> I'm putting a led rope light under a toekick. it's a cheesy plug-in
> setup, but it's all they had. the plug has a 5 amp fuse in it. I
> want to cut off the plug and hardwire it to a switch, rather than
> wire the switch to an outlet somewhere, then plug it in. do I need
> to wire a 5 amp fuse inline, or can I just snip off the plug and wire
> like a fixture?
I suspect it depends on how paranoid you are about electrical fires. The wire
in the 'rope' is apparently not heavy enough to always pop the 15A circuit
breaker in case of a short, so the 5A is to be sure something cuts out in case
of a short.
IOW they'll work fine without the fuse, and odds are high that you'll never have
a short. Are you willing to bet your house against a $5 fuse ?
> if I do need to wire in the fuse, is it self-apparent how to do that?
Shouldn't be too hard to figure out, the hard part will be finding an in-line
fuse holder that's rated for 120 volts. Low voltage fuses can be dangerous when
used on high voltage, because they may arc during an overload and cause a fire
themselves. I would probably be tempted to buy an axial-lead 5A 125V fuse (no
holder) from Radio Shack and make it part of the cord with solder & heat shrink.
Randall
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