RCD protected outdoor lighting circuit

Afternoon all.. another post prefaced with the 'I WILL get the professionals in' caveat.

I'm just trying to see the practicalities of my proposal!

I currently have a PIR security light - directly wired into my mains consumer unit, protected by an RCD.

I'd like to take the mains feed to a junction box, effectively splitting the feed, into two seperate switches and then two seperate lights.. I imagine this is 'practically' not the done thing... but is it simple enough?

I want to power two lights, of one mains feed. One of my lights will be a PIR and one will be purely a dusk til dawn..

Admittedly one feed - but hopefully my rudimentary plan shows my intention.


CU >>> JB >>> SWITCH 1 >>> LIGHT 1 (PIR proximity sensor in doorway)
CU >>> JB >>> SWITCH 2 >>> LIGHT 2 (D2D always on)

I'm not even sure if two switches are necessary?

I'm not an electrician (clearly!) but any advice would be great!

Cheers,

Tom

It's up to you. How do you want them to be operated?
Do you want to be able to turn off one and not the other?

Thanks for the reply!

Ideally yes - Although In all honesty - if the PIR and D2D work well they probably wouldn’t need a switch.

There’s not much room in the meter cupboard so any JB would have to be surface mounted or on the external wall. I would use conduit I think as there’s a few meters to travel.

if I went with the inside option, a bog standard JB would suffice?

Externally an IP67 type affair? What kind of fittings?

Again - I’m not going do any of the work apart from drill the holes and dry mount the light fittings - but ideas gratefully received!

I'm inclined to wonder why you want (the electrician) to use a junction box. It is usually best to make any terminations inside accessories that you already have to have. Like switches for example. Of course I can't see the house from here so you may have a good reason.

It’s probably my lack of knowledge informing that!

Im also probably guilty of thinking back to my gcse electronics 20plus years ago!I’ll try and sketch a diagram.

would I not be reliant on the fittings having sufficient space? Or is that a given?! I assume daisy chaining these lights is quite commonplace.

You'd be surprised how much can be crammed into an accessory. It would actually be your electrician who would encounter this potential problem though. At the end of the day it will probably be as he wants it or not at all. Just didn't want you to embarrass yourself asking for junction boxes, which are a last resort, and usually a DIY indicator. Would be good to see your diagram though!

That sounds good to me!

Definitely not one for DIY Electrics apart from POE cctv stuff!

I’ll still post a diagram but I’ll ask him to recommend fittings and leave it there!

cheers again