Does an outside light need to be on it's own circuit breaker?

[uptown47]

Hi all,
I want to put a couple of outside lights in (flanking the patio doors) that come on when we walk out at night.

I just wondered if I can just use the feed from the lighting ring or whether I need to put them on their own breaker ? (I was just thinking that, because they are outside, they might need greater protection?)

Thanks

 

[terryplumb]

They dont need to be on a dedicated circuit as such. Is your lighting circuit protected by an RCD ?

 

[BS3036]

It is advisable that they can be isolated with a double pole switch in case they fill with water and trip your RCD. You will need the RCD.

 

[winston1]

I just wondered if I can just use the feed from the lighting ring

Your lights won't be a ring. Rings are used on socket circuits.

 

[SUNRAY]

Hi all,
I want to put a couple of outside lights in (flanking the patio doors) that come on when we walk out at night.

I just wondered if I can just use the feed from the lighting ring or whether I need to put them on their own breaker ? (I was just thinking that, because they are outside, they might need greater protection?)

Thanks

I'll apologise in advance for the 'less than useful' comment that will come from winston1.

EDIT: Oh so sorry just too late.

 

[SUNRAY]

Your lights won't be a ring. Rings are used on socket circuits.

and fingers and sometimes on lighting circuits as winston1 knows only too well.

 

[winston1]

There was no "less than useful" comment.

I corrected the OPs lack of knowledge about the use of rings. Exactly the type of things these forums are for.

 

[SUNRAY]

There was no "less than useful" comment.

I corrected the OPs lack of knowledge about the use of rings. Exactly the type of things these forums are for.

Do you know OP's lighting circuit is NOT a ring?

 

[winston1]

and fingers and sometimes on lighting circuits as winston1 knows only too well.

I bet you a years salary that the OPs lighting circuit is not a ring.

 

[SUNRAY]

I bet you a years salary that the OPs lighting circuit is not a ring.

That is not my question... Do you know?

 

[BS3036]

When you've retired, a year's salary is zero...

 

[securespark]

Winston.

Please don't start this again.

I was in the electrical trade for just over 30 years.

I can assure you that lighting circuits are wired in ring formation.

 

[bernardgreen]

Your lights won't be a ring

I corrected the OPs lack of knowledge about the use of rings.

Winston1 has this opinion that lights are NEVER EVER on a ring.

And makes a statement about your electrical installation based only on that OPINION

Lights can be on a ring and there is a chance ( albeit a small one ) that your lights could be on a ring.

 

[SUNRAY]

Regardles of the silly arguement brewing it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether it's a ring or a radial circuit and to follow that; It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the original question if a radial lighting circuit is incorrectly called a ring. For that matter it equally makes no difference if the circuit is called a bucket of volts.

What is important is that Terry and BS3036 gave excellent advice in the first two replies.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the original question if a radial lighting circuit is incorrectly called a ring.

Yes, it does. What if the OP had called it a square?

Do you want him to go on making this error for the rest of his life?

Some people think ring is just another word for circuit. It is not.