Uplighters

[Tonyx]

I've been asked for a price to light up the external walls of a very large house using uplighters, to give a pleasing effect when dark and, to act as a bit of security at night. Most of the ground is soil, with various shrubs etc, but the area around the double garage is concrete with a shingle top.

I'm thinking of using HITUF cable, cleated to the external wall, with JB's to tee off to each lamp. Perhaps using armoured cable from the JB's to each lamp, in case of accidents whilst gardening.

Does anyone have experience of this type of work, that could advise me the best uplighters to use and best construction method to adopt.

Any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[333rocky333]

Would depend on what colour light they want.
You could have yellow or white sons.
Whiter brighter light from metal halide.
green or blue metal halide sometimes looks good.
Also led based stuff expensive but nice.

Personally I think the less outside joints the better, and would go for fittings where you can gland two cables easily in the bottom as water nearly always finds its way into the joint boxes somehow.

 

[RF Lighting]

Presumably you will have a concrete pad installed to bolt the light to.

I would loop SWA round the fittings, terminating the two ends (in and out) at a galv Y box fixed onto the concrete pad. Then take a single hi-tuff or even black flex from there to the flood.

I'd go with HQI fittings. They have the widest vareity of lamps to choose from, and are relatively low power consumption.

You could look at architectural LED floods. They will allow colour changing etc, but they are still very expensive for a decent one at the moment.

 

[ColJack]

I wouldn't trust a galv box outdoors even with the gasket on it.. 2 screws are not enough to make a watertight seal..plus they have a nasty hole in the back for an earth screw...

they do some nice orange IP round boxes..., or you could use cold pour joints..

 

[RF Lighting]

I've fitted loads and never had a problem.

You obviously have to keep them above ground level.

You could drill a drain hole in the back if you are worried about water ingress.

I personally find pratley boxes not much better than a galv box for water-proof-ness

 

[Tonyx]

Thanks for all your replies.........

I think the general suggestion is to use SWA cable, clipped to the wall, using the orange IP boxes to tee off to each lamp? I'm also considering mounting each uplighter in it's own concrete pad then running SWA underground directly to each uplighter. I guess if the uplighter was to be buried directly in the ground this would be the best method to use?

To light the external walls using a 50W uplighter, what distance would I need to site the lights from the wall for the best effect?

 

[Chri5]

50w won't offer enough light to wash much more than 1 sq m of wall.

 

[Tonyx]

What would you suggest for a very large house?

 

[Chri5]

I suggest checking the manufacture sites (for the uplighters) and hoping they will indicate a beam pattern for the lamp and fitting.

If the house is white, or white stuco front the lamp can be lesser than say it's a dark red brick.