Would you RCD outside Halogen lights?

[Booyaka]

Hello i have a lighting circuit running outside fixed to the outside of my building each light about twenty feet in the air adding up to around 10.8 Amps 3 x Halogen and 1x sun flood

looking at the calcs i obviously need to protect it by a 16 Amp MCB becuse its over ten but is it wise to RCD the circuit?

Many thanks

 

[breezer]

no.

but what watt are the lamps?

 

[Booyaka]

total comes to 2500 W

why do you not RCD is it because of the nuisance tripping with the elements heating up etc?

Plus the reason i asked is because it thought you had to RCD anything outside the building?

 

[breezer]

are you sure you need that much light, and i ask agan what watt are the individual lamps.

to me a sunflood is a 500w lamp

you will probably be better off with more smaller watt lamps which wil give a more even ilumination.


no rcd becuse an rcd is meant to protect the person using a plugged in device i.e lawn mower, pond pump.
rcds work by detecting an imbalnce usually caused by a person earthing a device which has become live, lamps usualy just fail, nothing for any one to touch (unless you really want to)

 

[Booyaka]

thanks for the excellent info breezer

3 x halogen 500w each

1x sun flood 1000w

theres alot of land to cover

 

[breezer]

i am happy i am not your neighbour

but would not lamps on posts be better?

the trouble also with flood lights is the further from the light the less light there is. (i know its not rocket science, its just a fact some forget )

and if the light is behind you a torch would be better, since you will be standing in the path of the light

 

[RF Lighting]

How are these lights switched on and off?

 

[breezer]

RF Lighting means are they all controlled by the same switch, or individual switches / pir sensors

 

[RF Lighting]

I did mean that

I'm just thinking that is an awful lot of cold tungsten, and will require some pretty heavy switch contacts and probably a type C breaker.

Also if they are to be left on for long periods, then you really ought to have a look at some form of discharge lighting.

 

[breezer]

might be cheaper to install a halogen hob (remove the quartz "lid" first) at least they switch off at a pre set temp)

i was thinking of multiple cfl's on poles

 

[Booyaka]

the three halogens are on self indivdual PIRs, the sun flood is on a timer. gonna change the sun flood to 500w so i can keep the circuit on a 10 Amp and will most probably change it to a type C MCB if thats a good recommendation

 

[mdbalson]

Why do you need that much lighting outside

 

[Steve]

Booyaka, a 70 watt SON will give you nearly as much light as a 500 watt halogen. Are you aware of the existance of discharge lighting? The likes of which you see every day lining our roads on tall posts? They are high efficiency discharge lights, normally high pressure sodium (though the old orange ones are low pressure, being phased out). For a really white light, use Metal halide lamps. But discharge lights need to be on a timer, NOT A PIR, since they have a long warm up time (give them 5 minutes). For the PIR lights you're better with halogen. And beware of the limitations of a single PIR switching multiple high wattage lights.

A 1000 watt halogen lamp run for 3 hours a day will cost £110 over a year (based on 10p/kw). For comparison, I can heat my bedroom using 800 watts of heat.

 

[Booyaka]

hello guys

Many thanks for your info

my circuit now looks like this 3 x halogens on indivdual built in PIRs. 1x 70W son on a timer all protected by a 10A type C MCB

cheers

 

[securespark]

The thinking behind RCD's is that they are additional protection against electric shock.

When using hand-held equipment, in the event of shock, the muscles will contract, making it virtually impossible to release one's grip.

Conversely, with a light fitting or fixed equipment, the equipment is not likely to be gripped, allowing the shock victim to easily retract their hand (or whatever!) and break contact with the live part.