Outside Wall Lights - Patio Door

[cwhaley]

A while ago I put a wall light up on the back of my house next to the back door.

I believe I did this safely and this was my method: I took a spur from a nearby socket, chased the new 2.5mm T&E wire in the existing conduit (straight up from the socket), took this along the wall (at 100mm away from the ceiling edge) to my desired location, then straight down in new conduit to an FCU (rated 3A). The wall light is LED and is directly behind the FCU on the outside wall.

The MiL has recently bought a new house and would like two lwall lights either side of the patio doors -- just enough to offer adequate lighting for the small patio. I was going to adopt the same approach but unfortunately can't work out the safest way to chase the wiring to the second light inside. There is only 120mm of space above the door frame and ceiling and this has a curtain rail on it and to me isn't a safe area to route cabling.

Should instead have the lights connected to each other with wire on the outside of the house in black metal conduit/trunking fixed mechanically to the wall?

 

[Screech20]

Is there scope to go down, under floor, back up? Or go up through joists and down? Lifting floorboards from above?

 

[cwhaley]

Is there scope to go down, under floor, back up? Or go up through joists and down? Lifting floorboards from above?

The ground floor is concrete so I cannot go down, but I could potentially route cables into the ceiling.

The house has plasterboard dot and dabbed onto blocks (built 1987). If I went up into the ceiling , ran cable along a joist to the required location and then back down, where would the cable need to come out --outside or inside the house? If I did it internally, wouldn't that mean there was an unmarked cable running behind the wall?

 

[EFLImpudence]

where would the cable need to come out --outside or inside the house? If I did it internally, wouldn't that mean there was an unmarked cable running behind the wall?

It would. Can you position the lights so they are 150mm. down from internal ceiling?

Also, bury the cable in the corner of the ceiling and wall. No screws will go ever there.

 

[cwhaley]

I could do, although she wanted up/down lights and it may look odd that high up on the outside wall. If I can convince her to go for something else that idea could work.

So no problem on the suggested cable location -- when you say bury the cables in the corner where wall meets ceiling, is this as an alternative to going into the ceiling void?

 

[ToastyToes]

150mm to any edge/corner/ceiling/floor is a cable safe zone. Also horizontal/vertical to any accessory (light fitting, switch, plug etc.)

You could take the cable through the wall behind the FCU and attach a light on the other end and run some conduit (steel looks nice to me) across the door to the next light?

 

[cwhaley]

Thanks for the idea. Given above suggestions though I'm leaning away from conduit on the outside wall.

Although the entirety of the space above the patio door is a safe zone, given there is a curtain rail (and opportunity to make lots of holes by future home owners) I was struggling to work out where I could take the cable. I am now going to make a channel right at the very ceiling/wall corner (as suggested by @EFLImpudence) as I can't see why there would be a need to make holes there.

Once on the other side of the patio door I can then run the cable a maximum of 150mm down and the light would be on the outside wall at this height.

Seems simple now but I was struggling to think of the safest (most reasonable) way!