I need to wire an outside light with built in PIR, the light has 4 terminals earth, neutral, live and switched live, coming out of the wall is live, neutral earth feed in & out and a live and switched live direct from inside switch. how do I wire it in order for light & PIR to work and does the switch have to be constantly in the on position in order for everything to work ?
wiring an outside light with pir and switch inside
- Thread starter jaydee242
- Start date
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It depends how you want it to work.
Normally the PIR has a facility that if you flip the switch off/on quickly the light will stay on.
For this you would wire it so that the switch will be left on and able to turn off.
Normally the PIR has a facility that if you flip the switch off/on quickly the light will stay on.
For this you would wire it so that the switch will be left on and able to turn off.
Indeed. However, even if the PIR did not have that facility, if it were fed by just a single switch (supplying the 'permanently live' input of the PIR/light), it would still be necessary for that switch to be permanently 'on' (except if/when one wanted to totally disable/isolate the light/PIR).
Kind Regards, John
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Not entirely; I did not offer other options as likely that will be the case.
That there are other options does not negate my reply.
I didn't suggest that it negated your reply (which was correct). On the contrary, I was indicating that it was very probable that your reply would be more generally true than you implied!
Kind Regards, John
Sorry, I misunderstood.
This light has a switched live terminal.
Is that for SL in to override the PIR?
Is it SL out to slave another light off the PIR?
If the latter, will supplying L override the PIR or damage it?
Basically...
I dare say there may be some 'exceptions which prove the rule', but I have yet to come across one with a S/L terminal that cannot serve both those purposes. It is quite common for people to link the S/Ls of two (or more) PIR lights in different locations, so that activation of one PIR will cause all the lights to come on (I certainly do that) - so it it serving one of those functions with one light, and the other function with the other one.
As above, I think it will over-ride. The tell-tale 'click' when they come on seems to indicate that they still nearly all use a relay (rather than a semiconductor switch) - so the "S/L" terminal is simply a NO relay contact which is connected to the local lamp. If that is the case, then 'over-ride' is
inevitable and damage impossible. ... but, as above there could be exceptions to that rule!!
In any event, I don't think EFLI was saying anything about connecting anything to the S/L terminal. For the functionality he was talking about, that wouldn't be necessary.
Kind Regards, John
I realise that - but, if (as EFLI was talking about) the light has the 'flick off/on' over-ride facility, then the OP would not need to connect anything to that S/L terminal unless he wanted to slave another light off it (which has never been suggested).
Kind Regards, John
Or if the SL terminal can be used for a supply, and he already has a SL available, he could use that and operate the light with less faffing.
We haven't really explored the nature of the 'switch' the OP has, so it's not clear what this "available S/L" actually is. If it's just a simple single switch, then (assuming he wishes to use it to disable/isolate the light/PIR) that 'available S/L' is presumably what needs to be connected to the light/PIR's 'permanent L' terminal, isn't it? To actually 'make use of' the S/L terminal of the light (for over-riding) (and to also have the disable/isolate facility) would require either a "2-way, centre off" switch (ideally DP, but he won't find that as an electrical accessory) or two switches, wouldn't it?
Kind Regards, John
I know that - but, as I said, if it's a simple single switch, then the (permanent) live 'coming out of the wall' is not needed, and the 'switched live' coming out of the wall (from the indoor switch/isolator) is what is needed to feed the 'permanent live' terminal of the light/PIR ... unless, that is, the OP does not want to be able to disable/isolate the light with the switch (but only use it for over-riding the PIR) - in which case, as you seem to be implying, he could simply take the N, L and S/L 'coming out of the wall' to the corresponding terminals on the light/PIR.
However, I'd want the disabling/isolating facility, wouldn't you?
Kind Regards, John
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