Nichblog

Whilst searching for a lighting solution for my house I came across something called an iCage, this is basically a down-light  that is of a commercial grade and will accept large or small bulbs.  The iCage is constructed of metal to a high grade, rivets are secure, screws have decent threads and the electrical connection block allows for the cables to be held tightly so they cant be pulled out by accident.

As the holder can take different bulbs for now I will be using standard H series 50watt bulbs but in the future I am looking to use LED lights, this is the interesting part – if I where to use a normal down-light holder I would have to replace them in the future as LED builds are allot taller then standard bulbs meaning they would stick out of the holder. As you can see from the image below the bulb is attached on a wire rather then a fixed point, this allows for adjustment.

The iCage is fire rated for both 30,60 and 90 minutes, I believe this is achieved by the plastics used for the actual bulb holder at the bottom – when heated I think the plastic expands to fill the void at the top of the cage.  As the top of the cage has free air flow as it where the holder itself doesn’t heat up causing an issue in the first place.   There are 2 types of holders, standard fire rated ones and waterproof IP65 rated cages.  The IP65 means the holders can be used in a bathroom or wet area.  The main difference between the 2 holders is the size, the standard hold requires a 75mm hole where the IP rated holder requires an 85mm hole.

The IP65 bulb holder has some extra seals and also a glass plate covers the bulb, this seals the whole unit from water/steam once installed into the ceiling.

The electrical box attaches to the iCage at the top by 2 screws, this passes the ground from your wiring onto the cage.  The electrical box has a simple connection block inside but allows for the lights to be chained together.

As the light is just a simple fitting there are no means to switch it on and off.  The holder has 3 connections, power earth and ground – a 4 point junction box is required.  Below is a chart to show what the IP numbers mean.

I have the IP65 rated lights in both the downstairs toilet and and the bathroom, these are connected to PIR timer switches positioned above the doors.  I have used the standard fire rated down-lights in the kitchen, hallway and upstairs landing with the normal 50watt bulbs at the moment.  I will be using LED bulbs in all of the down-lights as time goes on, each bulb is about £28 at the moment so I cant quite stretch to get them all from the start.  Phillips Master LED bulbs seems to be the best at there at the moment so I will look into these more when the times comes.

I also purchased some roof Fire hoods for larger applications like the iCage and for insulated roof areas where beams are in the roof as I am a bit paranoid about these things and 2 for £10 it was worth a buy I think.

IP s l (i)
s = solids, l=liquids and i= impact (optional)
First Index – Foreign Bodies Protection, Solids

Second Index – Water Protection, Liquids