Garden Fence lights

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Hello.

I’ve recently had an extension completed and to the rear of the property I have 2 lights on the wall either side of a bifold door controlled by a switch inside.

My electrician is returning to sort something else out so I was curious if it was simple to extend the spur from one of these lights and add an additional 5/6 lights along a garden fence? Would it be as simple as disconnecting one of these lights (nearest to the fence) and running a new cable from that light to the next one and repeating the process until I reach my last light? All the cable would be concealed behind the fence so would look near.

I’ve read outdoor lights need RCD but would the existing (installed 6months ago) lights already be on an RCD as they are new and installed with new wiring back to the new consumer unit?

Thank you
 
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I’ve had a look at the existing outside light I’d like to spur from and it has Live Neutral and Earth. It also has a grey unused wire which I’m guessing can be ignored.

Is there anyway I can incorporate a PIR into these existing 2 outside lights and the additional 3/4 on the fence? If I replaced the existing fitting with one that had a built in PIR would I be able to manually overwrite the sensor with the switch and have the lights on permanent or does that all depend on the PIR and current wiring? I don’t want any tracking or new wiring inside so if it can’t work I’ll make so with what I’ve got.

thanks
 
All looks good for additions. You could add PIR if you wanted, and there appears to be a spare wire ( the grey one) do you could change the single switch to a 2-gang one to separately switch the additional lights, or use it for an over-tide function.
The circuits are all RCD protected, do the World is your lobster.

Your visiting electrician can fill you in with all the details.
 
All looks good for additions. You could add PIR if you wanted, and there appears to be a spare wire ( the grey one) do you could change the single switch to a 2-gang one to separately switch the additional lights, or use it for an over-tide function.
The circuits are all RCD protected, do the World is your lobster.

Your visiting electrician can fill you in with all the details.

Thank you for your reply.

Good news on the ability to add a double switch to control the additional fence lights, this interests me a lot as I was thinking it will be all or nothing. We usually have the current 2 lights on whilst in the kitchen to light up the patio so it would be great to be able to control the additional lights.

I was hoping I could do most of the Daisy wiring myself and get the electrician to sign it off once he comes back but this will be weeks/months at this rate as he is so busy.

at the switch I assume nothing much changes apart from upgrading to a 2 gang switch and using the grey wire but what about at the outside light I’m spurring off? I was thinking just a 3 core 1.5mm from that to the next light and so on but how so I utilise that grey wire at the existing light so it’s on its own switch? Also this cable would be attached to the top of a fence so would I need 1.5 swa?

Im also fully aware this work is notifiable.
 
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I’m confident with wiring the new lights along the fence but I’m not too sure how to control them via a 2 gang switch inside. Does anyone have a diagram as to what I would need to do with that extra grey wire at both the switch and the existing light?

I was simply going to spur off the existing fitting with LNE and go from there but if I can control the fence lights using a 2 gang I’d want to do that and I assume that brings the spare grey wire into play?

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Get your 2gang switch

TURN POWER OFF

Transfer the existing wiring to one side of the switch.
The single brown wire that goes to the common is the live feed in. You’ll need a short length of brown wire to loop from that common terminal to the second common terminal on the other switch.

Then connect the grey wire to the L1 terminal on the new switch. You’ll need to mark that Grey wire with some brown sleeving or tape.

That’s all you need at the switch end. Remember, thd grey wire will now be live if you operate the switch, so you’ll need to insulate the grey wire at the other end, or there could be a short circuit.

Then you’ll need to think what you’ll do at the garden end. The switch is the easy bit.

and BTW
Im also fully aware this work is notifiable
Wrong!
You are in England. This is not a new circuit, it is an addition to an existing circuit, so it is not notifiable.
 
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Get your 2gang switch

TURN POWER OFF

Transfer the existing wiring to one side of the switch.
The single brown wire that goes to the common is the live feed in. You’ll need a short length of brown wire to loop from that common terminal to the second common terminal on the other switch.

Then connect the grey wire to the L1 terminal on the new switch. You’ll need to mark that Grey wire with some brown sleeving or tape.

That’s all you need at the switch end. Remember, thd grey wire will now be live if you operate the switch, so you’ll need to insulate the grey wire at the other end, or there could be a short circuit.

Then you’ll need to think what you’ll do at the garden end. The switch is the easy bit.

You’re a star.

So at the existing light fitting the grey wire is now my live so I run the new 3 core cable from the new light to the existing, join the 2 lives together and the earth and neutral go into the existing light or do I use 4 core cable? Sorry I’m a bit confused with the connection to the existing light but your explanation for the switch is great.

thank you very much.
 
yep, the grey becomes your new live, and you can use the neutral and earth from the existing light.

You'll probably want something like NYY-J cable. SWA is very likely overkill and pretty awkward to work with. Assuming ofcourse its all surface clipped etc. And yes, just three core, Live, Neutral, Earth
 
yep, the grey becomes your new live, and you can use the neutral and earth from the existing light.

You'll probably want something like NYY-J cable. SWA is very likely overkill and pretty awkward to work with. Assuming ofcourse its all surface clipped etc. And yes, just three core, Live, Neutral, Earth

Thanks brilliant, thanks for confirming. And yes I’ve just laid some 2.5mm SWA in a trench under a proposed patio for a possible future office pod and it wasn’t the most flexible to work with, thankfully it was just laid in a trench and that’s me done with it for now.

would I need 1.5mm for the new fence lights?

I’m gonna be pretty happy with this arrangement but say if I wanted either the existing 2 lights and/or the new fence lights on a PIR would that be possible? Could I have a separate PIR that controls all lights or would the existing wall lights only be controlled via a built in PIR on the actual light?

thank you again, I really appreciate it.
 
1.5 is bigger than required but you probably wont get anything smaller in NYY-J. Depending on the routing a flexible cable like 3183P might be better.

as for the PIR, you have all the connections you need available at the light shown to add in a PIR in any configuration. It'd mostly just be arranging all the wiring tidily out to the PIR.
 
Happy:

It looks like it would be possible to do whatever you want.
Don't forget you have two unused grey wires.

It is up to you to say what you want and it probably is possible to wire the switches appropriately.

So, do you want the fence lights to come on with the other two when operated by a PIR (personally I think this would be silly). In effect this would mean all the lights are always on or off together.
Then do you want the existing two lights to come on when you switch on the fence lights while only they are operated by the PIR?
Do you want the PIR to be able to be switched off?
Some PIRs allow the lights they control to be switched on permanently by quickly flicking the switch off/on/off/on.
 
Happy:

It looks like it would be possible to do whatever you want.
Don't forget you have two unused grey wires.

It is up to you to say what you want and it probably is possible to wire the switches appropriately.

So, do you want the fence lights to come on with the other two when operated by a PIR (personally I think this would be silly). In effect this would mean all the lights are always on or off together.
Then do you want the existing two lights to come on when you switch on the fence lights while only they are operated by the PIR?
Do you want the PIR to be able to be switched off?
Some PIRs allow the lights they control to be switched on permanently by quickly flicking the switch off/on/off/on.

Thanks again.

I’d like the 2 existing lights to stay as they are and only be controlled by the switch.

I’d like the new fence lights to be controlled by a switch (I’ve figured that thank you) but I would also like the new fence lights to come on via a PIR for security, the existing 2 are left on each night. But I’d also like the fence lights to be able to be switched on to override the PIR whilst we are using the garden. I’ve been in gardens before where you have to constantly wave at the PIR as it keeps going dark after a few minutes!!

where does the PIR go? Is this simply between the existing light and the first new light? Anything special about the wiring or just loop the LNE through it and making sure the PIR can be manually overwritten?
 
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I’d like the 2 existing lights to stay as they are and only be controlled by the switch.
Ok.

I’d like the new fence lights to be controlled by a switch (I’ve figured that thank you) but I would also like the new fence lights to come on via a PIR for security, the existing 2 are left on each night.
Ok. Obviously the PIR has to be where it will detect what you want.

But I’d also like the fence lights to be able to be switched on to overwrite the PIR whilst we are using the garden. I’ve been in gardens before where you have to constantly wave at the PIR as it keeps going dark after a few minutes!!
As I said some can be put to permanently on by flicking switch off/on/off/on
If you buy one like that then it would be easy to do.

where does the PIR go? Is this simply between the existing light and the first new light?
Yes, but as above - where it will work.
Where will it be in relation to the existing lights?

Anything special about the wiring or just loop the LNE through it and making sure the PIR can be manually
overwritten?
I'll amend the diagram. Give me a while.
 
Ok.


Ok. Obviously the PIR has to be where it will detect what you want.


As I said some can be put to permanently on by flicking switch off/on/off/on
If you buy one like that then it would be easy to do.


Yes, but as above - where it will work.
Where will it be in relation to the existing lights?


I'll amend the diagram. Give me a while.

Thank you again.

I haven’t quite decided where to position the PIR but it would be somewhere on the fence either just before the first new light or possibly between the last 2 lights as this would be close to the gate that leads to the garden and the likely point of access for an intruder. Obviously wouldn’t position it towards the house/ bifold as we could constantly knock it off whilst using that room.
 

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