Adding a basic switch !

I am no electrical expert, not by a long chalk, but I thought I could wire a simple switch ... obviously not, so perhaps somebody here can tell me what I have to do !!!

I have an outdoor plug socket where I have extended the cable to a switch which will (I hope !!!) control some garden lights ... my cable is a basic 3 flex but the switch does not just have IN & OUT connectors, it has 2 together marked 1 and another 2 together marked L ... these are at the top of the switch ... and 2 together marked 2 at the bottom of the switch ... there is also an earth screw in the corner ...

I will have no circuit here, as such, the switch will go to some lights and they will be ON or OFF ... so firstly, how do I wire this up & secondly, I have not yet bought the lights, but I assume I can wire up to the mains now and add the lights when I do buy them, the switch will just not do anything ?!?!?

Any help appreciated ...

when you say 'garden lights' surely you are not refering to having 220v basic flex running thro' the garden?

How did you connect the switch via the outdoor socket? is it an outdoor weather proof switch? Any switch fed from any socket should be a double pole (switches both the neutral / live conductors) and should also be fused and fed with the same rating of cable as the socket

Garden lights are normally low voltage and are supplied via a small transformer although you can get the halogen flood lights on a spike which are 220v but you should use 1.0mm SWA cable to these and possibly terminated in a weatherproof junction box at each

i have a better idea, why not get one of these

it is a weather proof switched socket.

alternatively why not bring the cable for your garden lights in doors (through the wall) and put a plug on it, then put this plug into an rcd adaptor.

Or then again, if you are going for low voltage garden lights put the transformer indoors and the low voltage cable can go through the wall to the lights, no rcd required if the transformer is indoors

To both replies ... as I said, I haven't yet bought the lights, I know the sort that I like but I haven't got around checking them out and therefore buying them yet ... they are "outside" lights, so I assume they will come with the necessary transformer and/or leads ...

I have run a cable from an extension lead in the house to an external weatherproof plug socket & used cable connectors to run the same current to an external weatherproof switch immediately next to it ... I will, when I get it working (!!!) ensure that it is all tightly sealed ... an amateur I may be, a complete idiot I am not !!!

With regard to the "weather proof switched socket" ... it looks nice, but have you ever been to Ireland ?!?!?!? I'm amazed I could find outside sockets of ANY kind !!!!!!

I already have low-voltage 10 inch high lights running from this set up, I'm afraid I have no idea what an RCD adaptor is and I don't know what a "double pole" is either ...

But nobody has told me the answer to my question ... how do I wire it up ?!?!?!?!?

sorry about that, the reason i mentioned the switched socket is that an ordainairy weather proof switch is not suitable for switching a socket. (external switches are meant to switch up to 5 amps, a socket can have up to 15 amps)

you can get them (and similar) on line from here

for information about what is an rcd please see this

and sorry to say this but you should not "run a cable from an extension lead"

ideally all external sockets should be wired back to the consumers unit on their own fuse / mcb (depending on which consumers unit you have) in wire armoured cable (or at least 2.5mm twin and earth)

it is all to do with saftety, accidents do happen

no one said or implied that you are an idiot, we are just trying to help, it is better that you ask first (as you have done)