My daughter’s right in the middle of a project that requires her to illuminate a hand painted sign. She’ll be installing approximately 65 bayonet sockets, wiring the back herself and using clear 44 style bulbs.
Two questions:
Does she need a transformer to run the bulbs/circuitry?
What gauge wire should she use.
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!
D535F4CA-14B1-4C59-9522-472190EB035F (resized).jpegQuoted from LTG:Fiber optics, then you only need one bulb.
LTG : )
She’s going for that retro look
Quoted from dudah:You can save yourself a ton of time and money and an exposed transformer by just getting a strand of LED christmas lights.
That’s the 1st thing I said to her.
She committed on this one. She already ordered the back box style lamp sockets
#44 use 0.25 amps at 6.3 volts, so assuming you wire the lamps in parallel, you will be pulling about 15 amps from a transformer. Assuming open air wiring, you can go with 16 or 18 gauge wire. I would break down the sign lighting into smaller groups instead of all the bulbs being on one parallel circuit. Put about 15 bulbs per circuit, so you would have four or five sets of wires leaving the transformer to go to the sign.
Since you will need a transformer, make sure on the primary you use a three prong plug on a GFI circuit. If you want to fuse the primary, I would use a 1 amp fuse, too. Make sure there's a cage around the transformer - you're dealing with potentially deadly voltages, and you may have to deal with stupid.
Hope this helps, which is given without warranty or guarantees, and should be used only at your risk. I assume no liability.
Bill C
Quoted from Billc479:#44 use 0.25 amps at 6.3 volts, so assuming you wire the lamps in parallel, you will be pulling about 15 amps from a transformer. Assuming open air wiring, you can go with 16 or 18 gauge wire. I would break down the sign lighting into smaller groups instead of all the bulbs being on one parallel circuit. Put about 15 bulbs per circuit, so you would have four or five sets of wires leaving the transformer to go to the sign.
Since you will need a transformer, make sure on the primary you use a three prong plug on a GFI circuit. If you want to fuse the primary, I would use a 1 amp fuse, too. Make sure there's a cage around the transformer - you're dealing with potentially deadly voltages, and you may have to deal with stupid.
Hope this helps, which is given without warranty or guarantees, and should be used only at your risk. I assume no liability.
Bill C
Thank you!!!
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Marblehead, MA