Troubleshooting Dollhouse Wiring - How Do I Fix My Dollhouse Electrics?

Lizzy · 2020-11-04T12:12:25Z

A frequently asked question and I had it myself as well at the start of my miniatures journey, is: ' how-the-hell ( pardon my English ) do I fix my dollhouse wiring? '. Updated June 2023 There must be no other question than this one, which is asked over and over again. That is because there is a lot to tell about it. But in the end, nothing is as fun as the lights being ON in your own dollhouse! After all, we do want to keep our dollhouse safe for kids to use as well, no? First of all, let's get rid of some prejudices about dollhouse wiring " No I can't do it, I don't know anything about electricity, electricity is scary." Just some shout-outs that I read everywhere in forums or Facebook groups. Rest assured though that, with some explanation, you can do it! Dollhouse electrics systems these days have been developed especially for the miniature hobbyist and you don't need to have knowledge of electricity, believe me! Yes, you càn burn down your dollhouse, but only if you work in a hasty manner, and if you would link everything together, without any reading about it beforehand, without any preparation whatsoever, or even reading a manual. But you can prevent this from happening! Basic knowledge of dolls' house electrics and dollhouse wiring. In your normal house, 220 Volts come out of your socket ( 110 Volts in the UK and in the US ). That is, of course, just too much for your dollhouse. As you can imagine, ordinary lamps are therefore way too big and too hot to use in your dollhouse. This is why the smaller dollhouse lights are 12 Volts or even less. A transformer converts 220 Volts into 12 Volts so that all the power in your dollhouse is not stronger than 12 Volts. There are other voltages that some types of dollhouses use. Lundby supplies a 4.5 Volts transformer for their dollhouses as a standard. All the connections are already built into those houses. Rail modeling has 6 Volts and 9 Volts and children's dollhouses use even less (3 to 4 Volts) so that a playing child doesn't even feel it when it would unintentionally touch anything. With the introduction of LED lights, more options have been added. These lights give only a little bit of heat but are often too bright and too white for a beautiful 'mood'- lighting in the dollhouse. However, a mutual exchange is not possible! A 12 Volt-light will not get you enough power to put on the lights with a 3.5 Volt transformer. On the other hand, using a 12 Volt transformer will burn your 3.5 Volt lamp. So, the choice of the transformer will determine which Volt lamps you are going to use. For children's dollhouses usually, 3,5 Volt is used. For the miniaturist, however, the 12Volt lights are more suitable ( there is much more choice and they are made for the exact scale ). The lights are ON in My Cat Café! The choice of a transformer determines the number of lights that you can use in your dollhouse! On your transformer, you can see a number with VA ( Volts / Amps) or W ( Watts ), or A ( Amps). That number tells you how many lights you can connect. An example: a light transformer of 7-8 VA or 10 W can have up to 15 sockets. A 20 W transformer can handle up to 30-33 sockets, and a large transformer up to 60 sockets also exists. One light can have multiple seeds! Do not count the number of lights in your house, but the number of seeds in the lights. A chandelier can contain 12 seeds! The total number must always stay below the recommended number for that transformer. There is 1 exception and that is Christmas lighting, which usually counts as 1 or 2 lights. Read some more about Electricity Safety on Wikipedia. Lights are ON in Cathy's Greenhouse Now, how do I choose a system- Troubleshooting dollhouse wiring It all comes down to choosing between perfection and comfort. What is most important for you? Do you want to hide everything behind the wallpaper or do you want the lights to turn on fast and quickly? There are lots of possibilities, like buying lamps that work with a battery (the LED lamps that I mentioned before), but basically, there are 3 methods: 1. No main cable, but guide each lamp to a transformer. Each light that is sold, has a piece of wire and a plug attached. The wire itself is very thin and the plug releases easily. This plug goes to a long socket (EM2032 series), which is reconnected to a transformer. The advantage of this is that it is the cheapest and easiest "system". The disadvantage: all wires are visible and you have to drill a hole for each wire to go through a wall or floor etc.. ( If the wire is too short, you can extend it with another wire or with an extension cord ). 2. A network of wires. Just like in a real house, you can also create a whole network of electricity in a dollhouse with wires, light seeds, and switches. Some people even hide the wires in pre-made gutters. The advantage: cheaper than CirKit and can be controlled lamp after lamp by using switches. Disadvantage: You need knowledge of + and - poles, thus ...

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Leila

(@Leila)

Posts: 2

A follow up on the phone charger experiment... It works fine, lights turned on, no overheating (charger output is 5V, 700mA)
Of course the safest and best option will always be to use dollhouse specific electrical adapters, but if nothing else is available, a properly dimensioned phone charger is a working solution, provided you are well aware of the electrical requirements of your installation (bulb max voltage and power allowed/required, number of bulbs...).

Posted : 31/05/2022 9:13 am

Lizzy

(@lizzy)

Posts: 921

Member Admin

Topic starter

Thank you for the follow-up and very good to know!
Lizzy

Posted : 31/05/2022 11:23 am

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