Hi, I'm new to the forum; my name is Chris. I run an Audio Visual business based in Berkshire. Please feel free to message me with an AV related questions and I will do my best to help!
I wondered if I would be able to ask some advise on exterior garden lighting ... I am doing a big AV job for a lovely customer at the moment. She has had, and is still having, a nightmare with her current builder. I would be all day telling you all about it but the build is a year over due and all monies were demanded up front. Furthermore for every additional thing the customer wants doing she is being charged extortionate amounts of money!
The builder's "recommended" electrician, for example, quoted over £3000 for an alarm system I installed for £350! And so on ...
So she has asked my advise on outside lighting. The garden is currently being landscaped and so we are running out of time to get cables in; naturally the builder is trying to capitalise on this by quoting ridiculous prices to get their guy to install.
I am not Part P qualified so will not be able to do the job myself, however I want to help give the customer more time to find a reasonably priced electrician. My plan would be to first fix the cables in this weekend so that a qualified sparky can second fix the lighting and connect everything up at the end.
So here is what she would like:
- About 20 to 25 post / bollard lights along paths, flowerbeds etc
- 10 to 20 recessed decking lights
- Spot / spike flood lights to illuminate a water feature
Now my understanding is that she will need a 2.5mm 3 core armored cable run from the fuse board on a separate RCD to some sort of distribution / junction block in the shed?
Then would I need to run an individual cable from the junction in the shed to each of the 20-25 post lights. Or would I be able to run a cable from the shed (for example) to light 1, then to 2, then to 3 then to 4 and so on in series? Or finally run the cable from the shed to light 1, 2 ,3 all the way to 25 and then return that cable back into the shed like a ring main of power sockets?
The deck lights could be run back to a spur of the sockets in the house.
That's about where I am up to! I am fine with network cables, phone, coax, AV anything like that .. basically electrical is fine but my head is swimming a bit!!
I just want to get all the cable in for the electrician so there is no digging up etc to be done.
Thanks!
I wondered if I would be able to ask some advise on exterior garden lighting ... I am doing a big AV job for a lovely customer at the moment. She has had, and is still having, a nightmare with her current builder. I would be all day telling you all about it but the build is a year over due and all monies were demanded up front. Furthermore for every additional thing the customer wants doing she is being charged extortionate amounts of money!
The builder's "recommended" electrician, for example, quoted over £3000 for an alarm system I installed for £350! And so on ...
So she has asked my advise on outside lighting. The garden is currently being landscaped and so we are running out of time to get cables in; naturally the builder is trying to capitalise on this by quoting ridiculous prices to get their guy to install.
I am not Part P qualified so will not be able to do the job myself, however I want to help give the customer more time to find a reasonably priced electrician. My plan would be to first fix the cables in this weekend so that a qualified sparky can second fix the lighting and connect everything up at the end.
So here is what she would like:
- About 20 to 25 post / bollard lights along paths, flowerbeds etc
- 10 to 20 recessed decking lights
- Spot / spike flood lights to illuminate a water feature
Now my understanding is that she will need a 2.5mm 3 core armored cable run from the fuse board on a separate RCD to some sort of distribution / junction block in the shed?
Then would I need to run an individual cable from the junction in the shed to each of the 20-25 post lights. Or would I be able to run a cable from the shed (for example) to light 1, then to 2, then to 3 then to 4 and so on in series? Or finally run the cable from the shed to light 1, 2 ,3 all the way to 25 and then return that cable back into the shed like a ring main of power sockets?
The deck lights could be run back to a spur of the sockets in the house.
That's about where I am up to! I am fine with network cables, phone, coax, AV anything like that .. basically electrical is fine but my head is swimming a bit!!
I just want to get all the cable in for the electrician so there is no digging up etc to be done.
Thanks!