Installing a pir external light

[MyNameIsUrl]

If installing a pir-controlled light on an external garage wall, would you have it wired through an internal switch, double-pole isolator, or neither?

[88V8]

Either. So long as you can isolate it when it needs fixing or replacing.

Be sure and keep the water out, otherwise it will cause nuisance tripping.

V8

[DrFfybes]

Always handy to have it switched internally. Either for 10 years down the road when the PIR decides that a stiff breezes is a valid trigger, but also most modern ones have a feature that if you turn them off then on again within a short time (I think 10 seconds?) then they stay on until the power is diconnected again - handy for parties or clearing snow from the drive.

Some of our lights here use 3 core + Earth and have an isolator followed by a switch that turns them on permanently by switching a live that bypasses the PIR.

Paul

[stewamax]

If the cable enters the light from above externally rather than through the back, remember that all such cables should have a drip loop (q.v.)

[csearle]

With the old-fashioned PIR lights they used to have the actual conductor between the PIR and the light available at the terminal block which, as Paul has pointed out, means that using a 3-core and Earth cable to supply it enables the light to be switched ON, OFF, or AUTOMATIC (usually with a 2-gang switch).

The trouble with these new-fangled LED ones is that they usually come with a ready-made 3-core flex attached that only has a single supply, so gives no access to the conductor that is needed to override the light to ON.

We live in not such enlightened times.

Chris