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How To…Light A Dolls House In The UK
There are two possible ways to light a dolls house, one is with copper tape and the other is with a wire and socket set.
Lighting A Dolls House With A Wire & Socket Set
This method uses a combination of wires and plugs and a socket and transformer to connect dolls house lights to an electricity supply. A transformer is used to change household power supply into one that dolls house electric's can use. The standard transformer used for a dolls house is twelve volts. The number of bulbs you can run off a single transformer depends on the 'watt' value of the transformer
Watts |
3 |
5 |
10 |
20 |
40 |
1 Amp |
Bulbs |
5 |
10 |
16 |
33 |
56 |
18 |
It is cheap, simple and relatively easy to install and for these reasons is well suited to a first time lighter! The location of lights in a dolls house should ideally be decided before any internal decorating takes place. If they can be put in place and the wires concealed, the end result will be neat and realistic.
- Decide on the location of your lights (Wall, Ceiling, desk, candles?)
- The number of lights you require will help determine size transformer and socket board you will need.
- Count the total number of bulbs that will be required
- Count the number of lights that will be required (Remember one light may have multiple bulbs.) Each light will take up one plug socket in the socket board. As most socket boards have twelve plug sockets, if you are planning to use more than this then two boards will be needed. You will be able to run multiple boards off a single transformer.
- Add lights to your house, one room at a time. It might help to start on the ground floor and work your way up. Cover the wires up as you work. This can either be done using masking tape or by filing grooves into the walls and floor of the dolls house. Lay the wire along the groove and over with masking tape, a layer of wallpaper or rugs and carpets. Pay particular attention to the room above a room with ceiling lights. Drill a hole in the ceiling, thread the wire through and hide under the flooring.
- Tiled, parqueted and planked floors can be attached to cardboard which is cut to size and then slid into the dolls house. In the event of a fault, it is much easier to access the wires if the floor is not permanently stuck down.
- Paint ceilings before fitting ceiling lights
- Position your socket board, preferably somewhere easy for you to access and yet easily hidden. Socket sets are often attached to the back of the house. Most have a self adhesive back enabling them to be attached to the back of the house.
- Drill a small hole for each wire to leave the room and connect through to the socket set:-
- Ceiling lights need two holes, one through the ceiling so the wire can run along the floor above and one hold on the back wall to reach the socket set
- Wall lights can be fitted to the back wall (after it has been painted or papered.) One drill hole will feed the wire through to the socket set.
- Wall lights fitted to other walls should exit from the nearest position on the rear wall.
- Desk and floor lamps can be fitted at the end. The wire will be visible as the lamps move around the room. If you are particularly brave, you can drill into the furniture top and feed the wire down to the floor to hide it away better.
- If a wire is to travel a long way before disappearing out of the back wall, it is helpful to cut a small channel or groove for the wire to sit in. Cut or file a “v” shape and sand lightly. Place the wire in the groove, secure with masking tape and decorate as normal
- Remove the light plug by pulling out the two pins using pliers. If you tug the wire very gently the plug should slip off. Feed the wires through the holes and reattach the plugs. Feed one end of the wire into each of the two holes on each side of the plug and refit the pins into their hole.
- Plug each light into the socket board
- Tape any loose wire to the back to the house
- Connect the socket board to the transformer
Wiring A Dolls House Using Copper Tape
Wiring a dolls house using copper tape works well for dolls house that do not open at the front. The copper tape can be run around the house and hidden under floors and wall papers.
Copper tape can be fragile and break. For this reason some people prefer the wire and socket method of wiring a dolls house as described above. Copper tape is used to conduct electricity around the dolls house. Two parallel lines of copper tape will run around the dolls house forming a continuous loop. Attach the wires from each light to the copper tape by drilling a hole in the back of the house, feeding the wire through and soldering them onto the copper tape. Once plugged in, the house should light up.
Click Here to learn about lighting a dolls house in the US
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