Lamp wire

O

Outdoorenth

New member
Lamp wire sold at HD and Lowes says it is for indoor use, but I read many use it for custom outdoor SPT extension cords. How safe is it to use outdoors?
 
It is safe to use outdoors, but the insulation will begin to deteriorate after a few seasons of use.
 
rstehle said:
It is safe to use outdoors, but the insulation will begin to deteriorate after a few seasons of use.
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Which... makes it unsafe to use outdoors. If it is not outdoor rated it will not stand up to UV, moisture, or extreme temperature exposure. Cracks that are not obvious can allow short to ground, which is why GFCI is also important. Do not mess around with mains voltages and the safety of your family or guests that may come to enjoy your show. Buy right the first time and only cry once.
 
BuzzKill said:
Which... makes it unsafe to use outdoors. If it is not outdoor rated it will not stand up to UV, moisture, or extreme temperature exposure. Cracks that are not obvious can allow short to ground, which is why GFCI is also important. Do not mess around with mains voltages and the safety of your family or guests that may come to enjoy your show. Buy right the first time and only cry once.
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Yeah, only a few hundred of us have used indoor rated extension cords for a few years.............
 
BuzzKill said:
Which... makes it unsafe to use outdoors. If it is not outdoor rated it will not stand up to UV, moisture, or extreme temperature exposure. Cracks that are not obvious can allow short to ground, which is why GFCI is also important. Do not mess around with mains voltages and the safety of your family or guests that may come to enjoy your show. Buy right the first time and only cry once.
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All about safety here, thank you. Found some green outdoor rated SPT1 on Amazon to use instead of lamp wire.
 
I thought people use lamp wire to wire their outdoor lamps year-round all the time? It's not like you just openly expose the wire to the elements by itself. It's going through split loom, PVC, zip-tied together with other wires, or something.
 
I'm curious what outdoor wire you're going with. I've never been able to find any spt-1 wire that has an outdoor rating code on the wire, only the words outdoor stated by the seller. I'm not sure if that is legit or not, if anyone has any information on that I'd be curious to hear.
 
I recycle wire (which gets expensive), so I use a little bit of this and a little bit of that. For pixels, I've actually been happiest with speaker wire. It's easy to hide. But I must say I like 18/3 recycled AC wire a lot. Green wire may mean something else to an electrician, but to me, it's data-in. Jumper wire and old ribbon cable works out really well for short distances and JST connectors. Male leads can just crimp right on, and they'll insert right in the JST.
 
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ctmal said:
I'm curious what outdoor wire you're going with. I've never been able to find any spt-1 wire that has an outdoor rating code on the wire, only the words outdoor stated by the seller. I'm not sure if that is legit or not, if anyone has any information on that I'd be curious to hear.
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The wire I just received has some info printed on it like...SPT-1W 105°C FT2 300V

I tried to google the W and waterproof is the result, so outdoor use should be ok. One hit was the LOR website which says: The "W" in the SPT-1W indicates that this wire has been engineered for outdoor use and can be used in all weather conditions.
 
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