop on a 12v system.
But in most houses the light circuits are tied in to each room's recepticles.
The way I would wire a house would be to put the lighting on its own circuit like found on industrial and commercial wiring jobs.

 

Yea, I didn't think about the receptacles on that circuit. My walls aren't open so that I could run new wires, so I may have to run a few lights were I can run exposed wires, or run thru some Trac. Thanks.

 

I'm no electrician -- but aren't you talking about 12V DC (direct current)? My house runs on 120V AC, not DC. You need something to convert the AC to DC.

There are plenty of 12V DC power supplies that plug into a common 120V AC socket that should do the trick for you. But running your own wires with 12V (more than running say 10 feet or so) will result in lost power AND heating wires unless the gauge is thick enough.
-hitch

 

Why are you messing with low voltage lights? Why not just plug 120 VAC LED lights into the wiring you already have and use an inverter to run them from DC if that is the way you want to go? There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Anyway, I know that wasn't your question but I had to throw it out there.

You cannot do much guessing when using DC. You need accurate numbers on how long your wire runs will be, how much current you are pushing, etc., because these factors are much more meaningful when working with DC than with AC.

DC is a very inefficient way to power stuff over long runs of wire. This is why the commercial grid is AC. Tesla (AC guy) and Edison (DC guy) had a major smackdown over this. Tesla won.

I suggest using an on line voltage drop calculator. Enter your values and it will tell you exactly what you need.

There are many calculators out there but here is a good one: Voltage Drop Calculator

 

And you really do not want to use the same type and color wire for two different types of service. Go with the NEC.

 

I get random power outages sometimes throughout the winter and was just thinking of putting some 12 volt lights as backup mainly. Just thinking I could keep a battery on a battery tender and then flip a switch when I need the lights. I usually have the battery from the boat on a tender anyway, especially thru the winter.
Lol. Yea I'm not really trying to reinvent the wheel, I guess I'm just trying to put a snow tread on it.

 

Typically, how long do the power cuts last?

Here in Cambodia, we have 220ac power. They sell LED lamps for Edison sockets. When mains power fails, they continue to illuminate for some time. Maybe these are available (for your voltage) in your area?

 

i HAVEN'T seen those here Paul .
Best just have a small genset or Li ion battery 's & flash lights .
It comes down to price .
You should have done the house in LED's already , saves on the power bill & many were offering a rebate

Sloth

 

I'm using LED 120 volt ac bulbs now. I use kerosene and propane for heat, plus putting in a wood stove this year. I've got flashlights , batteries , oil lamps , and a 5500 watt portable generator. I can cook with, kero, propane , or wood. I guess it's not something I desperatly need, just looking for a little more convience with the 12 volt DC lighting ,and it never hurts to have another backup. Blackouts have gone from a few hours to almost a week.

 

For years before LED came out I took incandesant bulbs and broke the bulb and cleaned up the wire and made coils that would accept the 12 volt quartz bulbs . They were not very efficient but being 12 volts ,they were the best I could do at the time , but this allowed m to take any standard lamp and convert it to 12 volt in my home . Later when I discovered those motion sensor lights at harbor freight for $9. I buy them and distribute them all over the place .
And for them I run a 6 volt line .
There are reasonable LED bundle lights you can get on line that ae 12 volt I have every where as well . these are all on one line #14 wire , roughly 100 feet from the battery.
I also run small 12 volt automotive fans in the bed rooms , I may switch to computer fans when these wear out.

 

Convenience and another option, is a pretty good idea, in my book.

You would feel at home, here.

 

Sounds like you definetly have the system worked out. I thought of rigging up a radiator setup so the wood stove could heat the water and the radiator and fan would be in a room that won't be able to get the heat from the stove. I'll have to rig up a pump for this as well.
I don't have 30 years left in me to amass your setup, just pokin around with what I got.

 

Great info. I will definetly look up those pics. Thanks a bunch.

 

I did a quick scan thru there and didn't find the post with your system pics. But I'll look again later, when more time permits. But I did learn one thing. If there's a Genset for sale somewhere, you know about it .

 

My system is the same type of setup for winter .
We run 50psig with a jacketed SS extruded 316 3/4 " sch 40 pipe I installed inside the burner box above the wood .
Has heated water since 1992 for us.

Sloth