Electrical Supplies: The Unseen Half of an Installation
This heading matters as much as the choice of light fitting, yet it is usually left until last. If the cable, the trunking, the junction boxes, the fuses and the connectors are not chosen correctly, even the best luminaire will not perform as expected. This section holds 23 products.
Cross-Section Comes Before Length
What decides a cable is not its length but its cross-section. When the cross-section is too small the cable heats up and the voltage drops along the run — in LED lighting that shows up as the fittings at the far end burning dimmer. On long runs, moving up one size is always cheaper than replacing the run later.
Trunking and Concealment
Where no chasing is possible, cable trunking keeps the installation tidy and accessible. When choosing trunking, leave enough room for a cable to be added later; trunking filled to the brim has to be taken apart entirely at the first change. For runs at skirting level, aluminium skirting profiles both hide the cable and finish the base of the wall.
Connectors
Terminal blocks and push-fit connectors are safer and demountable compared with twisted end-to-end joints. Gathering the joints of a lighting run inside a junction box reduces fault-finding from hours to minutes.
Safety
Any work on the electrical installation must be carried out after the circuit breaker has been switched off, and by a qualified person. An incorrectly connected earth conductor puts both your equipment and your safety at risk. The fuse is chosen to match the cross-section of the run; a fuse larger than the run offers no protection at all.
Price Information
Because the price of the products in this section varies by length and quantity, the page shows a "Request a quote" option instead of a figure. Share your list of requirements through Live Support to receive a project-based price.
Draw Up a List Before the Project
The most common mistake with electrical supplies is discovering what you need in the middle of the job: the run stops halfway and work is interrupted for a missing part. Before you start, draw up a list room by room — how many lighting points, how many sockets, which runs go on separate fuses. When you calculate lengths, allow at least 10% waste for cable; the turns inside the wall and the loops in the junction boxes make the figure larger than the straight-line length. Adding a run later is always more expensive than pulling one more cable at the outset.
