Exterior Wall Lighting Question

[unclened]

Hi, I'm new to the forum but a fairly competent DIY-er and would greatly appreciate some advice on the following:

I'm looking to put some GU10 5W LED up/down lights on the exterior walls of my house. I am planning to take power from the my downstairs lighting circuit which is RCD-Protected and use a 20a DP switch as a means to isolate power from within the property to the exterior lights if required. I am looking to wire the lights in paralell, identical to how I have wired my LED downlights, but there is a perpendicular wall which I am also planning to attach external wall lights to and I'm wondering if I can run two cables from the load terminations at the DP switch to each bank of lights (option A) or is option b better/safer and run a longer cable internally from the last light on the first wall to the first light on the second wall, so that all 6 lights are wired in parallel rather than 2 sets of 3 in parallel?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Murdoch]

Most of those lights are tight to get 1 cable in properly - so 2 can be a squeeze so in the ideal world I would run 1 cable to each fitting. How are you planning to run the cables inside and outside the house?

Make sure they are mounted the correct way up and if they are from cheap sheds don't be surprised when they start letting water in and tripping your RCD .................... which will be sooner than you think

 

[unclened]

Most of those lights are tight to get 1 cable in properly - so 2 can be a squeeze so in the ideal world I would run 1 cable to each fitting. How are you planning to run the cables inside and outside the house?

Make sure they are mounted the correct way up and if they are from cheap sheds don't be surprised when they start letting water in and tripping your RCD .................... which will be sooner than you think

Thank you for the advice. The lights are IP44 rating which I believe should be ok for a wall mounted fitting that is far away from the ground or where water will gather. In terms of wiring them together, I am looking to feed two cables through to each light fitting via a hole in the wall. I'll have a go at seeing if the terminations in the light fitting will allow two cables, I hadn't thought of that! 

 

[Murdoch]

Thank you for the advice. The lights are IP44 rating which I believe should be ok for a wall mounted fitting that is far away from the ground or where water will gather. In terms of wiring them together, I am looking to feed two cables through to each light fitting via a hole in the wall. I'll have a go at seeing if the terminations in the light fitting will allow two cables, I hadn't thought of that! 

I contribute from a position of years of experience finding faults and fixing problems .............

 

[unclened]

I contribute from a position of years of experience finding faults and fixing problems .............

Thank you, I really appreciate the input. I'm willing to give it a go and will utilise the DP switch to isolate the lights should an issue occur.

 

[Bruspark]

IP44 really isn't very waterproof - remember that even 'breathing in and out damp air ' as the lights go on and off will start to cause the fittings to deteriorate.    If you  have that many matching fittings outdoors I'd buy a few spares now while you can  . . 

 

[kerching]

Which lights are you thinking of using?

post a link,to,them so,we,can see.

there won't be many that havnt been fitted by somebody on here

if it's the up/down stainless steel ones which are very popular then there is some absoluteOut there at present

just saying

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Most of those lights are tight to get 1 cable in properly - so 2 can be a squeeze so in the ideal world I would run 1 cable to each fitting.

agreed..

99.999999999999999999%  of light fittings come with a connector that you can barely get a single wire into each terminal...

And you've probably got a 50:50 chance if there is enough room to fit a larger connector to terminate a loop-in/loop-out wiring arrangement...

But.. providing there is enough space inside the fitting to loop in & out, electrically & regulations wise there is no problem in doing your option B if its easier.

Guinness

 

[unclened]

Thank you all for the input. I checked that the connectors will accomodate two conductors in each of the N + L terminals. Getting two cables through the gasket will be a tight squeeze but I should be able to get it to work with 1mm2 TE cable. I'll post a photo of the fitting tomorrow, but in the meantime, here is a link to the lights. Amazon link to lights

agreed..

99.999999999999999999%  of light fittings come with a connector that you can barely get a single wire into each terminal...

And you've probably got a 50:50 chance if there is enough room to fit a larger connector to terminate a loop-in/loop-out wiring arrangement...

But.. providing there is enough space inside the fitting to loop in & out, electrically & regulations wise there is no problem in doing your option B if its easier.

Guinness

I would prefer option A if it's permissible/safe to do so. This way I can create a degree of independence after the DP switch between the two walls and their respective lights.