Decking Lights

[kieransampson]

Hi

We've got some decking in place already and some deck lights already built in. Very recently, 2 of the lights stopped working.

When I lifted the lights out of the holes in the deck, they weren't connected using the plug/play. Instead it was just normal cable with an exposed piece of cable wrapped around a similar set-up on the main cable. Hopefully that makes sense. Basically cable from the light, connected to the cable from the transformer, but without the plug play endings.

Firstly, I'm unsure whether this is ok, but given the deck was built around 8 years ago and the lights have done well until recently, I can only assume it's fine.

How do I go about replacing the lights? Everything at the moment seems to be plug and play.

If I wanted to replace the entire set of lights how complex would this be given there's a deck already in place? I don't think it's something I could do, but am wondering about getting a company in.

Many thanks

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The cable and accessories used, such as connectors, enclosures and transformers, must be suitable for the external environment. Standard twin and earth cable should not be used as it is not suitable for the extreme weather conditions and rodents quite like to nibble at it.
Enclosures must be of a type that protects against accidental contact to live parts and be IP rated suitably for the location. Wrapping cable together is not good practise nor is leaving it exposed.
You require a competent electrician to have a look at you set-up.
Normally access to cables would require, lifting sections of the decking up, unless a maintenance trap was built in, during construction.

 

[kieransampson]

Thanks for the response.

The worry for me is that the original lighting was put in place by a qualified electrician.

To take up the decking is going to be a mammoth and expensive job.