Ratings for undercabinet lighting in series?

[ket-tek]

Hoping to get a little clairification on using undercabinet flourescent strips.

I hope to run 8 linked together, but the ones I have say to only link 5 together. 70w max linked, 5x14w bulbs=70w.

But what determines that rating? If the link plug is just passing 110v to the next lamp it shouldn't matter right? Each bulb will still run off it own balast I presume. Or is it maybe just the rating of the lamp cord they use for the plug and link cable?

What is part of the product is limiting factor in the available wattage in series (they call it "series" on the package, I guess the actual power is being run in parallel for the in/out of the link hookups.)?

thanks!

 

[KCarGuy]

Wattage is not what you need to be concerned by, lets just say that you are running 10 flourecent lights in series, each one runs 40 watts. Thats 400 watts of lighting. Now lets say that each fixture uses 5 amps, thats 50 amps of juice, which means at least a 50 amp curcuit just for the lighting, And wiring to handle 50 amps.

 

[Aceman]

I hope to run 8 linked together, but the ones I have say to only link 5 together.

There's your answer. Sounds like you need to run your feed to a junction box where you can split it and break the lights up into groups of 4.

 

[Torque1st]

What is part of the product is limiting factor in the available wattage in series (they call it "series" on the package, I guess the actual power is being run in parallel for the in/out of the link hookups.)?

thanks!

The wiring & connections inside the units is the limiting factor (heat). They would not have a limitation on the # of units to be linked if it did not matter.

 

[Shocker]

Wattage is not what you need to be concerned by, lets just say that you are running 10 flourecent lights in series, each one runs 40 watts. Thats 400 watts of lighting. Now lets say that each fixture uses 5 amps, thats 50 amps of juice, which means at least a 50 amp curcuit just for the lighting, And wiring to handle 50 amps.

Well, the wattage of the lamp is no in direct correlation to it's amperage, but they are related to the output depending on the voltage.

So, if each lamp is 40w, that equates to roughly .33amps at 120v (or .36a at 110v). Of course there is some overhead from the ballast, startup voltage etc.

So if you budget 1amp per lamp, that would cover just about anything. So you could run 10-12 per 15a circuit without any real trouble.

BUT, in your case, I would bet that the limitation is the connectors. Where were they made? If they are made in the USA, then maybe I would try linking a couple of extra on that link and see what happens. If not, then probably not.

If you decide to see what happens, check for warm wires and the housing itself will get warm as well.