Romex inside Vinyl Fencing?

[musgofasta]

I have a long run of this in my yard:

I really want to put lights on it, but NOT SOLAR. Standard decorative 120v lighting off a switch.

Is running romex inside of the vinyl fencing a really bad idea? My only alternative would be the run the wiring in conduit which would look like ****.

What (SHE) really wants is a lantern type light on every other vertical post.

 

[CNGsaves]

LOW voltage . . . . only way to go.

You jerry rig some 120v and electrocute neighbor kid or dog . . . NOT good.

 

[pattenp]

Best advice is not use line voltage(120V), low voltage is best/safest way. If you do use 120V, use UF cable, not NM (Romex). The 120V will need to be GFCI protected from the source.

 

[ishiboo]

Best advice is not use line voltage(120V), low voltage is best/safest way. If you do use 120V, use UF cable, not NM (Romex). The 120V will need to be GFCI protected from the source.

This.

 

[soob]

I put deck lights on my fence. LEDs similar to this:

Low voltage of course.

 

[musgofasta]

I hadn't thought of the Low Voltage route - that might work.

More money of course!

 

[ishiboo]

I hadn't thought of the Low Voltage route - that might work.

More money of course!

It is, but it's a bit safer How far is "a long run"? 12v is at a disadvantage there.

My mom has a custom-built cedar fence with 3-tier Pagoda fixtures someone installed back in probably the 70s. The fixtures were getting old, and the 120V wiring was 2 strands (red/yellow) appliance wiring stapled to the fence.

I found some really nice cast-aluminum fixtures which looked almost the same as the originals but better, will never rust, and run off 12v... looks GREAT now and perfectly safe

 

[The Cobbler]

I have several of these cast aluminum 12v led fixtures, they look good IMO and have a nice bright light . in 4 yrs have never had any fail other than a few bad connections underground ( has to be expected)
as mentioned 12v has major voltage loss, but because the LED draw is so little I don't think voltage drop is an issue. for fun I ran 1 off of telephone quad and there was very little drop over about 100' of wire.

 

[Norcal]

Romex is for dry locations only that fence is wet location.

 

[alfredeneuman]

Here's a good article from ECM magazine that's packed with info about low voltage lighting. It was written in 2003, but is pretty much valid today. It addresses voltage drop

http://ecmweb.com/contractor/fundamentals-successful-low-voltage-lighting-design

 

[Syberia]

If you're going to use line voltage, use UF. The inside of that fence will likely see water at some point and romex is not meant to get wet.

 

[n8n]

what everyone else said. This would be an excellent application for some 12V LEDs.