Installing an exterior wall light

• Cut off the power supply to the relevant circuit from the consumer unit.
• Install a spur and junction box by following one of the methods outlined in Extending Lighting Circuits. To run the spur from a ring-main socket, follow directions for Extending Circuits and Installing Fused Connection Units.
• Prepare the cable route for the spur cable from the lighting circuit or FCU to the junction box.
• Prepare the cable route from the junction box to the lighting point.
• Prepare the cable route from the junction box to the switch.
• On the inside of the wall, make a mark at about 1.8m (6ft) from floor-level and drill a hole for the cable from the chase through to the outside wall.

If your wall light consists of a bulb between a base and transparent cover, you can fix it to the wall by the base.

• Hold the base of the light in position on the outside wall and draw around it, marking the screw holes.
• Drill and plug the screw holes.
• Feed the cable through the hole in the wall from inside and thread it through the hole in the light base.
• Screw the base to the wall.
• Prepare the cable and cores for connection and sleeve any bare earths in green-and-yellow insulation.
• Connect the live and neutral cores to separate terminals in the bulb holder and the earth to the earth terminal.

If your light is fixed to the wall with a bracket as in many lantern-style fittings, it will already have flex protruding from the bracket.

• Prepare the supply cable and the flex for connection.
• Connect the flex tails to the terminals in one half of a connector block.
• Connect the supply cable cores to the terminals opposite so that lives (brown), neutrals (blue) and earths are opposite each other.
• Fit a gasket around the base of the bracket to prevent water contact with the conductors.
• Screw the bracket to the wall and apply silicone sealant around the base to make a watertight seal.

• Feed the switch cable through the hole in the back of the switch mounting box and screw the mounting box to the wall. To install a flush-mounted mounting box, follow the instructions in the project on installing sockets.
• Prepare both ends of the switch cable and the cores, insulating bare earths.
• Place a piece of brown insulation tape around the blue core to label it as live.
• At a four-terminal junction box connect the live (brown) core from the flex or lighting fixture and the brown-tagged blue core (tagged live) from the switch cable to one terminal; connect all the remaining live (brown/red) cores (from the spur cable and switch cable) to one terminal; the neutral (blue/black) cores (from the spur cable and flex) to another terminal; and the earths to the last spare terminal.
• If you are installing a new switch for the light fitting, at the switch, connect the cores to the face-plate terminals: live core to the top terminal marked TOP or COMMON, neutral core either of the bottom terminals and earth to the earth terminal in the switch mounting box.
• If you wish the light fitting to be controlled by an existing switch, replace the existing switch face-plate with a two-gang switch. Connect the cores in the new switch cable to the first gang terminals and the original switch cable to the second gang in the same way as for a new switch.
• Screw the switch face-plate to the mounting box.

To fit an additional switch outside, make the inside switch a two-way switch and place a one-way weatherproof switch on the outside wall. It should be positioned back to back with the inside switch.

• Drill a hole to pass the cable between the switches.
• Thread a short length of three core and earth cable through it.
• Follow instructions for installing two-way switches.