I am planning to replace an external floodlight (Tubular Quartz Halogen) with a LED version. I note that most are supplied with a fitted length of flex.
My current light is fed directly by 2 single + Earth cables entering the bottom of the lamp.
I am thinking that I should plan to route these into a junction box and connect the new floodlight into the JB.
Will the usual waterproof glands seal two singles? - or should I take them into two adjacent entries of the junction box.
If you want total waterproof, then I would put them into or through 2 separate entries, using the appropriate glands etc.
Agreed. But if the glands are facing downwards and you have a drip loop on the cables, and you are not going to pressure wash it a single entry might well be OK. Especially with a splodge of silicone sealant or grease.
I did mine with the cable entries facing downwards a few years ago and they've been fine. Didn't use any sealant. Lots of TV aerial amps etc are open on the lower surface and they don't have a problem. Some years ago I had repeated trouble with a 'sealed' CCTV camera housing that was always misting up, despite the heater working. In the end as a kill or cure I drilled four 6mm holes in the bottom face. It's been fine ever since. Of course insects could be a problem.
Bill
Do you mean a twin and earth cable? It should not have unsheathed singles exposed, so I'm not clear on your current setup. A pointer to a picture might help.
You can get glands to seal anything, including flat twin and earth cable. What you described isn't 'usual' though, or I'm not understanding what you are describing.
If cable entry is at the bottom (with drips loops as someone else said), the cable entry doesn't need to be waterproof, a and would serve as the drip hole you should have in the junction box anyway, although some type of strain relief is likely to be requird.
snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:m4d88h$oej$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
It is fed by a pair of grey sheathed single and earth cables. The cables come out of the wall - were left like that by the builder. I merely fed them into a floodlight. I have just taken this in the dark:
That looks like bell wire, but if it really is sheathed singles (which were sometimes used for wiring lighting circuits), then that's OK. I suggest running them into the bottom of a junction box, without trying to seal. You would be able to find a gland for the single neutral, but it would be harder for the profile of the sheathed live and earth cable.
1988 Build.
That's quite late for sheathed singles installations. It was done so the neutral just ran between the fittings and the live ran between the switches, with a switched live hopping from each switch to a light fitting.
It stopped being used because separation of the live and neutral creates lots of 1-turn magnetic coils, which cause interference with anything which might pick this up - hearing aid induction loops being such an example, but when light dimmers were used, AM radio bands become unusable too.
snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:m4f4q3$qen$1 @dont-email.me:
It is not the way the whole house is wired - only the feed out through the wall to this light.
Is it? Doncaster council were still using them on their installs in 2000
And I just used them to first fix the downstairs of a 3 bed semi (very little seperation of the cables but a much neater second fix for the multigang switches)
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