Garden design lighting

[woodsta]

Hi I have been asked to price an outdoor lighting project by a land architect and have been sent the plan. All lights are led in wall and slabs. obviously these all come with 1m of flex on them. Can anyone suggest the best way to connect these altogether? im thinking armored and galv conduit boxes filled with weatherproofing putty and have all drivers in one cabinet hidden in the garden. Ihave not done an outdoor project in a while so wondered if there is any other ip rating joints better to use?

 

[Darkwood]

How about getting fittings with inbuilt drivers so you only running a supply line around and this would negate the need for a control station or for issues with volts drop on longer runs.

You could do the SWA as suggested but what are the plans here - is it a temp display, permanent etc, where is the cable been run i.e. buried or surface?

 

[woodsta]

Hi its is a permenant instalallation all cables buried in the ground. The lights have been supplied by a lighting design co. It may be that its a case of running a cable from the driver and just connections within the fitting as you said that would be ideal. Im going to look into resin joint options also

 

[Darkwood]

I would get some bumf about the fittings if you haven't already, is there an option to bring the terminations up to a jointing post or is it intended to be all buried ... still lacking a lot of info to give valued advise but not arm in doing a gel filled joint, just ensure your glands are designed for the environment as I tend to find a lot of people think a CW gland means water proof until 2 years down the line they find the steel armour all corroded and water ingress into the cable contruct.

 

[jackhammerJIM]

If you have to join swa to flexes with a buried joint . price to torpedo joint . expensive but bomb proof .

 

[SJD]

I spent most of yesterday digging up and repairing SWA joints with a connection to an adjacent light that came with an integral rubber flex cable. A total of 12 joints for 12 lights, each made in a Wiska box, filled with re-enterable gel, proper glands for the SWA, separate plastic gland for the flex.

Most of them had issues. A few not filled enough with gel, and damp/condensation sitting on the exposed terminals. A few where the flex had pulled out of the gland so the inner cores only in the gland and these with cut marks and damp. Some boxes not really sealed, and a couple infested with ants. If you are going to bury the joints, make sure you do them really well.

I'd try to minimize buried joints, is there any way they can sit above ground e.g. behind a wall, and accessible?