Can I wire floodlight to a plug?

housegirl83

Hi there

Quick one (I hope!)

I've just bought a deltech slimline interior/exterior energy saving led floodlight for my garden. If you need to see the product it is on lighting direct UK website and its a 'slimline-high-power-led-floodlight-10w-warm-white'

Stupidly (naively?) I thought it would come, I could plug it into an extension cable plugged inside my house and away we go.

However its come with a nice weatherproof cable but no plug.

It has the usual wires for a plug (Brown Blue and green/yellow).

Instructions say to:

- ensure 110v/240v supply voltage
- for mains floodlights to ensure correct wiring input to love neutral and earth wires using correct size cables
- should not be connected in series configurations
- recommended to connect to inline relay if problem encountered with connections to external pirs etc

So anyway my question is can I put a plug on the end of this and simply plug into my house mains like any other electrical device or does it have to be hardwired in?

Massive Thanks. Let me know if any other info needed!

Crinkmeister

You can, but where is the cable going to go? Are you drilling a hole through the wall for the cable and plugging into socket inside the house?

housegirl83

No I was just going to wire up a plug to the end of it then plug it into an extension cable which is plugged into a socket in my house (obviously it'd only be plugged in whilst I'm using it and I'd put away when not).

Would it be ok to do that?

Crinkmeister

Should be ok. As with all exterior electrics, make sure you have an RCD protecting the circuit. Either via your house consumer unit or just use an RCD plug on your extension cable. You don't need the RCD plug if your CU already has an RCD.

Avoriaz

housegirl83 wrote: »

No I was just going to wire up a plug to the end of it then plug it into an extension cable which is plugged into a socket in my house (obviously it'd only be plugged in whilst I'm using it and I'd put away when not).

Would it be ok to do that?

Provided you are careful and don't leave the extension lead out in the rain, near a puddle or pond, or allow young children to play with it etc you are unlikely to have problems.

I regularly mow my lawn with a mower plugged into an extension lead hanging out of the dining room window. One day I will get around to installing outside weather protected power points.

For 10 watts use a 3amp fuse in the light plug. The extension lead should normally have a 13 amp fuse so that it can be used for higher power items.

As above, use an RCD.

Have fun with your new toy. :beer:

housegirl83

Thanks guys

cyclonebri1

Yes you can plug anything under 13amps into the household circuit, only risk is trapping the cable in the window or door and the trip, as in falling over, issue.

For the future have a waterproof external socket fitted to the wall near the garden/patio;);)