Electricians of doomworld, is this safe?

[invictius]

Don't want to pay for an electrician to make all my horizontal light sockets vertical, and a bit complicated to do it myself, so I got these cable things:



Not sure how much tension those poor little sockets can take.

[Wild Dog]

They are ugly, but they are safe to use. Unless you put some exotic bulb with some crazy W you are safe.

[pritch]

There's a bit of a strain on the cable so I wouldn't leave them like that permanently, but assuming it's wired correctly and the cable is insulated and not too crimped, which it shouldn't be from just the weight of a bulb fitting, there's nothing really dangerous about it.

[Vorpal]

Yeah just leave it hanging there, looks safe

[invictius]

pritch said:

There's a bit of a strain on the cable so I wouldn't leave them like that permanently, but assuming it's wired correctly and the cable is insulated and not too crimped, which it shouldn't be from just the weight of a bulb fitting, there's nothing really dangerous about it.

Think it can take this? A 23 watt bulb, and the one in the other pic is an 8, just in case you need an idea of the weight.



Would also be interested to know if there's a strain on the socket just by having it mounted like that (though the direction of the light makes it useless)

[Linguica]

It's fine.

[Khorus]

she'll be right, mate

[Fonze]

Eventually it'll stop working, you'll buy a new bulb, and be upset to find it doesn't fix the problem, which'll likely lead to a few minutes of confusion until you put 2 and 2 together than a connection somewhere broke due to gravity, time, and pressure. Aside from that, it won't start any fires (until it breaks), which is probably what you'd be looking for the most. Might piss off your landlord, too. Looks low-class as shit, though. Where's the meth lab?

[invictius]

Fonze said:

Eventually it'll stop working, you'll buy a new bulb, and be upset to find it doesn't fix the problem, which'll likely lead to a few minutes of confusion until you put 2 and 2 together than a connection somewhere broke due to gravity, time, and pressure. Aside from that, it won't start any fires (until it breaks), which is probably what you'd be looking for the most. Might piss off your landlord, too. Looks low-class as shit, though. Where's the meth lab?

Funny that a lighting shop didn't point out any of this when I asked them specifically for a part to help me solve this problem. Shops kind of coddle you here. I'm in public housing, they never fix anything anyway, unless you tell them the whole place is in danger of burning down.

[Fonze]

Well, on one hand, that light bulb shouldn't weigh enough to cause any problems. Shouldn't being the operating word. A light fixture isn't going to have a particularly robust set of wires and there's prolly a 50/50 chance the connections are crimped rather than screwed in, which will become the most likely culprit when intermittent troubles arise. There's a reason 9/10 electricians will tell you to never allow a wire carrying current to hold weight; life happens and by doing this you'd be inviting trouble and future headaches into your life. Stuff will break well enough without you helping it along. Especially when the thing that can break happens to be carrying dangerous electricity (even if in seemingly harmless, small amounts). As a quick alternative, you can mount a chain (or anything to serve the same purpose) to the ceiling to hold the actual weight (and a cover to make it look presentable), but then again as a renter you should prolly shy away from anything remotely close to remodeling, including a basic change of fixtures for the same reason you don't paint the walls. Best to talk to your landlord first, unless you're staying in the type of situation where you need to fix things under the radar, then reinstall old broken parts when you leave for good, in which case good luck ;D

But I doubt anybody working at that light shop is a currently licenced electrician; due to the wage gap there it would take a fairly special story to ease my apprehensions over a fully licenced electrician working in a light shop (as a salesman, not as a tech/installer), unless he was the owner, but once again, special story, and even then you know the owner wants you to buy something more than anyone else. Still, they could have just been telling you what the minimum req's are for your area, though I'm sure an inspector wouldn't let that fly anywhere in the US. But that would likely fall on your landlord, not yourself to not only fix, but take responsibility for fines. Of course they can always pass that down to you in the form of keeping your security deposit for "damages," especially if they can prove you hurt the situation, even if you weren't the direct cause of it. Then again, if/once you know your security deposit is screwed anyway... heh.

So now that my ad hominem attack on an unnamed light shop is done... >.< I should note that I am not an electrician; my brother is, which gives me a great source of knowledge on the subject, but I'm as much regurgitating info as the guy at the light store.

You'll be fine, regardless; just be careful and mindful of it. Don't treat a jury rig as a permanent solution.