The 5A lamp circuit
My fave this Friday isn’t one light from one manufacturer or designer, it isn’t even one particular type of light, it’s a way to make using table lamps and floor lamps much more convenient than plugging them into 13A sockets – it’s the 5A lamp circuit!
If you have lots of table and floor lamps it can be annoying to have to go round rooms switching them all on for the evening and then annoying when you’re tired all off when you go to bed. With a 5A circuit the 5A round pin sockets are unswitched as they all go back to a light switch so when you flick the switch all of the table lamps and floor lamps plugged into the 5A sockets switch on or off:
And they need the 13A plug tops swapping for the 5A round pin type:
The switch can be a dimmer switch, although if you are planning on a dimmer switch you need to make sure that all of your lamps have dimmable light sources (a lot of compact fluorescent bulbs aren’t for example). You can have a switch in more than one location in a room, just like the multi-way switching you may have for ceiling lighting. 5A circuits can also be connected to lighting control systems, such as Rako, Lutron, Nico, or many of the others on the market.
These are actual wired in lighting circuits so they have to be planned for in advance – asking my clients if they like lamps or will have a lot of them is a routine question for me. If you want a 5A circuit and all of your decorating is done there are ways of creating a circuit effect using wireless lighting controls – call me on 01525 382682 if you’d like to find out more about this.
