Wiring up external lights

[pmanson]

Evening Guys,

In the progress of doing up the garden and trying to plan the lighting that I want to install (so that I can bury the relevant cables).

Obviously I know I can't do it myself but I want to get as much of the leg work done before I call in an electrician to do the final fix.

I'm looking at installing six of these into which i'll put some colour changing LED GU10s.

These lights will be installed at six ft intervals (on fence posts).

I'm assuming i'll need a weatherproof junction box along with all the relevant conduit to safely run the cable.

I'd also like to have a power point installed in the garden (for charging the laptop) and for running a pond pump.

In terms of powering everything up, I have two options - there is power in the garage so I could run the lights from there (and possibly control them by remote control/timer) or run the cabling around to the house and into the kitchen (is it possible to take a spur off a socket? - I'm thinking about not wanting to have to redecorate in there!).

Am I on the right track?

Cheers,
Phill

[Plotloss]

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

[Raverbaby]

Yes you will need to use armoured cable and you can bury the cable directly, 300mm iirc, 1.5mm will be fine. Use weatherproof boxes to terminate in to, you will also need "outside" glands for termination, and stuffing glands for the flex that goes to the light.
Its fine to spur off a socket, although I would spur off to a switched spur so you can isolate the lights for maintenance.
The lights you have linked to only have 2m of flex on them, hopefully that will be long enough for you?

ETA on second thoughts it should be 450mm for buried cable

Edited by Raverbaby on Monday 14th June 22:10

[pmanson]

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

[Raverbaby]

pmanson said:

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

I'd be wary of doing this, a lot of PVC cable doesn't fair too well up against the elements, temperature, UV rays etc. There are cables that can be used outside ( hi-tuf, arctic flex to name a couple).
Armoured cable would be fine but it probably wouldn't be great practice to have it lying around your garden

Edited by Raverbaby on Monday 14th June 22:43

[pmanson]

Raverbaby said:

pmanson said:

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

I'd be wary of doing this, a lot of PVC cable doesn't fair too well up against the elements, temperature, UV rays etc. There are cables that can be used outside ( hi-tuf, arctic flex to name a couple).
Armoured cable would be fine but it would be too easy to run a lawn mower over it or a spade through it after it becomes disguised, covered in earth or dirt after a few months open to the elements.

Edited by Raverbaby on Monday 14th June 22:38

Good point!

Pictures of the garden here

Along the fence on the right hand side will be a raised flower bed where 4 of the lights will be. The other two will be on the rear garden wall.

I plan to run the cabling behind the raised flower bed and into conduit for the run along the back wall (where the patio will be).

I'll get armoured cabling to be on the safe side though

[pmanson]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Cheers Tonker - Looks like that could come in very handy.

[Raverbaby]

pmanson said:

Raverbaby said:

pmanson said:

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

I'd be wary of doing this, a lot of PVC cable doesn't fair too well up against the elements, temperature, UV rays etc. There are cables that can be used outside ( hi-tuf, arctic flex to name a couple).
Armoured cable would be fine but it would be too easy to run a lawn mower over it or a spade through it after it becomes disguised, covered in earth or dirt after a few months open to the elements.

Edited by Raverbaby on Monday 14th June 22:38

Good point!

Pictures of the garden here

Along the fence on the right hand side will be a raised flower bed where 4 of the lights will be. The other two will be on the rear garden wall.

I plan to run the cabling behind the raised flower bed and into conduit for the run along the back wall (where the patio will be).

I'll get armoured cabling to be on the safe side though

That shoud be fine, you could clip the cable just above soil level if you really wanted to make a neat job of it. If using armour you don't need to put it in conduit if its clipped direct on to your fence.
If its easier you can put a flex in PVC conduit aslong as its surface & fixed to the wall with saddles, you can get boxes to suit so its all properly terminated.
This would probably be easier tbh.
If your going down the armour route you can mount boxes where you want the lights, terminate the cable through the boxes (1cable in and 1 out) then you can join your flex in to each box.
terminating the armour will be a bit tricky first time round as it involves a gland but you should get the hang of it.
This might get a bit pricey going to the likes of B&Q, especially when it comes to cable (3core armour), might be worth trying screwfix.co.uk or toolstation.co.uk or TLC which your using for your lights. A local electrical wholesaler might be able to do you a deal too.
Glad your doing it correctly, a lot of people would just throw a flex round all the lights, connector block with a bit of tape round joins and stick a plugtop on the end of cable!

[Brite spark]

Raverbaby said:

pmanson said:

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

I'd be wary of doing this, a lot of PVC cable doesn't fair too well up against the elements, temperature, UV rays etc. There are cables that can be used outside ( hi-tuf, arctic flex to name a couple).
Armoured cable would be fine but it probably wouldn't be great practice to have it lying around your garden

Artic flex lacks the mechanical protection of armoured cable, which is probably the most appropriate cable to use when installed properly

op get a spark in, they won't mind you doing all the groundworks, maybe putting cable in, but sort it with them first, not halfway through the job- bury the cable, do it properly

[pmanson]

Brite spark said:

Raverbaby said:

pmanson said:

Plotloss said:

I think but not sure you'll need armoured cable if its being buried.

If needed I can run it above ground so that may not be an issue.

The 2m will be enough for the distance between the lights and then i'll need a longer run to complete the circuit and bring it back to either the house or the garage.

Edited by pmanson on Monday 14th June 22:17

I'd be wary of doing this, a lot of PVC cable doesn't fair too well up against the elements, temperature, UV rays etc. There are cables that can be used outside ( hi-tuf, arctic flex to name a couple).
Armoured cable would be fine but it probably wouldn't be great practice to have it lying around your garden

Artic flex lacks the mechanical protection of armoured cable, which is probably the most appropriate cable to use when installed properly

op get a spark in, they won't mind you doing all the groundworks, maybe putting cable in, but sort it with them first, not halfway through the job- bury the cable, do it properly

Will do. I'll need some advice from them on the best location to install the switches etc and it makes sense to do it now before the raised flower beds etc get put up.

[Brite spark]

You need to decide if you want lights on switches, timers, pir or photocell, location of any switch would be upto you really, but think about how you will use the lighting if going for switches, garage, house, outside wall are all possible.

Personally I wouldn't take the outside wiring from an existing circuit, any problems will potentially have the circuit tripping out especially as it would need to be rcd protected, if not already


eta try to find a spark certified for part p not just a domestic installer who isn't an electrician by trade

Edited by Brite spark on Thursday 17th June 00:33

[pmanson]

Brite spark said:

You need to decide if you want lights on switches, timers, pir or photocell, location of any switch would be upto you really, but think about how you will use the lighting if going for switches, garage, house, outside wall are all possible.

Personally I wouldn't take the outside wiring from an existing circuit, any problems will potentially have the circuit tripping out especially as it would need to be rcd protected, if not already


eta try to find a spark certified for part p not just a domestic installer who isn't an electrician by trade

Edited by Brite spark on Thursday 17th June 00:33

Ideally i'd want a switch inside the house in the kitchen, the fuse box is on the other side of the house.

The garage has a seperate small fuse box (and meter) in there so one option potentially would be to run everything to there and use some sort of remote control to operate everything...

I know a local PHer recently had a sparky around so will get his details and ask him for a quote.

[mattdaniels]

You could always go down the low voltage route. The transformer is supposed to be indoors but I mounted mine on an external wall in a waterproof box. The cable from the transformer to each of the lights is designed to withstand the elements, I tacked mine on the underside of the arris rail on the garden fence. You don't need a ring circuit back to the transformer you can just have a single run of cable. You can buy different lights ready wired and to install you just clip the tail from each light around the cable, it has teeth in it which penetrate the outer sheeth and make contact with the inner cable core. I think the system is called MK Select-a-light