Garden Wiring

[toasty]

Hi,

I've just bought some 1.5mm 3 core SWA for the garden to connect up some outside lights.

I have 5 outside lights, and I don't think there will be room in each one to have the two swa cables fit inside, so I've bought some 3 way 20mm round conduit type boxes with lids and rubber gaskets to mount just below the lights and then simply connect up in there and run just 1 piece of SWA to the lights. (see [url]http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CO20BX3.html [/url] )

I've got loads of 20s external (i.e with back rubber boots) swa glands at home and I'm fairly sure they'll just screw straight into the 20mm conduit boxes, but I'm not sure... can anyone confirm?

Thanks

 

[mapj1]

Unless you have some cut with the "thin wall" thread which is fine pitch, yes.

 

[supersparks]

and urm.....those boxes will rust.... you MUST use galvanised

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Wouldn't Pratley boxes be a much better idea?

And should we mention Part P?

 

[toasty]

Thanks chaps!!

I will be using galvanised, I just sent the link to illustrate.

As for part P, I don't think so, as the lights are modified by me to run on 12v and powered from solar cells/wind generators and batteries in my garage.

Thanks for the advice as always.

Never heard of a pratley box, but I do have a lot of idiotley boxes lying around, are they the same thing!!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

As for part P, I don't think so, as the lights are modified by me to run on 12v and powered from solar cells/wind generators and batteries in my garage.

1) In that case, why are you farting about with 3-core SWA?

2) In any event, the list of non-notifiable work in Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 3210 The Building (Amendment) (No.3) Regulations 2004 specifically excludes electricity generators and ELV lighting systems which are not pre-assembled lighting sets bearing the CE marking referred to in regulation 9 of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994.

So you have not found a way round the rules

Never heard of a pratley box, but I do have a lot of idiotley boxes lying around, are they the same thing!!

 

[toasty]

3 core because they'll be on two different zones, so 1 negative and 2 positives, they're controlled by my home automation and will come on in sequence (2 lights, then 3 lights, then all 5) as the garden gets darker. I know it's a bit complex/overkill, but I like that sort of stuff.

Swa because I think normal t+e breaks down under sunlight and also is more likely to get chopped through, and I think SWA done properly looks much nicer.


As for making 12v lighting notifiable, we'll those are the rules, who am I to argue, but it seems absolutely ridiculous to me. Does that mean that when my little daughter (currently 6 months) wants to play around with batteries and bulbs that I'll need to get her 'work' inspected by the local buildings inspector?!! Come to think of it, if I want to put a dynamo on my bike do I need to notify them of that aswell...

Needless to say I won't be notifying anyone, part P I think is in parts a good idea, but really!

 

[mapj1]

Don't worry, its a much bigger pain in the proverbials to ham radio folks, as fo ran HF setup it is possible that earthing wires, RF transmitter cables, antenna relay switching signals and all sorts go down the garden and no 'ordinary' sparks is really going to be happy certifying it, and as the idea of ham radio is self eduction though experiment by someone wqho has passed a technical exam anyway, the idea of notifying every few days or weeks when something is changed is equally ludicrous.

In general, I suspect, it will be done anyway, without troubling the scorers, and if you move house just roll it up and take it with you - 'it was temporary'.
Can you tell I'm a bit anti myself ?... being licenced and all that.

 

[toasty]

So I got it all wired in last night, and I must say it looks very neat, the SWA neatly clipped along the wall, rubber boots over the swa glands, even a little smear of silicon grease on the rubber gaskets used to seal the round junction boxes.

Wind genny not doing too much in this heat, but solar cells charging the gel cells nicely, watched the lights last night as they switched on first two then three then at about 11pm all five came on (they are light level activated) woke up this morning and two of them are still on, so it looks like the batteries are more than sufficient.

Obviously too late now, but I wonder what they'd have to say about my install if I had got them round to inspect it...? The code that operates the relays that are triggered by the serial port is written in C, and is therefore compiled. I wonder if they'd want to see the source code...?!

Ban, on a more serious note however, do you think the requirement to check ELV systems is that normally the low voltage would be derived by a transformer/SMPSU connected to the mains - that would make sense. But for a system like this, which is totally isolated (even the serial port interface contains opto-isolators) do you think it's relevant.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You must remember that Part P is not based on genuine technical reasons, or genuine safety grounds, it is scoped, and contains the restrictions that it does, to stop kitchen fitters, bathroom fitters, plumbers, landscape gardeners etc, from doing electrical work which the electrical contracting industry sees as rightfully "theirs".