wiring setup for driveway + pillar uplights

bro'

Hi
I have a 3gang switch at the front door where one switch is for the driveway lights. I have separte wiring for the driveway lights and the pillar lights. My problem is that I would like to have the pillar uplights operating separately from the driveway lights on the same switch circuit as I live in a dark winter road and would like to have the pillar lights on when dark and the driveway lights on when wanted or when visitors arrive?

What is the best way of wiring this setup?

Thanks

Avns1s

Sorry OP, I'm finding it a little difficult to follow your post, .... it's been a long day!

Is the live wire to the pillar lights also wired in to the same switch as your driveway lights at present?

Is there a spare switch in this 3 gang switch?

If we know this it might be easier to get an answer.

bro'

Hi Avns1s
At the moment I only have the armoured cables laid in the ground so not wired up yet.
On the 3 gang switch 1 switch is hallway light, 2nd switch is for outside veranda lights with 3rd switch wired for cable left out in garden for the driveway/pillar lights.

I did draw up a sketch of my setup but for some reason i am unable to upload the file? To describe the wiring I have one cable from the spare in the 3gang switch wired to a cable in the garden. There is a separate cable from both pillars to the location of the garden cable and there is also independent cables from either side of my driveway wall left by the builder.

I assumed I would have to use the same live wire for both the pillar lights and the driveway lights and thought maybe using PIR sensors/timers to control the driveway/pillar lights at different times??


Sorry if the above further confuses you!

davelerave

if you only have one switch wire going out from the 3-gang your options are limited.you could switch the pillar lights from the 3-gang and then have the driveway lights on a pir (but the pillar lights need to be on first ).alternatively a photocell for the pillar lites and pir for the driveway lites .assuming all the time that you only have the one switch wire from the 3-gang ,check it

bro'

Hi davelerave
I believe my electrician only wired one switch cable for the garden lights as the pillar lights were an addition aftert the work!

I reckon I will have to use as you say a Photocell for the pillar lights and a PIR for the driveway lights controlled by the MASTER switch in the house. Otherwise i could have a manual switch setup in the garden to control the two lights independently e.g switch off driveway lights totally or on PIR with the pillar lights operating independently on the photcell?

Avns1s

Hi bro,

I think you've summed it up yourself. The options are somewhat limited with one cable. Just check what cable it is? If by chance it is a multicore then you might have more options.

If it a plain 3 core SWA then you're caught.

One option that you might consider is to use a photocell to bring on the lights and a timer to switch them off.

This will mean having the live on all the time. Wire to the photocell which will bring on both sets of lights once it's dark enough. Assuming that these are wired on different circuits from the photocell, you could use a pair of timers to switch them off at different times.

Sorry if this is confusing.

bro'

Hi Avns1s
I understand what you are saying . I must confirm if as I suspect I have 3 core SWA cable.

Timers, Photocells and PIRs are the options available to me but at least I will be able to control the pillar uplights independently as i did not want the 3 X 2driveway lights on all the time or on as much as the pillar uplights.

thanks
bro

davelerave

there are rf receivers/transmitters available .small receivers that will fit inside a light fitting and a keyfob transmitter,but photocells/pirs will keep it automated