Outdoor lighting installation, outside sockets and pond supplies.

Outdoor lighting on its own circuit

A new lighting circuit starts at the consumer unit and runs out to the fittings in cable suited to the outdoors, buried and marked, or fixed where nothing will knock it. The fittings need an IP rating that suits where they go. A lamp tucked under the eaves sees far less weather than a post light beside the drive.

The standard job is one circuit and up to four fittings, switched by hand or by a PIR sensor. You can buy the fittings yourself, or I can supply them and we quote for them with the job.

Decide early how the lights should switch. A PIR sensor turns a light on when something moves and off after a set time, good for a back door or a drive. A dusk sensor keeps a porch light on through the dark.

Plug-in garden light kits at extra-low voltage bring their own transformer, and the transformer still needs a socket, which outdoors should be weatherproof and RCD-protected.

On the coast, salt in the air is hard on cheap metal fittings. Lights sold for exposed spots cost more and last longer, and I'd rather fit something once. I'll keep the cost down where I can, but not with a light that rusts by spring.

Security lights and floodlights

Swapping an old PIR floodlight for a new one on the existing wiring is a small priced job, standard floodlight included, as long as it's at ladder height.

Fixed lighting outside a house comes under Part P. Changing a fitting on an existing outdoor circuit is not notifiable in England, though Approved Document P still expects the work to be tested and certificated to BS 7671. A brand new lighting circuit is notifiable.

Aim a floodlight down onto your own drive, and set the sensor so passing cars and cats don't keep tripping it. One that lights up a neighbour's bedroom can count as a statutory nuisance under section 79 of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, and councils investigate complaints about it.

Floodlights with a camera built in are wired like any other light. Recording that covers the whole property needs a camera system with a recorder.

Outdoor socket installation

An outside socket saves feeding a lead through the window for the mower or the pressure washer. Most people ask for one in spring, when the garden work starts.

For anything left plugged in outside, such as Christmas lights, choose a socket whose lid closes over the plug.

The usual job is a single weatherproof double socket on an outside wall, wired from a circuit indoors that runs nearby. BS 7671 asks for RCD protection on sockets and on equipment used outdoors, and this socket has it.

Because it extends an existing circuit and sits outside any special location, an outdoor socket is not notifiable work in England. I test it and give you a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for it.

If the socket is for a plug-in hot tub, check the tub's instructions first, because the maker says whether a socket is acceptable and where. Wiring a hard-shell hot tub is another job altogether, with a circuit to itself.

Pond pump and fountain supplies

A pond pump supply is RCD-protected, with a weatherproof isolator near the pond, so the pump can be switched off before anyone reaches in to clear the filter. Part P covers it, and Approved Document P names pond pumps in so many words.

Fountains come under Section 702 of BS 7671, the same section as swimming pools, because wet skin makes a shock far more dangerous.

Some pond pumps run at extra-low voltage from a transformer kept back from the water. Larger ones run at mains voltage and rely on the RCD, and the pump's instructions say which yours is. The cable back to the house is buried and its route marked, whatever the pump.

If the pond is near a shed or summerhouse that already has its own supply, the pump can sometimes be fed from that board instead of running a fresh cable all the way from the house.