For various reasons, we need to provide some light at the side of our house, to make the access to the back garden easier to navigate. It's a straight path, but the side of the building is a series of steps, so there are walls to collide with if it's dark.
When we had our first extension on the back of the house, we had a cable run from a switch in the kitchen to the back wall, so we could have a spotlight for the garden. That light has long since given up and been thrown away, but the cable remains, and I want to use it to provide a new light for the garden and also some lighting around the side.
Firstly, we need to choose the actual lights themselves. For the garden light, we used to have a cheap 500W halogen thing, but not only did it eat bulbs, it's a lot of power to draw. Obviously, lighting tech has moved on, so I am thinking something LED would be good there - any suggestions? For the side passage, we'll need three fittings, and we are leaning towards "nautical style" bulkhead lamps with LED lamps in them. Not the cheap plastic versions, but quality metal jobbies, to give an industrial look. In terms of power, it only needs to provide enough light to see your way, not daylight.
Next, the question of how to connect them up to the cable that sticks out of the wall? I was wondering about using galvanised trunking to continue the industrial look. Anyone any experience of this? I think you need to have bending equipment and a die to thread the ends, so it might be expensive to do, and it might take some skill to get it to look good too. Another alternative would be to use some SWA cable that I have already as that would be fine outside, and being black, would not stand out too much. Difficulty there would be in how to terminate it where needed.
The cable from the indoor switch is 1.5mm T&E, so I would imagine that it would be OK with 4 low power lights. I'd like to fit a switch outside for the floodlight so it would not have to be on at the same time as the side passage lights - assume that is OK?
Anyway, here's a picture of the plans showing the passage and the rough position of the lights...
![Image]()
Thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks,
Colin
When we had our first extension on the back of the house, we had a cable run from a switch in the kitchen to the back wall, so we could have a spotlight for the garden. That light has long since given up and been thrown away, but the cable remains, and I want to use it to provide a new light for the garden and also some lighting around the side.
Firstly, we need to choose the actual lights themselves. For the garden light, we used to have a cheap 500W halogen thing, but not only did it eat bulbs, it's a lot of power to draw. Obviously, lighting tech has moved on, so I am thinking something LED would be good there - any suggestions? For the side passage, we'll need three fittings, and we are leaning towards "nautical style" bulkhead lamps with LED lamps in them. Not the cheap plastic versions, but quality metal jobbies, to give an industrial look. In terms of power, it only needs to provide enough light to see your way, not daylight.
Next, the question of how to connect them up to the cable that sticks out of the wall? I was wondering about using galvanised trunking to continue the industrial look. Anyone any experience of this? I think you need to have bending equipment and a die to thread the ends, so it might be expensive to do, and it might take some skill to get it to look good too. Another alternative would be to use some SWA cable that I have already as that would be fine outside, and being black, would not stand out too much. Difficulty there would be in how to terminate it where needed.
The cable from the indoor switch is 1.5mm T&E, so I would imagine that it would be OK with 4 low power lights. I'd like to fit a switch outside for the floodlight so it would not have to be on at the same time as the side passage lights - assume that is OK?
Anyway, here's a picture of the plans showing the passage and the rough position of the lights...
Thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks,
Colin
