Garden Lighting: Guide to which cable to use and why. Pros and cons of each
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- This is a guide video to which cables should be used outdoors for garden lighting. 4 different cable types are compared - SWA, Hi-Tuff/NYY-J, PVC Flex, and Rubber flex. The pros and cons of each are discussed to let you make a more informed choice on cable selection in the future.
- Наука та технологія
Found very useful mate thanks
Thanks, sorry I waffle on abit
Extra low voltage every time. PVC isn’t recommend under BS7671 for outdoor use due to the UV damage over time. Very informative video. The HI Tuf is available with an Ethernet cable as well. EV installs.
You can get UV rated PVC cables. I think most black flexes are UV rated. SWA, Hi Stuff, NYYJ all have PVC jackets 👍
@@HudsonLighting According to Eland, who I phoned, it's the carbon black that they put in the PVC, that gives it UV resistance. However, it's not UV proof. So, it will age, albeit much slower.
@@bitTorrenter will all depend who you buy the cable from I suppose. Most of the time the cables used in a garden lighting installation probably won't be exposed to UV anyway, being buried or otherwise covered in some foliage
Hi I’ve a spare 30a outlet on my consumer unit it’s about 20 meters to my log cabin what size cable would you recommend to run to the consumer unit inside thanks
What is the minimum size cable to extend an outside socket. Armoured or not? Thanks
Landscaper here.. you missed off t&e, chucked loads of garden lights in with it over the years and never had a issue as far as I know, plus it’s dirt cheap (excuse the pun) 😂
😂 seen it, way too often.
I was joking 🤣 I’ve also come across it far to often, in my landscaping career, and sure I’ll find loads more now I’m retraining to be a sparky 🤦🏻 some people with a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous!
Hi fantastic video. Can you please help me with some advice? I am installing an Electric Gate, lights on my pier/pillar and spotlights alongside the driveway. I can't go 60mm deep to run the cables also not sure what cables I need. All will be connected by a Professional electrician. But I want to run all cables before he gets here to keep the crazy prices down. Many thanks in advance to anyone that could give me some tips here. Do i need three different cables for all? if so, What cables should I get for each? The gate will be a 230 V + 4m of free racks
Power motor (V) : 230 A.C. 50/60 Hz. The Pier lights will be 24V LED Strip Lights 5M 6000K IP67 Waterproof, High-Density 120W. And the spotlights will be a 50W 240V LED Strip Spotlight? I plan to run these cables on the gravel boards, any advice? All DIY projects apart from the professional power connection. Many many thanks to all.
Never leave a Chuck key in a lathe 👍
Well spotted, thanks, appreciate it. It's just the laser rotary FYI. Very weak stepper. And it's not even connected
Hello mate, I'm just looking for a bit of advice please. My Mum had a wall mounted garden light replaced a couple of days ago as the fittings on the old lamp (almost ten years old) had rusted. On the old lamp I hadn't noticed the wire before coming from the wall but that's now visible, but it's the point where the insulation was cut and that you can also see about an inch or so of the live/neutral/earth wires going in to the back of the light that's worrying me, especially with the weather about to get worse very soon. The bloke who put it up did it as a favour as he was doing similar jobs for a neighbour so I'm not sure he'd be able to come back any time soon. Is it worth taping round the insulation and wires to add some protection? Thanks
Right now, an electrician (and I) would consider any single insulation exposed as potentially dangerous. Tape is okay as a temporary measure but in an ideal world the light would be moved up to cover the cover. Sounds like if you get water trickling down it's going to trip too...assuming it's protected by an RCD. A potential alternative may be a flexible conduit being installed over the cable - you can buy 10-12mm stuff if you look around. A final DIY alternative is cover the cable with some sort of weatherproof silicone. Absolute best is the first solution though.
Thanks for all your help, I'll get down screwfix and get some flexible conduit.
Nyy-j common amoungst airconditiong installs
Not trying to be nasty but you should never leave a Chuck key in the Chuck ( always taught that as an apprentice) just pointing it out for beginners.
Thanks, appreciate it. It's just the laser rotary FYI. Very weak stepper. And it's not even connected
Anyone can help me out, I have 3 outside LED lights, 2 on 1 switch and 1 by itself. Do the lights need to be looped? There's supply in, and supply out on each light.
I've connected the 2 LED like this and left the last supply out not connected. Same with the single LED.
My lights don't switch on and I'm confused.
Ive used swa from the house to my consumer unit, fitted the outside and shed sockets. They work fine. Lights are connected from consumer unit to a 2 gang switch, one switch for 2 led lights in my gazebo and the other switch for my shed led light.
Hey Andrew, what make and model are the lights? I'm not necessarily condoning doing your own electrical work - I come from the side that I believe it should be like gas and written in the law that you must be a qualified electrician, however, for your existing sockets, have you done an earth continuity and RCD test? Outside sockets were always one of the most carefully considered parts of an electrical installation. Going back to the 16th edition of regulations in 1991, extra work had to be done for those back then (RCD protection etc). Anyway, back to your lights, if you let me know the make and model I can confirm how they 'should' be wired
@@HudsonLighting sockets have been tested, I'll send a link to the exact ones I got. I did use twin and CPC for the lights and crimped the earth since these lights are double insulated.
www.electricaldirect.co.uk/product/breez-5w-opal-led-rectangular-surface-outdoor-brick-light-grey-732700
@@TheYazza1 I tried to look up the product instructions but can't seem to locate them on Forums (the manufacturer's) website. I've never heard of a lighting needing to be looped with its 230VAC. If they have a feed in and a feed out you could have a faulty fitting..have you tried connecting each of the fittings on their own? I'm assuming you've checked you've actually got 230V at each fitting to atleast eliminate any other wiring fault? If you do I'd say the fittings are faulty
@@HudsonLighting yeah tried singly and didn't work. Could be faulty then I take it
@@TheYazza1 providing there was 230vac or so at each fitting then yes I'd say faulty
Oops you left your chuck key in your lathe safety 101 😂
😂 quite early on in owning the lathe I think. Learned quite abit since then 👍
Someone else commented and deleted the same thing - just relaised - this isn't the lathe chuck - its the laser chuck, which wasn't connected/doesn't really work anyway :-D
If you are gonna be technically correct as you said at the start... Then don't just refer to "rubber"cables as H05 or H07 - That tells you nothing about the identification of a cable other than it's voltage rating under Harmonised Standards.
H = CENELEC Harmonized Standard
03, 05 or 07 refer to the Uo/U voltage rating of the cable
The alpha numerics that follow give you the cable characteristics/identification
eg. H05 VV-f is not a rubber cable, it is PVC flex - it's voltage rating is 05 = 300/500v,
VV-f tells us the cable has (V) PVC insultion and (V) PVC sheathing and (f) flexible stranded conductors.
If H07 RN8-f is specced then don't install H07 RN-f - both rubber flex but N8 sheathing is a different compound to N - the former being the waterproof version.
Likewise N4 is a different compound (Dupont Hypalon) - HOFR - heat oil and flame retardant.
Not just pedantic - knowing it might help - I've been to wholesalers before and requested H07 BN4-f and been given H07 RN-f.
Two different cables that look the same - one is a 90 degree HOFR cable the other isn't, but all the guy who served me picked up on was the H07 part and assumed the rest.
Interesting, didn't know that thanks for sharing
Why didn't you mention voltage drop? All you discussed was how durable they are. Fact is that people who come here to learn about "Guide to which cable to use and why." People need to know that they carefully need to choose a cable whether they use 12V, 24V, 230V, 400V etc... The lower the voltage the greater the amps conducted through the wire which causes massive thermal damage in a fault condition when compared to 230V for example. the only way to avoid this is to choose a cable with a low enough resistance (greater gauge) not a single word mentioned about it...
Thanks for the feedback. I'll be doing a revised version at some point. The idea of this video was just to communicate the types of cable used for outdoor lighting AKA domestic gardens primarily and just a basic guide as to which you would choose. Not a cable calculation (size or guage as you refer to it) video
Generally technically accurate, but rather long-winded and a little boring
Appreciate the feedback Graham. I've been looking to try and shorten videos while adding interest. My first video was over 30 minutes, I know that's way too long
@@HudsonLighting naw, it was about spot on mate. Held my interest for the whole video and learned new stuff
@@HeathenGeek there is some learning to all of this in terms of the video making bit. I'm sure things will get Abit more interesting later on but Im.glad you enjoyed it. Intended to do one in a while garden for ages but it's hard find the right project to do it on