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Wiring, Series or Parallel

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:15 pm
by TheStinkyHippy
I was thinking, I wonder if I have wired up my roof lights wrong.

Coming into the corner of the AFT is the connection for the downstairs main light.
I wired some LED lights into the roof a long time ago..

Basically I wired them in parallel.

Code: Select all

----+ve wire   ---|connector|-----|
                                 main light
-----ve wire -----|connector|-----|
was changed to

Code: Select all

----+ve wire   ---|(wireA)connector|-----|
                                         main light
-----ve wire -----|(wireB)connector|-----|

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wireA------------|
                  LED lights
wireB------------|
I wonder if I should have done,

Code: Select all

----+ve wire   ---|(wireA)       (wireB)-----|
                                          main light
-----ve wire -----|(wireB)connector|-----|
Thoughts?

Re: Wiring, Series or Parallel

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:42 pm
by jimmo62
Assuming they are 12v LED lights then wiring in parallel as you have done is correct

Re: Wiring, Series or Parallel

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:24 pm
by Simon Jones
If you wire in series you'll only get about half the voltage at each light and if one ever fails, the other(s) will go out too. You also risk blowing the LED lights with the current drawn by the other light as it will effectively act like a fuse.

Re: Wiring, Series or Parallel

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:22 pm
by Bob
Just like the old type Christmas tree lights. :wink: