Outdoor wiring - cunning plan needed

[leen...]

Hi All,

A few years ago I wired up an outdoor kitchen area which has some lights and a few sockets. The main wiring was contained in a cupboard so aesthetics wasn't a major factor.

The following link has a photo of the wiring and the cable used

The main feed is to the double socket on the left via an underground armoured cable (already in place). I then took a couple of feeds off this one for the other plug sockets above the cupboard and the other via a fused switch to the lighting "circuit" (shown in the centre of the picture).

I wired each light switch and each light to a central junction box and then within the junction box connected switches to lights so that switch 1 turns on 3 lights and switch 2 turns on the 4th light. This is all in the junction box on the right.

The kitchen area is going to be moved so I need to find a way of making this look decent as it will be on show now. One saving grace is that I won't need all the wires going into the junction box (I think I can remove 2 maybe 3) and also the number of wires into the plug socket will be reduced by 1.

I have thought about the following options...

1. Knock out a section of the wall and put junction box in there. The wall is made of a single layer of concrete blocks so will mean knocking completely through and there is a flower bed the other side so assume this could get water ingress? Also, couldn't find a suitable box to do this.
2. Do away with the junction box and do the connections in the back box of the plug socket. Problem with this is

- the fused spur needed for the lighting circuit. I tried looking for a waterproof box which would take 2 single sockets (single socket + one for the fused switch) but couldn't find one.

- The back box will probably be too small to get all this wiring in and couldn't find a deeper one for outdoors.

- To remove all the wires coming into the sides of the box they would all need to come in through the back which makes wiring space more of an issue (I think)

1. Maybe rewiring the whole thing might help to reduce the number of wires (e.g. I could chain all 3 lights together so reduce light wires from 3 to 1. A bit of a pain as they are all rendered onto the wall. Having said that I need to channel some more in anyway so maybe not too much of a drama

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Lee.

[Brian]

A ‘meter box’ perhaps hidden behind a decorative door and with the box sealed?

Probably much larger than you need but accessible etc.

[Theo]

How often are these switches getting used? Are they just for isolation, or for regularly turning things on and off (eg garden lights after dark).

I'm not really clear on exactly what's going on wiring-wise without a schematic, but I wonder if a small consumer unit with some MCBs for the switching might do the job. You can get those looking reasonably tidy, eg:

You can also get recessed versions:

  if you were to box over the pipes the recessed version would then sit flush in the panel.

Using a consumer unit with a live busbar, MCBs as switches and neutral/earth bars might end up simplifying the wiring rather than having boxes full of wagos. You'd also get additional circuit protection (should it be needed).

Theo

[leen...]

Thanks both. I have now uploaded a schematic/ diagram showing current wiring, new wiring and the relative locations. Hopefully this helps. The area outside where I need to locate this will be exposed so needs to be waterproof and also something I can fit as a DIYer. Not sure whether the CU option will be viable?

thanks again

Lee.

[ARW]

I have a suggestion to tidy up the fused spurs and light switches.

These could be installed inside a Scolmore/Click water proof enclosure and you could use minigrid components of 1 x fuse holder and 2 x 10AX DP switches. Basically a glorified 3g light switch inside this

And a 3g minigrid plate.

[leen...]

The difficulty is that I would have to run another wire to that area for this to work. Not necessarily a massive issue I guess. Building on your idea though I could get a double gang version with a fuse module (and some other of they don't one with a single module and use that to collapse the junction box and fused switch together

[leen...]

Thinking about it, your idea would help for FS2 and LS3 Thanks.

[ARW]

From your first post

1. Do away with the junction box and do the connections in the back box of the plug socket. Problem with this is

- the fused spur needed for the lighting circuit. I tried looking for a waterproof box which would take 2 single sockets (single socket + one for the fused switch) but couldn't find one.

There are these

but the build quality is a bit dubious.

If using Scolmore then you might have to use the new media range if you want a single socket (2 mods) and a single mod fuse and single mod switch) They only go up to 4 mods - the minigrid does 6 mods.

[ARW]

Make sure it's the minigrid and not the grid plus. I'll double check part numbers with you later if you go that route and are unsure.

There are these

but I have found the quality to be low. I believe often badged up as Eterna