installing an outside light....easy for a nearly novice.

[doggy1]

bought an outside light which i thought was solar powered but its not.

im not a complete novice with electrics....i have run extra sockets from another socket, changed light switches, but thats about it.

im also looking to make as little mess as possible.

i have a plan ! but wanted to run it by someone who knows what their doing first.

on the wall i wish to install it, there is already a sky cable running through the wall, say a foot or so from the floor. i plan to use this hole to put the cable through, save drilling another. inside the house there is a plug socket just 2 feet away that has very little/no use.

can i wire up the cable direct to a plug and just plug it in the socket ?

or run the cable inside, then up the wall to a switch then back down the wall wired to a plug ?

or as above and wired properly into the circuit via the plug socket ?

i have a real of cable left over in the house. which im 99% sure is up to the job, its the same size as lighting cable, but not sure if i can use this externally as it would be open to the elements for a good 2/3 meters running up the outside of the house to the light.

thanks in advance for the advice guys !

 

[Taylortwocities]

You can cable to a plug (with a 3 Amp fuse in it) to power the light.
You could run this through a switch if unplugging it is too difficult.

You should NOT use the same hole as the SKY cable. You'll need another hole at least 50mm from the SKY cables.

You should NOT use PVC twin & earth cable outside as a couple of summer suns and winter frosts will degrade the cable and it will fall apart.

Use rubber cable if it is to be surface clipped outside.

You can buy a few metres at most "sheds"

 

[doggy1]

thanks for the advice taylor.

think iv got another old hole nearish that was used previously 'gunked up' for old type tv cable. so ill just redrill that....but for future reference why cant you use the same hole as the sky cable ?


again, many thanks for the advice mate.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Practically:

Because the mains is high voltage (230v). That 230v goes up and down 50 times a second. Your SKY cable is will have only millivolts going through it.

The 230V has a very good chance of interferring with the SKY signal.


Regulations:
These state that you have to keep them separated, or in electrically separated conduit.
Read about it here
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/6.6.1.htm

 

[doggy1]

ok.... that makes sense

thanks again mate.

 

[winston1]

Practically:

Because the mains is high voltage (230v). That 230v goes up and down 50 times a second. Your SKY cable is will have only millivolts going through it.

The 230V has a very good chance of interferring with the SKY signal.


Regulations:
These state that you have to keep them separated, or in electrically separated conduit.
Read about it here
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/6.6.1.htm[/QUOTE]

There is another thread on this but mains is low voltage.

 

[Taylortwocities]

When I said that

the mains is high voltage (230v).

It was to highlight - to the self-declared novice - that it was high in relation to the much lower voltage in the SKY cable. I did not want to go into the minutiae of pedantic definitions, as it does not help.

 

[RF Lighting]

Winston is one of those posters who rarely offers any advice, instead preferring to pedantically nit pick what others have written often with completely incorrect or at best confusing statements.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I did not want to go into the minutiae of pedantic definitions, as it does not help.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Accuracy and correct terminology are vitally important - if someone does not know what LV actually means then they need to learn, they do not need their ignorance to be perpetuated.

This is not some pedantic technical point along the lines of “it’s not an earth, it’s a cpc” or “bulbs are what you plant in the ground, what you mean is a lamp”. If you start getting involved in doing your own electrical work, and start learning about regulations etc you’ll come across references to “Low voltage”, and it’ll be no good you thinking that that means 12V.