Class 1 Dimmable Drivers

[Jeff Knecht]

Good Evening
Need some advice on under-cabinet LED strip lighting.
I have 5 led individual strips totaling 14 feet, on 5 cabinets at 3.5 watts per foot and 32 feet of low voltage wire for the complete run from the driver to the end of the furthest LED strip.
Problem is, 32 feet at 3.5 watts per foot is 112 watts and I understand that would require a driver that has over
112 watts plus an extra 10%, which would work out to around 125-watt driver.
If the 32 feet was split into 2 runs of 16 feet, would 125 watts still be needed and Class 2 driver could still be used?
I was told that if I used a Class 1 driver of say 200 watts, all low voltage wires would have to be in conduit.
Is that correct?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Thank You,
Jeff

 

[wwhitney]

I agree that Class 2 and Class 3 DC power supplies are limited to 100VA, per NEC Chapter 9 Table 11(B). But if you split the run into two separate runs, each run could be under 100VA, so you could use (2) Class 2 or Class 3 LED drivers, one for each run. I'm not familiar with that market, there may be drivers available with multiple outputs, each output limited to 100VA or less.

Class 1 wiring is subject to the same requirements as normal 120V/240V AC wiring, per NEC 725.46. So it doesn't have to be in conduit per se, you could you use 14/2 NM cable, for example. All splices would have to be within junction boxes, etc.

Cheers, Wayne