Morning Folks,
While all of your loved ones are back at the mall this morning returning gifts, using gift cards, etc., I thought that maybe we could dicuss something along the lines of electrical wiring in soffits for canned wiring. The soffits themselves will not be insulated as the joist cavities above the soffits will be.
Being that I am in Buford, Georgia and the inspectors down here don’t want to talk to homeowners its amazing how they seem to force the decision on DIY homeowners. Anyway, I am looking to provide a couple of circuits to this one room for lighting. Thinking about 6-8 canned lighting placed inside of soffits that run the length of the room (its going to be a home theater room), and another 3-4 lights on another circuit at one end of the room for projection screen illumination.
Since all of the canned lights are in soffits I am not sure about how wiring is to be treated in terms of passing the wire through framework vs. stapling it down to the framework well away from potential drywall screws. The lights themselves will be inexpensive HD-type I’ll buy in contractor quantity and run off a simple dimmer switch.
Replies
Nuke, are you going to open the soffits, or use old work cans ?
If you open the soffit you can simply strap the stuff up high, if not, you should try to get at least one strap near the fixture, or go up in the attic and work from up there .....and you only need one feed for those cans, plus however you want it switched......did you finish those doors already?
oh yeah ..buy your trims at the same time if you go to HD !!
Edited 12/26/2005 9:36 am by maddog3
Oops, I forgot to mention that these soffits are completely open as I have not yet drywalled them. I was planning on drywalling the bottoms (horizontal sections) of the soffits and use a wood material on the sides (vertical sections). These are about 9-10" tall soffits. The DIY idea was to put the drywall portion of the soffits up, determine exact placement of cans, install cans, wiring, etc., finish drywall hanging.
I have good access to these soffits and can afford to be liberal in wire-material before putting in the first can (so the wire can be tacked out of the way. I just wasn't sure how code handled these kind of situations. Of course, I now wonder if code is liberal in terms of using LV lighting in soffits, and the wiring therein. You know, the light only needs to be sufficient during movie breaks so people can make out the floor enough to egress and ingress.
Maybe from a code perspective LV lighting would be best. I left, in place, the original two lights/circuit so as to not effect change to the then-approved wiring. BTW, the room is 12'8" wide by 26'6" long and was formed when my neighbor and I removed a load-bearing wall a couple of years ago (installed 3xLVL beams recessed into joist cavity).
LV wiring is allowed, just don't make any splices, except at the fixtures....But I don't care for those "puck " lights...they lack style,
IMHO. If yougo with LV,don't forget to match transformers to dimmers...mag -mag, or elec- elec.....have you given any thought to rope lighting?
If your soffitt is continuous, you could conceal the rope and provide some indirect dimmable lighting...just a thought
Edited 12/26/2005 10:34 am by maddog3