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I'm running LED light strips from a location that is over 50 feet from the LED transformer. In order to account for voltage drop 10 AWG CL2 wire has been used.

10 AWG wire / LED strip 10 AWG wire inside the LED channel

Questions

  • Since the 10 AWG wire is so thick, what is the proper way to attach the red and black wires ( see pic ) to the led strips within an LED channel?
  • Is it code to pigtail a the 10 AWG wire to a 26 AWG wire within an LED channel. The 10 AWG wire is coming directly out of a wall. There's no room for a junction box at this point.
  • Would a butt connector be the most appropriate connector, in this case, do to the small size of the LED channel? If not what is an appropriate connector.
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  • 10 AWG is quite a mass of Cooper. If your Transformers allows adjustment oft voltage you can reduce wire diameter. But you may already habe purchased your components. What's the total power consumption of your stripes? And what's the transformer's voltage?
    – Ariser
    Jun 14, 2016 at 21:51
  • The power consumption of the LED strips are 1.5 Watts / foot. There are multiple strips throughout the house. Some are as little as 1 foot in length and some are as long as 15 feet.
    – Ryan Lazuka
    Jun 15, 2016 at 14:57

2 Answers 2

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Use a pigtail from the 10AWG wire to the strip light connector:

enter image description here

(this is just a representative image, not sure if these will fit your strip lights)

Just use wire-nuts to connect the 10AWG wires to the wires that go to the strip light connectors. Or solder and tape them.

If you have strip light connectors that aren't pre-wired, then create short jumpers with suitably sized wire to plug into the connector.

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  • Thank you. What would be considered the safest wire connector? Wire nuts seem ok, but what would be the best connection type other than soldering? Just trying to cover my bases on safety.
    – Ryan Lazuka
    Jun 14, 2016 at 17:32
  • It's hard to beat wire nuts, properly sized and properly installed. There are nice push-in connectors ("Wago" for example) but they won't work with the small wires.
    – DoxyLover
    Jun 14, 2016 at 17:51
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You're going to want to use some more appropriately sized wire as pigtails, to transition from the 10 AWG wire to the LED strip.

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  • Is there any consequence from transitioning from, say the 10 AWG wire, to a 18 AWG wire? I'm a little paranoid about everything, since this is being installed in my home that's why I ask.
    – Ryan Lazuka
    Jun 14, 2016 at 17:30
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    You're using the 10AWG only for the voltage drop over 50'. A few inches of 18 won't affect anything.
    – DoxyLover
    Jun 14, 2016 at 17:53
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    look at the size wire on the LED strips it is probably closer to 28 AWG. I understand running larger wire to limit the voltage drop but once there being larger than the light strips really wont help.
    – Ed Beal
    Jun 14, 2016 at 17:59
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    @RyanLazuka I'm sure the conductors on the LED strips are not 10 AWG. Should be no problem using pigtails smaller than 10 AWG, as long as you're only using the 10 AWG to reduce voltage drop. If you're protecting the circuit with a 30 ampere breaker, you might have a problem.
    – Tester101
    Jun 14, 2016 at 18:05
  • Your lights are 12V how big is your supply? it would have to be quite large to really cause a problem with a soldered connection even under a shorted condition.
    – Ed Beal
    Jun 14, 2016 at 19:01

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