How to extend a light to make it longer?
How to shorten a light fitting?
Light fittings and pendant lights come with chain or cable which may need to be adapted to suit the position in which it is to be hung. Largely, the height of the room will dictate the size of light you need, and the good news is that most lighting manufacturers will cater for various ceiling heights and chain or cable can be shortened easily at the point of installation. Designer Lighting Company guide to shortening your lights explains in a few simple steps to show you how this can be done. However, if your light is being installed by an electrician, invariably they will do this for you.
But what are the options available to you if your ceiling is very tall and you need a very long light fitting?
Designer Lighting Company have a vast selection specifically designed for very tall ceiling heights and we have supplied lighting for churches, manor houses and modern atriums. These types of properties will require light fittings to be exceptionally long, most probably a longer drop than is supplied as standard, so these will fall under the speciality sector.
There are some lights specifically made to suit high ceiling heights and long drop lights for stairwells which can be found at Designer Lighting Company’s well stocked online shop, however, there are some other options that can be further customised to suit the location, be that the length or colour. These are few and far between and only available via select manufacturing partners of Designer Lighting Company. There is a small additional charge, but it’s well worth it for a bespoke or customised light that has a long drop as a light that is too close to the ceiling will not only impact the aesthetics, it will affect the quality of the illumination also.
Explore lights that can be adapted for incredibly high ceilings, be it 3 meters or 30 meters these exclusive lights can be customised to your specific measurements upon request.
David Hunt Lighting Collection
Customise Length and Colour
Monaghan Lighting
Customise Length and Colour
Ebb and Flow Lighting
Longer lengths
Innermost
Whilst this range can’t be customised they are supplied with 4m of suspension cable/cord with every pendant, which may well be enough for most applications.
One of the benefits will be that the chain, cable or cord will match with the light fitting. The cost will tend to be lower as you have to pay for an electrician by an hourly rate, so it is nearly always cheaper and quicker for lights to be manufactured to the correct specification rather than adapted at a later date.
If you want your ceiling light to hang lower in a room it may need extra length added, but how easy is it to add length to a light fitting?
Making a light longer isn’t as straight forward as you may imagine. Even if you find matching chain the electric cable won’t be long enough. Common mistake number one, is people think they can simply add a bit of cable, sadly this is not the case! Firstly, this is not safe, especially where there is only the cable supporting the light fitting as sooner or later, the weight is likely to break the connection. The whole fitting would need to be rewired and joining this will nullify the manufactures warranty, if indeed it’s even possible to rewire without needing to replace the lamp holder too. The problem will be multiplied if the fitting has multiple lamp holders.
How easy is it to shorten light fittings?
Let’s take a detailed look at how to shorten a hanging ceiling light at the point of installation.
- First gauge the height you feel suits the room.
- Hold the light in position before cutting any cable and see how short you’ll need it.
- Cable must always be shortened from the top, never remove the part where the bulb plugs in.
- The top cup (sometimes called ceiling rose, the fixing plate or canopy) that fixes to the ceiling will have some kind of cable retainer. The cable is secured by a device to stop it slipping after installation. Several different retainers are used, most often by means of a small grub screw. Undo the screw, taking care not to lose it.
- Pull the cable back firmly but slowly until the desired height it reached.
- Tighten the retaining screw
- Install the light.
Other cable retainers may be a figure of 8 where the cable will go up through one hole and down through the other. To shorten this, push the cable through the lower hole making a large loop, then simply pull that loop back through the top hole.
In both situations you will have a surplus of cable in the ceiling rose. Sometimes this can be coiled up and left in the ceiling rose, this would allow you to reinstall the light at a different height for example if you move home and the ceilings are taller. If there is a lot of excess cable you can cut this off and remake the ends.
How to remake off the ends of cable when you have shortened a light fitting? This may sound obvious, but if you are unsure, consult a qualified electrical contractor. We are all aware that electricity is dangerous and whilst this is a simple job (if you’ve wired a 13 amp plug top in the past – it’s that simple), however, if it is incorrectly done, this may lead to electric shock or fire.
