"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
05/14/2018 at 15:33 • Filed to: NYC
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"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
05/14/2018 at 15:33 • Filed to: NYC | 0
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Replacing two ugly sconces in the living room - they are wired, I believe, in series, meaning they both come on when a single switch is flipped. Bought new LED fixtures, wired and mounted one, and it was very dim. Do I need to wire both to get them to work properly?
PartyPooper2012
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 15:42 |
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My guess the old bright ones were higher wattage.
The only thing that changes when you wire more together is the amperage increases - draw of current.
Wattage or watts = volts X amps. For instance, you have a 60 watt bulb (light fixture) 60/120v = .5 amp. If you have 120 watt bulb, well, that will use 1 amp - more powahhhh
If you still have the old one, check the wattage on that vs the new one you got. Also look into lumens - units of light. Usually indicated by number of candles.
Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 15:46 |
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I doubt if they’d be wired in series. That would mean if you blew one bulb the other would go out also—not ideal.
Not sure why either light would be dim though. Personally I’d go ahead and wire the second one to see what happens.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> PartyPooper2012
05/14/2018 at 15:51 |
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^Spot on. I have noticed many of the newer fixtures are not as bright as an incandescent light bulb.
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Steve in Manhattan
> Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
05/14/2018 at 15:54 |
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Thanks for that.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:03 |
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What Smallbear said, also, if your setup were low voltage DC with a limit on available current, having two dissimilar fixtures wired in *parallel* would have one lighting up differently. But - AC typically doesn’t work like that. Most likely just a dim fixture.
Tekamul
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:16 |
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They are not in series, always in parallel. Chances are you just have a low lumen fixture.
Do the new fixtures have LED bulbs, or are they dedicated LED fixtures? That is, no removable bulb, just a bare sheet or stub with LEDs on it.
TorqueToYield
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:18 |
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High voltage AC is almost always wired parallel, meaning white to white, black to black, green to green. Series would be white to black, black to white, which would cause Bad Things to Happen TM. They come on from the same switch because they share the same switched hot wire (the black).
The LED fixture shouldn’t be very dim if you wired it right. It should be really straight forward, white to white, black to black, green to green or bare copper or the ground screw. If there’s a 0-10V or other extra wire dimming wire make sure it’s capped off and not touching anything. Otherwise I’d call the fixture company and see what’s up, the board or driver might be defective.
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Steve in Manhattan
> Tekamul
05/14/2018 at 16:19 |
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Bare sheet ... trying to use two of them to light a room, and thought I did the math right. Did I fuck up?
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Steve in Manhattan
> Tekamul
05/14/2018 at 16:21 |
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This is what I bought: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IR4HA58/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Wacko
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:29 |
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If it lights up, that’s as bright as you will get with one. unless you got a dimmer. But reading the comments and it ain’t dimmable, and it is NOT UL listed/approved.
Look in your condo/appartement code, and I doubt they allow non approved items.
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Tekamul
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:33 |
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Those should not be dim. LED efficiency is about 6:1 to incandescent, so that’s like a 90w bulb or so. Pretty bright.
But, they could also be full of shit. I would wire the second one up and see if the first is a dud. It’s very unlikely you’ve done anything wrong with the wiring. It’s not a dimmer switch, right?
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Steve in Manhattan
> Tekamul
05/14/2018 at 16:37 |
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It will be on a dimmer, but I haven’t installed it yet.
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Tekamul
> Steve in Manhattan
05/14/2018 at 16:49 |
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Eh, in general LEDs and dimmer don’t mix well. Home AC is actually quite noisy, and the very low current draw from LEDs means the lights will flicker when set dim, unless there is something else on the circuit drawing significant current.
Still not the reason for your dim output at this point though.
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Steve in Manhattan
> Tekamul
05/14/2018 at 18:36 |
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Interesting that I shopped the ones that said “dimmable,” FWIW.