And this too
http://www.electrical-contractor.net/PC/tr2.jpg

gentle reminder, in case ur unaware. if you have plaster ceiling, you cant drill and mount the light directly. the plaster ceiling does not offer you any 'grip', you'll simply puncture the ceiling with your screw.

what you need to do is place a piece of wood, about 20% bigger than your light, secure the wood to plaster ceiling, then you can mount your ceiling light by drilling thru the plaster ceiling and using the wood as grip.

I was going to ask this question.

plaster ceiling guy say can drill, but must find when is the supporting steel bars, and fix the screw thru that.

but he didn't tell me how to find the steel bar from below. I need X-ray eyes.......?

Magnet?

depends on what kind of lights. if concealed downlights, they just pop into the hole and the spring clip prevents it from falling down. no screws required. the plaster ceiling support beams are aluminum so magnet wont help. you can cut open a hole to see where they are i suppose and patch the hole back. maybe stud detector can work?

Easy la. Just get some plaster ceiling screw plug. Come in few shape and style. Google it.

My Indon handyman laugh when I asked him. He said the unit is so light, just use normal screws can. If lazy use double sided tape also can.

I ask him how much he charge to fit a light........he also want RM15.

Indon also expensive oledi.

Done fixing lights. Just sharing silly experiences and thanking the sifus here for their advises, and double check anything I missed.

1. Fix light to plaster ceiling without light dropping

True that plaster ceiling board do not provide enough grip. Before I started, I got a 'competent' installer to fit two lights and I watched him all the way. He just drill and used normal wall plugs. If I pull hard on the light, it moves.....
OK don't pull it then.

I did the rest using a safer but more tiring way
First I try to get to an aluminium bar above the plaster board. Turns out that in most cases the plaster ceiling man will have fixed a bar near the lighting point. If I find it I put at least one screw into the aluminium bar. That gives good hold.

How to find it? First I put middle finger in the wiring hole and feel feel around (OK, don't get naughty thoughts)
If finger not long enough I use a small drill bit and poke around from outside (also no naughty thoughts) to find it.
Then I just patch up the small holes.

If no aluminium bar nearby, I use 'butterfly' wall plugs. This one a bit problem because they are thick and big, have to make a big hole to push it through. Also, the thinnest plug I can find is 10mm thick at the base. If the plaster board is less than 9mm thick, it does not sit flush to the ceiling, but won't come out. So OK. Safe.

But once you put the plug in you can't pull it out. To remove, only way is to push the whole thing in, and patch the big hole.


2. The earth wire.

For small LED lights, casing is plastic, so I no fix the earth wire, just left them in the connector.

For the big ones with aluminium casings, I copycat the installer - remove the green wires from the connector, strip about one inch of tubing from each, twist them together, and join to one of the supporting screws.


3. Wiring the LED lights

This is the part I had the most problem, because the LED wires are b***** tiny.
Quite difficult to get the screw of the connectors to sit on the wires.

End up I bend the tip into a hook, push it in as far as possible, and screw down onto the tubing hard.
So the LED wires will directly contact the house wires on the other side.


4. End results - so far so good

All lights work.

One a bit senget (tip : buy round shape ones, no matter how you mess up, they can't go senget)

Lights secured by butterfly plugs may have a tiny but noticable gap between the base and ceiling if your board is thin.
(tip : find better plugs)


5. Conclusion - maybe I should have just get people to do it........got neckache now.
(Tip : make sure ladder is tall enough, and you don't have weak knees problem)

OK, I got into another silly situation.

Wanted to fit timer and sensor switches to front and back lights before balik kampung long weekend.

But the only wireman who will do this 'small job' failed to turn up - twice.


So for last minute desperate measure, I plan to buy socket timers, plugs, and long wires.

I will fit the wire --> plug --> then plug into timer --> wall socket

Then I will temporarily swap the wires from the lights to the new wires (connect using terminal blocks)

Now the lights will be connected thru socket timers

I think this will work. Is there ANYTHING that I need to be careful of? Overlooked?

Sorry, I DIY a lot, but a bit panciky when come to electric.

The wires will be 10 - 20 feet long. Bankrupt.....

Hi !

Need expert advise, I have few unused wall lighting extension.
I was wondering can I use it as the power for radio or for charging phone / notebook?

I was thinking of buying extension power cord and connect to the wire extension.

Can it take the load?

Please advise!

Thanks in advance.

Just don't get yourself injure. Makesure you tape the incoming wire properly that temporary not use.

What is lighting extension ?

Sorry, what I mean is the wire which suppose to use as wall light can I use it as the power for radio or for charging phone / notebook?

Please advise.

hi guys, I have a question,
For kitchen hood, if power supply is control via switch, do i need to use 20A switch or normal switch for lights is good enough?

depends on your hood's power, there is 200w hood, yet there is over 1200w hoods

how much is your's ?

As long as the appliance that involving a motor, compressor, heater you shall install a dedicated 20A switch.

Hi, the rating motor power is 200W, and input power is 208W.
So, it is advisable to have a 20A switch, then i will have to buy one... i bought the normal switch.

Btw, whats the amount of A can be handle with normal switch? i have the Schneider KB31-1.
Thank you.

Hob ade heater ke

20A switch for 200W is definitely overkill. Even a 13A plug is sufficient lor

JunJun04035, you are right. I made a call to Fotile customer service, they said normal switch with 13A is sufficient.
Thanks for input ya.

By theory, yes, a normal switch will do, but for safety(since most of us will install and use until it fails), 20A will be better, in case you are going to change it to higher rating type later on.

That's why I said any appliance