Adding new outside lights to existing one

Hello

I have one outside light by my shed and intend to add 2 more.

I've put the wiring in place and it is now hanging loose by existing light ready to be connected.

One light will have a sensor so when that goes on I expect the other 2 to also come on ( they will have no sensor)

I was planning to do the following:

Step 1 - disconnect power feed to current light.
Step 2 - connect the power feed and all 3 lights together via a connecting block.

I bought a 6 way connecting block but as all lights will be connected by sensor I'm correcting in thinking all the blues will connect together, all the blacks and
Then the earths ( I might have got the colours wrong but you get the gist)

So I will only use 3 pairs of the available 6 slots? Is that correct?

Thanks

Well firstly can the light with sensor drive extra lights?

Secondly, have you enough cores between the lights ? As the live feed needs to goto the sensor light first and only.
Then out of there to the slave lights.
So if you have used flat cable, you would need 3 core and earth

Sully2014 said:

One light will have a sensor so when that goes on I expect the other 2 to also come on ( they will have no sensor)

Click to expand...

You'll be disappointed.

Step 1 - disconnect power feed to current light.
Step 2 - connect the power feed and all 3 lights together via a connecting block.

Click to expand...

At which point whatever switches the existing light on will still turn it on, plus the new one which has no sensor. The one with may or may not come on, depending on whether anything has triggered the sensor.

I bought a 6 way connecting block but as all lights will be connected by sensor I'm correcting in thinking all the blues will connect together, all the blacks and
Then the earths ( I might have got the colours wrong but you get the gist)

So I will only use 3 pairs of the available 6 slots? Is that correct?

Click to expand...

Think about it.

You have a light with a sensor. You provide it with power, and when the sensor triggers, it lights up. It does not, it cannot, also switch the incoming power to the other lights.

Imagine if it had it's own on-off switch built in, would you expect that to control other lights connected to the same power source?

To do what you want you'll need to get access to the output of the sensor - if you can't do that then your plan will fail.

I don't know?? It's a built in sensor, I just assumed if it would turn all lights on when it was triggered? Does that mean lights would be on continuously then if I carried on with plan?

Yes it's the proper flat grey cable.

Does that mean I need to buy an independent sensor, so I connect the live feed to the sensor and then connect the sensor to the 3 lights! Would they not all connect to the same block which would essentially mean they were all connected to the live feed??

Certainly an independent sensor is a sensible way of doing it.


What make is the light/sensor ? Some ASD ones can be linked.

It will depend on what connections are available inside the existing PIR/light fitting.

Some provide the live, neutral and switched live at the terminal block. Its easy to do on those.
Others have the PIR output buried in the innerds of the thing and you just can't get to the switched live (output) connection.

Post a photo of the terminals on the back of the thing and someone will give a proper answer, rather than just "guessing" .

Taylortwocities said:

It will depend on what connections are available inside the existing PIR/light fitting. ... Some provide the live, neutral and switched live at the terminal block. Its easy to do on those.

Click to expand...

Indeed so. In fact, I have to say that, IIRC, it's quite a long time since I saw a (new) PIR/light which did not have the switched live at the terminal block (and an indication in the instructions as to how large an additional external load could be switched). Mind you, we might be talking about a pretty old one - so I suppose that anything is possible!

Taylortwocities said:

Post a photo of the terminals on the back of the thing and someone will give a proper answer, rather than just "guessing" .

Click to expand...

Indeed so.

Kind Regards, John