This week, we have been installing a set of conduits for routing electric lighting cables to various hidden locations all over the ceiling in the Great Room. We wanted to make sure that we can install additional lighting units without having to rip holes in our beautiful ceilings. One such location is the Dormer that will backs onto our Conservatory which we have left open, exposing the original roof rafters and we thought that it would look great it it had some lighting hidden behind the rafters so the Dormer would glow with a gentle illuminations. We threaded through the walls a series of 20mm diameter plastic conduit, coming from the lighting channel running around the whole room at the top of the walls, and bends to behind the exposed rafters, with additional conduits so that the middle three rafters are all connected together.
We have also put in a twin set of conduits that takes an pair of electrical wires and a thin rope that connects to our flat ceiling lighting module that runs down the middle of the ceiling, right up at the top of the ridge line and pass the end of the Skylight.
This “mobile” module will be nearly 7metres long and 300mm wide, constructed using steel angle iron to form the basic framework, to attach a series of pulleys, six of them evenly spread out along the length. The rope travels down the conduit from the Triangle Void above Bedroom1, behind the large upstairs work room, where we will have a winch to unwind the rope and we can lowers the lighting module all the way down to the ground floor. The rope comes out at the top of the roof and drops down to the first pulley, goes horizontally to the second pulley, then goes back up to the ridge line where the rope is threaded through the next two pulleys mounted up there. It then goes back down again to pulley number three and four, when the rope returns back to the ridge to the final two pulleys before the rope comes back down for the final time to loop around the fifth and sixth pulleys on the lighting module itself, where eventually, the rope goes back up to the end of the Skylight and get tied off. This gives a pulley ratio of Six to One so if the lighting module weighs 60kg, which is likely with all the metalwork, the wooden board and the finishing plasterboard glued on the underside, with all the lamp units, seasonal decorations etc. then the weight on the rope back at the winch, will be only 10kg approximately. We bought 3mm thin rope, designed for parachutes and it has a breaking strain of nearly 200kg so it should be quite safe for years and years!
We will build the mobile lighting module later on when we have finished filling in the roof rafters and got them all covered up.
Conduits between domer rafters
We have also put in a twin set of conduits that takes an pair of electrical wires and a thin rope that connects to our flat ceiling lighting module that runs down the middle of the ceiling, right up at the top of the ridge line and pass the end of the Skylight.
This “mobile” module will be nearly 7metres long and 300mm wide, constructed using steel angle iron to form the basic framework, to attach a series of pulleys, six of them evenly spread out along the length. The rope travels down the conduit from the Triangle Void above Bedroom1, behind the large upstairs work room, where we will have a winch to unwind the rope and we can lowers the lighting module all the way down to the ground floor. The rope comes out at the top of the roof and drops down to the first pulley, goes horizontally to the second pulley, then goes back up to the ridge line where the rope is threaded through the next two pulleys mounted up there. It then goes back down again to pulley number three and four, when the rope returns back to the ridge to the final two pulleys before the rope comes back down for the final time to loop around the fifth and sixth pulleys on the lighting module itself, where eventually, the rope goes back up to the end of the Skylight and get tied off. This gives a pulley ratio of Six to One so if the lighting module weighs 60kg, which is likely with all the metalwork, the wooden board and the finishing plasterboard glued on the underside, with all the lamp units, seasonal decorations etc. then the weight on the rope back at the winch, will be only 10kg approximately. We bought 3mm thin rope, designed for parachutes and it has a breaking strain of nearly 200kg so it should be quite safe for years and years!
Center Light conduits start here
Power runs up to center
and lift rope runs to the end
We will build the mobile lighting module later on when we have finished filling in the roof rafters and got them all covered up.