Help me identify mystery box

[rossjamesparker]

I have just moved into a house with this mystery box on the wall. There is quite a chunky electrical feed up to it, and what looks like a light sensor. It is nowhere near the outdoor electrical meter, which I assume is the main way that power gets into the house. My best guess is something to do with the burglar alarm? All the other houses in the same development appear to have these too - my neighbours do not have a clue what it is either.

Untitled

• rossjamesparker
• 28 Oct 2012
• 1

 

[Starspark1]

Looks like a supply into the adaptable box then a photocell connected to it. I would imagine it is for some outside lights.

 

[securespark]

Have you got a remote light or lights?

A lamp post, maybe, or gatepost fittings?

Try removing the sensor after dark and see what goes out!

To get them off, twist anti-clock.

 

[JohnW2]

Have you got a remote light or lights? A lamp post, maybe, or gatepost fittings? Try removing the sensor after dark and see what goes out! To get them off, twist anti-clock.

I wonder how old it is. Those things do not last for ever, by any means, and if neither OP nor neighbours have a clue about what they do, probably have not ever replaced any. It's therefore possible that they don't any longer switch anything successfully!

To the OP - if secure's idea is not applicable, are there any outdoor lights of any description (such as he mentions) that don't seem to come on when they should (i.e. at night)?

Kind Regards, John

 

[seasickstevie]

Does not strike me as being very 'child friendly'.

A simple anti-clockwise twist, remove, and hey-presto! . . . Live terminals!!!

 

[RF Lighting]

Like a BC lampholder on a table lamp, only much safer

 

[rossjamesparker]

Aha - this does now make sense, and I think I now know what it is for. I should have thought of it before. Some of the houses on the development of 20 have bollards in their front gardens, with lights in. We don't have a bollard, but I guess a previous owner removed it. Next door don't have a bollard either, but I guess theirs may also have been removed. I will make a careful investigation to see if the circuitry has been disconnected. Otherwise, as a poster above says, it's probably not the safest thing in the world...

Thanks for the help!

 

[JohnW2]

Does not strike me as being very 'child friendly'. A simple anti-clockwise twist, remove, and hey-presto! . . . Live terminals!!!

They're not too bad and, as RF has said, vastly more child-safe than a bayonet lamp holder. The live cointacts are not shuttered, but they are a reasonable way down behind narrow slots (1-1'5 mm). No finger, however small, could get near any live parts, and nor would any ordinary screwdriver. A small piece of wire (aka paper clip) obviously could make contact with live parts.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[Adam_151]

Plus its not normal to install a photo cell at the height pictured. I've never seen a photo cell so close to the ground and I certainly have never installed one that low. Wonder what the reason is!

 

[RF Lighting]

Probably just easier to put it there. I'd imagine an FCU from the RFC straight through the wall into the gewiss box looped thru the photocell and out to the lights in SWA.

 

[JohnW2]

Plus its not normal to install a photo cell at the height pictured. I've never seen a photo cell so close to the ground and I certainly have never installed one that low. Wonder what the reason is!

Aesthetics (and maybe cable-saving!), I'd guess. Mine is only about 400mm above ground.

Kind Regards, John

 

[seasickstevie]

Like a BC lampholder on a table lamp, only much safer

Obviously a 'standard' lampholder isn't IP rated, so wouldn't be suitable for an outside location like the one pictured. However the PEC in question is IP rated.

Problem arises when an inquisitive child (or thief) removes the PEC with a simple twist.
The holder can then no longer be classes as suitable for an outside location at such a low level. Particularly as the open female 'socket' is facing up towards the elements, and in easy reach.

There's a residential development where I've carried out maintenance, with PECs in each car park, exactly as pictured.

I explained the potential risk to a child, to the site manage... You can guess his response

 

[RF Lighting]

Was his response something like "it's such a small risk, that we'll just leave them be"?

 

[seasickstevie]

Not even that.

I appreciate it may be a low risk, but it's not such a low risk that I'd want to see a small child poking around after the live (head-less) socket has been exposed to a long spell of rain.

Maybe I'm just a bit over cautious.

 

[Lectrician]

I would say the supply comes into the rear of the gewiss enclosure, the SWA going down the wall to the ?bollards?.

NEMA sockets are certainly FAR safer than a BC lamp holder! The bases are also designed to fit in four different planes, and you are meant (on the thermal ones at least) to point the 'N" as close to north as you can.