New flood lights expose cable

The type you have shown already has a suitable 0.75m rubber cable attached in order to maintain its IP rating. To connect it to your existing T&E you will need to use a waterproof connection box such as a Wiska box mounted over the hole the T&E emerges and the cable from the floodlight fed into the box through a stuffing gland preferably mounted on the bottom edge of the box using either terminal strip or Wagos inside.

Richard

Seems like a lot of work, when they could have made a like for like, dimension and void wise, one in the first place. However some floodlights that have been up a while of the Halogen kind do cook the cables near the end, so one may have to just go with the flow, or something might not be suitable even if it reached to where you want it. I wonder why Halogen get so hot though. I guess the answer may be obvious, but surly if they know they get hot, then they should have made dissipation a priority. Brian

They usually come pre-wired with a short piece of cable, and through a waterproof gland.

If you already had cable suitable for outdoor use you would use something like

Smaller/cheaper connectors are available of Ebay but be warned that the smaller devices can be very fiddly to fit, especially when trying to do so up a ladder.

In your case you probably need a small waterproof terminal box which not only protects your T&E from external exposure but provides a means of connecting to the lamp cable. You would also need a gland to bring out the lamp cable keeping it water tight. The T&E could come through the back of the box and be sealed with silicone.

Modern LED floods now tend to be a lot smaller than their counterparts from the past.

With the PIR at the bottom and where the attached cable emerges it may not be possible on these very thin lamps to angle the light too far down before the edge of the PIR hits the wall. With lights without a PIR attached consider how you are going to route the short piece of attached cable to get the tilt you want. Consider when mechanically attached to wall and tilted to desired angle see where the cable will reach naturally without strain. Possibly the join in the cable (box) needs to be above the light and not below it.)

If you are not careful in what you select and how high its fitted you may find that you can only light the horizon and not your yard/path/garden. The thin lights with PIR may only be suited for low level mounting.

The whole point of using halogens in the atmosphere surrounding the tungsten filament is that by depositing back evaporated tungsten they allow the filament to run about 300 degrees hotter, therefore with higher visible light output efficiency.

The attached flex is usually annoyingly short, if it's on e.g. a shed you might be able to drill a hole and get the cable inside to connect to it there, but if it's on a wall you probably want conduit, ending in wiska box or similar behind the light, with a gland entry for the light.

Here is how I installed some LED floodlights that came with attached cables. The first one has the T&E coming down in plastic conduit into a Wiska box and the cable from the floodlight enters through the bottom using a stuffing gland

You didn't really leave all that loose cable flapping about did you?

I would have trimmed it but still have left a drip loop. The cable is taken below where it enters a box/lamp to form a low point for rain water travelling down the cable to drip off.

No he Photoshopped it in:-)

I usually fit the adaptable boxes above/behind the LED flood light so that the boxes cannot be seen.

There is a reason I am considering using that floodlight elsewhere and replacing it with something else so I did not want to cut the cable back until I was sure how much I needed but if it makes everyone happy I will for the time being clip it back just like the other.

Yes and for goodness sake only handle them with clean cotton gloves. It seems the grease of a finger creates a hot spot and eventually it goes ping. I often wondered how they made them work in a car. Brian

By using the same warning.

The lamp of a halogen oven is exposed, and gets splattered with grease and other stuff. They go on for years.

Never ever had that happen and never ever wore clean cotton gloves or anything else to avoid touching bulb with my fingers.

They are MUCH thicker glass than a normal bulb.

The last few small floodlights I've fitted I mounted the unit on a plastic adaptable weatherproof box lid. Brought the short unit cable into the box through a snug fitting hole in the lid sealed with silicone. Supply cable into the box from behind or below depending on location.

Thanks very much all. My wife was in lidl and saw some in the centre aisle so bought them. Looks like these don't come with a cable at all. They come with a cable gland which sticks out of the back of the light and you wire your cable directly into the back. Looks like cable needs to be round so even if I had the length on the T&E these wouldn't work.

So started looking for prewired ones with a wire long enough. The occurred to me that if the connection is inside the house (under the floorboards) then replacing them when the LED goes is going to be a PITA. I am trying to avoid having a junction box on the wall if I can help it but not looking good. Maybe a better option would be to the lights I have an get LED replacement bulbs like these (

I am thinking of adding 2 to the front of the house so unlikely to be able to get the same ones I have around the rest of the house so still have the challenge there I guess.

Thought this was all going to be a straightforward replacement.....

I doubt if you find a prewired unit with more than 0.6/0.7 metres of cable.

LED don't like getting hot. The new breed of LED flood lights tend to have the LED itself bolted/bonded to a fairly large heatsink.

The screwfix lamp you list may not appreciated being in an enclosed case without a direct connection to a heatsink nor any free flow of cooling air.