Melamine stack lighting ?

[Variety]

Hey just wondering if theres anyway to provide light for a stack of melamine individual enclosures without running individual power cords for each.
4 stacks all up roughly 1 metre long each, cheers

 

[Jamesss]

Yes, you can wire them in series (or parallel if you want) but honestly, if you're having to ask this you should probably be getting a licensed electrician to do the work. Electricity isn't a toy, it's not worth risking an accident to save a few dollars.

 

[Rob]

Yes, you can wire them in series

IMO you'd be mad to do this.

- In a bank of 4, if 1 globe blew they would all go out, until you found the blown globe and replaced it.

- In a bank of 4 you'd only get a 1/4 of the rated heat dissipation per tank. i.e. if you had 100w globes in each tank you'd only be getting 25w output per tank.

(or parallel if you want)

Given my points above, IMO parallel would be a *must*.

but honestly, if you're having to ask this you should probably be getting a licensed electrician to do the work. Electricity isn't a toy, it's not worth risking an accident to save a few dollars.

100% agree.

 

[Variety]

The lights would be for cosmetic purposes, id be using heat mats or cords & yes id be getting it done professionaly, thanks for the advice guys.
Out of curiosity and a bit off topic; Would heat lights be better then running matts + Low wattage lights (just for viewing purposes)? cheers

 

[Rob]

Heat mats vs heat lights comes down to personal preference, really. Lights will heat the air, whereas mats won't. There are those that say heating the air is wasteful and not necessary, so I guess it is up to the individual on what they choose. Though if you were going to go with heat lights, I'd ditch the low wattage lights idea and just go with the heat lights 24/7.

 

[Jamesss]

IMO you'd be mad to do this.

- In a bank of 4, if 1 globe blew they would all go out, until you found the blown globe and replaced it.

- In a bank of 4 you'd only get a 1/4 of the rated heat dissipation per tank. i.e. if you had 100w globes in each tank you'd only be getting 25w output per tank.




Given my points above, IMO parallel would be a *must*.




100% agree.

Obviously parallel would be better, but it sounded like he was after the easiest option which woul be seies if he were doing it himself...That said, I hadn't thought about the power dissipation between them, thanks

 

[Monitor Madness]

If it just for lighting you could also run LED strip lighting. The sell them on eBay pretty cheap and one I'm watching at the moment is 5 metres long. You would just need a little hole in the backs of the enclosures to run the strip between tanks. They are a lot cheaper to run as well.

 

[Variety]

Womafan do you mean to run a 5 metre long LED light vertical covering all enclosures ?

 

[yommy]

I run LED lighting in all my cages now including the racks. With the racks i just route them into the roof.

They can come in any lengths. How many you run (bank of 4) youd need about a 35w driver

 

[Monitor Madness]

Womafan do you mean to run a 5 metre long LED light vertical covering all enclosures ?

Yeah thats what i meant. Depending on the size height and width of your enclosures and how much light you want in there you may need to run one strip between two tanks but that still cuts your cords down to too two and will be cheap to run.

Im looking to do the same thing soon when I build my next tank. The ones i have seen have 3M adhesive tape on the back of them but it would be better to secure them another way to make sure your critters didn't some who get the tape stuck to them.

LED Strip Lighting White 5m | eBay

These the ones im looking at and you can buy the power supplies off them as well.

 

[Variety]

thanks very much guys!