A little electrical help

[Sacohen]

I want to run a single Cat5e cable from my Meanwell LDD driver to my lights to control the lighting.

The distance would be about 5-6 feet from driver to lights.

These are the lights.
Aquarium LED Light 144W Full Spectrum 48 x 3W Reefblok Coral Reef Grow Fixture | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/300915148718?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648)
There are 2 channels that will be outputting 0-48v (depending on what the controller has them at).

Each channel has only 24 lights on it.

Can Cat 5e handle that voltage and current?

[jimsflies]

PoE uses 57 V DC. According to this 5e is good up to 125V:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060625021938/http://www.schrack.cz/fileadmin/f/cz/INFORMACNI_TECHNOLOGIE/PIRELLI/PIRELLI__kabely_utp__ftp.pdf

[Sacohen]

Thanks.

I'm concerned about Amps too.

I think the LED's are pulling 1.5 amps per channel, unless I figured it wrong.
144w for the whole fixture (according to the listing) 144/48=3amp for the whole fixture.
Channels are split evenly at 24 LED's per channel so it should be 1.5 Amps per channel.

[jimsflies]

Is this a signal wire or is it actually driving the fixture? I typically see cat5 used to send the (typically milliamp) signal to the driver to control the level of dimming...but not actually powering the fixture. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to use cat5 to power the fixture.

[Sacohen]

I'm going to use it for the signal wires, but I also wanted to use it to send the actual power to the fixture so I only have 1 wire running to the fixtures, from the drivers.

[jimsflies]

cat5 won't work to safely supply power to the fixture.

[Up2no6ood]

cat5 won't work to safely supply power to the fixture.
Agreed. I would use cat5 For the signal and the appropriate wire for the supply and wire loom them together to give that clean look.

[Sacohen]

Agreed. I would use cat5 For the signal and the appropriate wire for the supply and wire loom them together to give that clean look.

Thank you for your help.

[dlhirst]

Another important thing to remember - Watts can be rated as Watts IN or Watts OUT. Most likely, the lights will be rated as Watts OUT - as that is "work" that is being delivered to the corals. However, if you are counting on Ohm's Law for your math, you need to use Watts IN. That will be a higher number. Possibly much higher, too. Check with the manufacturer of that fixture. I don't know how efficient LEDs are, but it could be a meaningful difference.

[skuttduck]

If you aren't using all pairs of the cat5, you could double up the wires to carry more current. It looks like Cat 5 is about 24 gauge which can handle about 2 amps.

I personally would run thicker power wire verses cat 5.

[Sacohen]

I would be using all eight wires (or all 4 pairs). I have 2 fixtures that have 2 channels each.

I'm looking at some some Thermostat wire now, which is 18 gauge and I can get in 8 conductor.

[skuttduck]

Funny thing about the history of thermostat wire, they used telephone wire originally.

[Sacohen]

I can see that. It looks very similar to phone wire.

[dlhirst]

Yes, I agree with skuttduck and jimsflies. Cat5 is simply not appropriate for high voltage installation.

[jimsflies]

I would be using all eight wires (or all 4 pairs). I have 2 fixtures that have 2 channels each.

I'm looking at some some Thermostat wire now, which is 18 gauge and I can get in 8 conductor.

Are you planning to use a cat5 connector? I doubt you could make the connector work with larger 18 gauge wire.

Also, I wouldn't want the higher wattage wires in the same connector with the lower signal wires. I would be concerned about brush something against the connector and creating a short circuit which could damage your equipment. Which frankly could be a concern with the wires all in the same sheath anyways...should a wire get nicked it could create an equipment damaging short. I have a few small gauge wires running for control equipment and they are very easy to damage over time performing routine maintenance.

[Sacohen]

No I'm not using a RJ-45 connect.
The Reef Angle and LDD board has screw down terminals and the lights have size M power connectors.
Also I'm probably going to do it this way.

Cat5e going from the LDD dimmer to the Reef Angel or control and then the 18 gauge thermostat cable from the voltage output of the LDD's to the lights which have size M DC power connectors.

[sparky_gm]

unless you can get an special cable with proper shielding and insulation it is never good to run control and power wires in same cable.

[Sacohen]

Control and power will be separate.

There are 4 lights with + & - each.

The control will be the handled by the Cat 5 cable and the power will be handled by the 18-8 thermostat wire (The specs say it is good to 150v).

Each running separately.
The Cat 5 will run from the RA dimming module to the control screws on the Meanwell LDD drivers.

The 18-8 Thermostat wire will run from the power out of the Meanwell LDD drivers to the lights.