lights in garage not working but has wierd box on wall

[k0r54]

Hi,

My lights in the garage are not working. I have opened the junction box that is attached and I have just unwired one of the lights and put a plug on it with a 13a fuse so I have some light at the moment.

I would like to obviously fix this.

There is no switch on the wall or anything but the only thing there is, is this wierd box.

Does anyone know what this is? It is by the garage door my guess is it is some type of sensor but not sure how it works and if that would be stopping it.

I would like to put 2 switches into the garage. The first would be at the garage door end and the other would be the other end. I would also like to ave a sensor overide so when we open the garage door and drive the car in the lights will turn on and then turn off again after a set time.

Hope I have not bombarded this post.

Thanks
k0r54 View media item 20303 View media item 20302

 

[Chri5]

Don't hang a 13amp socket off a light wire, the light circuit should be on a 6amp fuse and the socket could draw 13amp as a single and x2 as a double.

The switch you mention looks like a motion detector, there appears to be some marking of lettering under the slide switch, centre bottom area- what does that say ?

The wiring and j/b look a bit 70's to me. The circuit from the main house f/board to the garage should be RCD protected.

It would also be prudent to make it a mini sub and then have a builders size fuse board (cu) with different fused circuits for sockets, lighting and anything else.

What's with the bunch of comms or coax cabling to the LHS- where is the main CU for the house ?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Don't hang a 13amp socket off a light wire,

He hasn't - he's put a plug on the cable to one of the lights so he can plug it in and make it work. k0r54 - the plug should not have a 13A fuse in it - use a 3A or 5A.

As for the rest, it all looks a bit of a mess - if I were you I'd start by getting rid of that JB completely, and the PIR detector, and see what cables/circuits you have.

How is the garage supplied? Is everything on one fuse/MCB in the house CU?

 

[k0r54]

Hi,

Yes I have just put a plug on the end of the wire that comes from the light. I will lower the fuse to a 3 amp fuse when I get home.

The switch just has very wierd icons. I will get a close up later.

We have a new consumer unit (apparently 3 years old).

I am assuming one of them wires is a feed for the consumer unit or other lights/sockets. I do have a ac tracer but I cannot seem to detect the correct wire. I THINK that the JB also has the sockets (that are in the garage) coming from it which are working. I will remove JB and hopefully find which wire is the feed and be able to label up the other wires.

I can then isolate the feed and then get the garage electrics laid out the way I want and then put the feed back in. ( Hopefully it is that simple?)

Whilst I do that this weekend. To get what I want, how would the wiring need to be laid out?

Although I am not an electrician I understand the basics of electrics and am fairly confident that with the help of this forum I can do the job myself.

Thanks
k0r54