Outdoor Lighting

[neil3950]

I am planning on installing some low voltage LED lighting to be recessed into my garden decking and need clarification as to what I can & can't do when it comes to wiring regs.

The decking lights run off a small standard transformer that plugs into a mains socket. I have a detached garage that has a pre - installed electrical circuit which I am intending to use as the mains source. i have seen that you can purchase outdoor lighting boxes that are fully sealed and contain a four gang strip mains adapter with a hole for the mains in and holes for the wires out.
See link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7762042990&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

As I intend to install numerous lighting units in the garden I was planning on using one of these boxes to connect all the light unit transformer to and run the mains supply to it from a socket in my garage (via a drilled hole in the wall).

1. Am i legal and safe doing it this way?
2. Do I need to use any specific cable to run from the socket in the garage to this box in the garden?
3. Presuming I am legal - is there a suitable way in which I can install an additional on/off switch at a convenient place in the garden to allow me to switch the mains to the box on and off hence saving me having to open up the garage and operate the wall socket every time I want to switch my lights on and off?

I'll really appreciate any help and advice anyone can offer.

 

[bathjobby]

If your burying the cable, armoured cable 18" deep and with warning tape laid on top of it before you bury it so someone digging knows what they have come across. If your permanently wiring into the garage circuit, then a switched, fused, double pole isolator should be used. Preference would be to run a separate circuit from your MCB (if its in the garage). And both of these options now come under building regs part P.
So if you don't want to do either of those you can make it a 'temporary' affair by running power to the garden from a socket in the garage using an RCD in the garage.

 

[neil3950]

Thanks bath jobby. I will probably go for the easy way out option and connect the feed to a socket in the garage using an RCD. If I go for this temporary option do I still need to use the armoured cable where the cable runs outdoors (I will probably bury the cable underground to conceal it as much as possible.)

Using this option, any thoughts of breaking into the live feed as it enters the exteranl box to incorporate an additonal on/off switch in a more convenient location?

Thanks again.

 

[bathjobby]

Strictly speaking if its buried it needs to be armoured, do you want to be the one to put the spade through it !
That high street shed Q & B do an IP65 rated socket for the garden at £19.99 and guess what, its remote controlled i.e. you get a small remote (like for TV's) and from indoors point at the garden socket and hey presto, ON, OFF, ON, OFF, you get the idea ?

 

[neil3950]

Hey thanks again for your advice.

I will go down the armoured cable route as I will be burying it underground - also like the idea of the remote control switch.

One more question sorry - what gauge of armoured cable should I use - seen 3 core 1.5mm & 2.5mm cables on screwfix. I only intend to connect low voltage led lighting with transformers to the sockets in the external box.

Thanks again.