Chandeliers. Household... Chandeliers? How do?

jzoppina

Member
I hope you'll excuse the really base question I'm about to ask. I did at least a cursory search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I hope you don't mind me asking here.

I've begun work on a show where the set designer and director would love to make use of a fair number of household lighting implements. Floor lamps and table lamps are no issue — I have plenty of stage pin to Edison adapters to make use of, if need be. On the other hand, I'm a little at a loss as to what I do with fixtures that are normally hardwired, like chandeliers and sconces. Could it really be as simple as a few twist-on wire nuts? That sounds like safety concerns.

I feel certain I've grossly oversimplified this. What am I missing?
 
I hope you'll excuse the really base question I'm about to ask. I did at least a cursory search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I hope you don't mind me asking here.

I've begun work on a show where the set designer and director would love to make use of a fair number of household lighting implements. Floor lamps and table lamps are no issue — I have plenty of stage pin to Edison adapters to make use of, if need be. On the other hand, I'm a little at a loss as to what I do with fixtures that are normally hardwired, like chandeliers and sconces. Could it really be as simple as a few twist-on wire nuts? That sounds like safety concerns.

I feel certain I've grossly oversimplified this. What am I missing?
If you want to keep things closer to legal, which of course you do, go to Home Depot and buy an 1110 box, a blank cover and two x 2-screw connectors. Use one connector, and a little LX tape, to route your stage pin cable into the box and the other to route the leads to your chandellier(s) out. Marrette your joints within the box, ground the box and bolt on the blank cover. If you really want to make a job of it, get a pair of 1/2" flat washers and use a knock-out on the rear of the box (plus the two flat washers and a C-clamp) to secure the junction box to the fly-pipe. This should make you feel better, allow you to sleep, and appease most AHJ's,
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Ron,

Thanks much for your insights — I appreciate that a lot! Interesting note: the leads out of some of these fixtures are pretty short (strangely, I don't think the leads are nearly as long as the chain they're attached to... kinda suspect). I should plan on rewiring these lamps...

John
 
Ron,

Thanks much for your insights — I appreciate that a lot! Interesting note: the leads out of some of these fixtures are pretty short (strangely, I don't think the leads are nearly as long as the chain they're attached to... kinda suspect). I should plan on rewiring these lamps...

John
Often folks extend those sorts of fixture leads with decorative 18/2 + a separate ground or 18/3 depending upon what's available to you. Some of the decorative leads have clear or transparent golden insulation covering copper or silver colored conductors. One thing to note about any / all of the 'zip cord' style cables is how the neutral conductor is identified. A slight ridge will be molded into the plastic on the outer edge of one of the pair. The conductor on the ridged side will be the neutral. Often the neutral conductor will also be silver colored while the 'hot' is copper colored.
On your 20 Amp 2P&G connectors, the ground will be the center contact with the neutral the contact closest to it and the hot the contact furthest from it.
NOTE: This is only true of the 20 Amp 2P&G's. If you look closely at 60 and 100 Amp 2P&G's, you'll find the ground pin is one of the outer contacts and there's a good reason for this. You'll also note on 2P&G's, the ground contact on the males is always slightly longer to mate first and break last.
When you're extending your fixtures leads, you may find vinyl coated butt splices useful and neater / more secure than Marrettes.
If you're splicing 14 gauge SJ onto a fixture, you may want to use a blue vinyl butt splice to accommodate the 14 gauge SJ then strip the fixture's 18 gauge conductors twice as long as normal and twist then double the stripped portion back on itself to build it up to properly crimp within the opposite side of the blue butt splice.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Is splicing the fixture lead to an SO cable in a J-box preferable to installing a male 2P&G on the fixture lead, with proper strain relief inserts?

Obvious but worth saying: make sure the weight of the fixture is supported by the chain, or better yet some aircraft cable that you've added (particularly if the unit is flying).

One more thing: Mr. Hebbard mentions SJ cable, which is not allowable under the NEC in theatres for runs over 3ft. Search CB for endless discussion of the topic.
 
If it was me I would just put a connector on the fixtures pigtail and be done with it. Rigging the chandelier would concern me more personally.

FWIW if you ever do get in a situation where wire nuts seem like the best option I highly recommend you instead use Wago LEVER-NUTS they are faster to make and hold better than wire nuts. Rated for 400V @32A and I believe they're UL listed. The 2 conductor ones at $15 for a box of 50 on amazon. I use them constantly for prototyping, but they also make it into the final product fairly often.
 
Probably not. :)

But I mean that they're temporary in that you don't have to use a hex key to take them apart...
 
Another Wago Lever Nut benefit is its graceful handling of multiple wire sizes. Got a ceiling fan or fixture where you need to join two solid #12 and one stranded #18? Each goes into its own lever locked sleeve. No need to worry about the stranded #18 slipping out of the twist. MUCH less fussing, a real bonus when you're standing on a ladder.
 
I've seen just normal 120v style plugs that you can open up and put something into. If you need/want to use Edison or standard connectors, you could use those on the wires for the fixtures. Same probably goes for other styles of plugs (twist lock, stage pin, etc...). The only thing you need to take into account at that point would be mounting, which several people have already pretty well addressed.
 
How standard is this?
I don't believe I've ever seen a piece of "zip cord" of any gauge to which this didn't apply. This included the vinyl and neoprene types and all of the colors including clear / transparent / translucent. Cords on clocks and table lamps. I'm not speaking of anything huge or blatantly obvious, just a very tiny continuous ridge molded along the length of one side of the cable. It's just one of those things that's ALWAYS there and most often goes unnoticed like the center-lines machined into every Greenlee punch that's ever been made be it; round, square, D-shaped, radio series or KO series.
Don't believe me? Go check your Greenlees.
I fell for it. I'm blind now and living in a home for the blind, aged and decrepit but I just got up and physically felt the attached two conductor cables on my nearest alarm clock and table lamp and yes, I KNEW IT!!! Both had one ridged side exactly as I told you. I hate to admit I fell for it and bothered to check but that's just another example of the kind of anal-retentive guy I was and still am. At one point I actually flew a desk and had an office. (In my AC servo automation shop days.) One day I posted a sign on my door asking: "Is there a hyphen in anal retentive?"
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
If it was me I would just put a connector on the fixtures pigtail and be done with it. Rigging the chandelier would concern me more personally.

We rig a lot of chandeliers, and I agree, rigging is what one should be more concerned about. We use at least half a dozen different methods to connect power, all depending on fixture type, location and exposure.

For a chandelier that flies, at the very least we always run aircraft cable down the chain.
 
The National Electrical Code, NFPA 70, dubs the neutral the "identified conductor"; that's the underlying reason why.

You can't guarantee someone's done it right without checking, certainly, but there *is* a "right", and that's it, and that's why.
Today I learned. Thanks!
This is hilarious!
 
We rig a lot of chandeliers, and I agree, rigging is what one should be more concerned about. We use at least half a dozen different methods to connect power, all depending on fixture type, location and exposure.

For a chandelier that flies, at the very least we always run aircraft cable down the chain.
You have to remember the chandelier (or flag or banner) doesn't weigh much until it swings a little US / DS while flying out and comes up under that 1500 pound LX pipe. It's certainly not going to lift the LX but better you should feel the strain on the chandelier's line set BEFORE its tether fails and it plummets to the deck.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 

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