Track lighting is a method of
lightingLighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting is often used as the main source of light during...
where
light fixtureA light fixture is an electrical device used to create artificial light or illumination. A luminaire is a lighting fixture complete with the light source or lamp, the reflector for directing the light, an aperture , the outer shell or housing for lamp alignment and protection, an electrical...
s are attached anywhere on a continuous track device which contains
electrical conductorIn science and engineering, an electrical conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons...
s. This is as opposed to the routing of electrical wiring to individual light positions. Tracks can be mounted to
ceilingthumb|right|Painted ceiling, "[[Icarus]]", by [[Rainer Maria Latzke]] , Chateau Thal, [[Belgium]]A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that bounds the upper limit of a room...
s or
wallA wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air...
s, lengthwise down
beamBeam may refer to:*Beam , a construction element*Beam , the most extreme width of a nautical vessel, or a point alongside the ship at the mid-point of its length*A narrow, propagating stream of particles or energy:...
s, or crosswise across
rafterA rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members, that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads....
s or
joistA joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
s. They can also be hung with rods from especially high places like vaulted ceilings.
Typical systems have line voltage (100 volts in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, 120 in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, 240 elsewhere) running through a recessed track.
Track lighting is a method of
lightingLighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting is often used as the main source of light during...
where
light fixtureA light fixture is an electrical device used to create artificial light or illumination. A luminaire is a lighting fixture complete with the light source or lamp, the reflector for directing the light, an aperture , the outer shell or housing for lamp alignment and protection, an electrical...
s are attached anywhere on a continuous track device which contains
electrical conductorIn science and engineering, an electrical conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons...
s. This is as opposed to the routing of electrical wiring to individual light positions. Tracks can be mounted to
ceilingthumb|right|Painted ceiling, "[[Icarus]]", by [[Rainer Maria Latzke]] , Chateau Thal, [[Belgium]]A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that bounds the upper limit of a room...
s or
wallA wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air...
s, lengthwise down
beamBeam may refer to:*Beam , a construction element*Beam , the most extreme width of a nautical vessel, or a point alongside the ship at the mid-point of its length*A narrow, propagating stream of particles or energy:...
s, or crosswise across
rafterA rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members, that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads....
s or
joistA joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
s. They can also be hung with rods from especially high places like vaulted ceilings.
Typical systems have line voltage (100 volts in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, 120 in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, 240 elsewhere) running through a recessed track. The track may have a second "hot" conductor, so that two
circuitAn electronic circuit is a closed path or paths formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current can flow....
s may control lighting on the same track. This is selected by placing the tab of the connector on the fixture to one side or the other when attaching it to the track. There are three standard types of tracks used in North America, as well as elsewhere in the world. They are often termed "H", "J", and "L" track, after the names of the manufacturers that established the standards, Halo, Juno, and
LightolierLightolier is a company that manufactures and sells a wide array of lighting fixtures. It was founded in 1904 by Bernhard Blitzer under the name of New York Gas and Appliance Co. When electric lighting started to be more widely accepted, the name was changed to Lightolier, a contraction of the...
. To identify a track fixture, you may use the following two rules: 1. if it has three contacts, it is probably "H" type 2. If the contact-tips are 1 inch apart, it is probably "J" type, if they are 7/8 inch apart, it is probably "L" type.
More modern systems are available with
low voltageLow voltage is an electrical engineering term that broadly identifies safety considerations of an electricity supply system based on the voltage used. While different definitions exist for the exact voltage range covered by "low voltage", the most commonly used ones include "mains voltage"...
(10, 12, or 24 volts respectively) running through track, which is in itself decorative. In this case, the fixture may
clampA clamp is a fastening device to hold or secure objects tightly together to prevent movement or separation through the application of inward pressure...
onto a track made of two
metalA metal is a chemical element that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat, forms cations and ionic bonds with non-metals. In chemistry, a metal is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions...
strips separated with an insulating strip. Two-circuit configurations are rare in such systems. The track is powered by a transformer which converts the high voltage into low voltage. There are magnetic and electronic transformers.
A variation on this is
cable lighting, whereby the fixtures are simply hung or suspended from uninsulated cables which likewise carry low voltage. These fixtures range from the very simple, such as two hinged rods from which a
halogen lampA halogen lamp is an incandescent lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed into a compact transparent envelope filled with an inert gas and a small amount of halogen such as iodine or bromine...
hangs, to the very artful, such as a
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
silhouetteA silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black...
whose feet touch the wires and hands hold the bulb or its
socketSocket can refer to:In mechanics:* Socket wrench, a type of wrench that uses separate, removable sockets to fit different sizes of nuts and bolts...
. Two sets of cables (such as in the corner of a room where two walls meet) can be connected together with short wires that have clips (such as alligator clips or
screwA screw terminal is a type of electrical connector where a wire is clamped down to metal by a screw.The wire is sometimes just stripped of electrical insulation at the end, and is bent in a U or J shape to fit around the shaft of the screw....
clamps) at either end.
Another variation is called flex track or monorail track lighting in which the fixtures are hung from a single line monorail track attached to the ceiling using stems. There are several different types of track. Some are very flexible and can be curved in any shape or form and some are more rigid and can be curved very slightly. Some patterns that can be made are "S curves" or "spirals".
It is also common to see line-voltage tracks with low-voltage fixtures. For these, each fixture requires a small
transformerA transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core, and thus a varying magnetic field...
to operate it. For all low-voltage fixtures or systems a special
dimmerDimmers are devices used to vary the brightness of a light. By decreasing or increasing the RMS voltage and hence the mean power to the lamp it is possible to vary the intensity of the light output...
(if used) is required, as standard dimmers are cheaply made and will cause flickering because of the interaction with the
inductiveAn inductor or a reactor is a passive electrical component that can store energy in a magnetic field created by the electric current passing through it. An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in units of henries...
electrical load.
Various
adapterAn adapter or adaptor is a device whose purpose is to convert attributes of one device or system to those of an otherwise incompatible device or system.Some adapters may only affect physical attributes:* An...
s are available for combining features of track and other lighting. If the track is properly anchored, a hanging fixture may be suspended from it. The track itself can also be suspended. Rather than being hard-wired to a
junction boxAn electrical junction box is a container for electrical junctions, usually intended to conceal them from sight and to some extent to eliminate tampering...
(which requires a feeder device to be snapped into the track, either in the middle or at one end), it can also be end-fed from a standard wall outlet. Outlets can also be snapped into line-voltage track. There are "L" and "T" adapters for rigid track, as well as flexible ones for unusual angles, or to change the vertical angle where a ceiling changes
slopeIn mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....
. Adapter plates allow single fixtures to be attached directly to a junction box, by providing an extremely small section of track embedded into the plate. There are also arms which have the same feature, allowing fixtures to be mounted onto the same wall they shine onto, and having an attached electrical cord and wall plug.